A few from the Balloon festival.

[zombiemann]

Man I was all pumped to go this evening. I don't usually go out very far from home (long story) and I was excited about this trip. I'd spent the day getting my jazzed. I must have checked the battery and SD card on my camera half a dozen times. My tripod lives in the trunk of my car so I knew I was good to go. I had my 18-55 on my T2i and the 75-300 in my pocket (yes they are HUGE pockets). The balloon festival takes place roughly an hour away from my house. We got about 5 miles out and I realized, I had my camera, I had my tripod, but I did not have the foot doodad that connects my camera to my tripod...... So I spent the evening shooting pretty much exclusively in manual (including focus, my T2i doesn't like to autofocus in low light). Some shots came out pretty crappy, but the law of large numbers won the day. I figured if I kept working with metering and making adjustments things would pan out OK. These pics are by no means pulitzer winners. But in the conditions I was in, with the equipment I had with me, I don't think they came out "bad"



I thought about shopping out the tether cables, I still might, later

 

[zombiemann]

I just realized I put this in the wrong place. I've already reported it

 

[potownrob]

nice photos!! haven't seen hot air balloons at night in a long time (if ever??). definitely a cool sight and watching them get inflated and float off is something else.

 

[zombiemann]

A few more. The first one was kind of fun to take. I normally dont use a UV filter to "protect" my lens but I screwed one on for this and I wrapped my camera strap around my wrist several times. I was literally hanging out of the car window while we were doing about 40pmh. The last thing I wanted was to have to try and clean bugs off my lens lol



this one was taken while they were inflating. I didn't get any good shots of this particular balloon at night because it was obscured from where I was standing.

 

[WesternGuy]

Neat shots, which balloon festival? I was in Albuquerque last year for theirs and it was absolutely spectacular. The ones in the dark are really cool to see - :mrgreen:

WesternGuy

 

[FanBoy]

The last shot in the first group is my favorite. A tighter shot without the banner and people would have been best for #1, if possible.

This was a good photographic opportunity, like a buoyant tidal wave of color.

 

[zombiemann]

These were taken in Lincoln Illinois, they have a balloon festival and art in the park kinda thing every year

@Fanboy, this was most certainly a learning experience if nothing else.