Quechee VT hot air balloon festival - 2019

[SquarePeg]

What a fun event to photograph! I took hundreds of photos and still have many to go through but here are a few of my favorites. These were all taken Saturday morning as it was too windy Friday night for them to launch. I couldn't stay for the Sunday morning launch but several in our group did and they got some absolutely killer photos up there! This may be an annual thing for me. Lots of air bnb and hotels around and not expensive. Feedback and commentary always welcome.

Untitled by SharonCat..., on Flickr

Untitled by SharonCat..., on Flickr

Up up up! by SharonCat..., on Flickr

Reflected magic by SharonCat..., on Flickr

Untitled by SharonCat..., on Flickr

 

[Jeff15]

Very colourful shots.............

 

[tirediron]

I officially hate you!

Shooting one of these is something I have always wanted to do... Well done!

 

[SquarePeg]

Very colourful shots.............

Thanks.

I officially hate you!

Shooting one of these is something I have always wanted to do... Well done!

Awe that just made it all the sweeter lol! Seriously though this one was very manageable as far as access and crowds. It's close enough for me to go annually but it's pretty small as far as it only had 20 balloons going up. Next time I'll plan it so that I can stay the whole weekend and take one of the rides ($250 eek). One of the guys in our group is going to the Albuquerque, NM fest and it has over 600 balloons! He's going to share his scouting notes for places to shoot from/access and I may have to go next year if it seems doable.

 

[Derrel]

The last time I photographed a large bunch of hot air balloons was at the 1986 Walla Walla Washington "stampede", which is an annual balloon festival in Eastern Washington, in the so-called Palouse region, which is a large very beautiful area filled with rolling hills of what is called hard white winter wheat, which is really tall and green during the festival. It is a beautiful area in which to photograph hot air balloons. The Palouse is one of the finer landscape destinations in Washington state.

Of course in 1986 I was shooting Nikon, and a buddy and I each bought ourselves a brick of Kodachrome 64 Professional film which is 20 rolls of 36, or 720 exposures. Over three days we shot morning and evening launches of balloons. It was one of the best photographic opportunities of a lifetime. We drove from Eugene Oregon over to Walla Walla which is I would guess 7 hours.

 

[SquarePeg]

The last time I photographed a large bunch of hot air balloons was that the 1986 Walla Walla Washington "stampede quote, which is an annual balloon festival in Eastern Washington, in the so-called Palouse region which is a large very beautiful area filled with rolling hills of what is called hard white winter wheat, which is really tall and green during the festival. It is a beautiful area in which to photograph hot air balloons. The Palouse is one of the finer landscape destinations in Washington state.

Of course in 1986 I was shooting Nikon, and a buddy and I each bought ourselves a brick of Kodachrome 64 Professional film which is 20 rolls of 36, or 720 exposures. Over three days we shot morning and evening launches of balloons. It was one of the best photographic opportunities of a lifetime. We drove from Eugene Oregon over to Walla Walla which is I would guess 7 hours.

Hmmmm - the Palouse region is also on my bucket list so I would love to see that! Have started to keep an actual wish list instead of a mental list as there are so many places to see. I'm trying to get to 2 new destinations/events every year. Pacific Northwest is another one high on my list.

 

[Derrel]

I am a lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest region, and there are some beautiful things to see out here, such as volcanic mountain peaks, snow covered especially in the winter ot in late fall, peaks such as Mount Rainier, Mount Hood,Mount Jefferson, Mount Baker: The Olympic national Park in Washingto's coastal area, The Columbia River Gorge scenic area and some incredibly beautiful waterfalls, Silver Creek Falls State Park, Boardman State Park, beautiful coastal bays, and of course, A lot of other beautiful and scenic places. Unlike the eastern seaboard, Oregon and Washington really have very few people except in their very few large cities. California has almost 40,000,000 people,while Oregon and Washington have under 5 million people each

If you look at NASA's nighttime satellite view of North America, you will see that the entire area within the United States west of the Mississippi river is sparsely settled whereas the eastern seaboard and eastern 1/2 of the United States is densely settled. While looking at a conventional map is one way of getting a feel for the United States and North America, the nighttime satellite view from space shows settlement patterns in such a way as to make it obvious why some people out here I think that it is possible that Bigfoot lives here. For real.

If you want to come out here. The late spring is it wonderful time to do so. You could hit the Walla Walla balloon festival for a day or two and then drive west on a good Freeway and drive along the Columbia River and drive the same road pretty much to the Oregon coast and then go down the Oregon coast for a couple of days, and then zip into the Willamette Valley and take interstate five north and all through Washington, up to Canada if you'd like

 

[SquarePeg]

I am a lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest region, and there are some beautiful things to see out here, such as volcanic mountain peaks, snow covered especially in the winter ot in late fall, peaks such as Mount Rainier, Mount Hood,Mount Jefferson, Mount Baker: The Olympic national Park in Washingto's coastal area, The Columbia River Gorge scenic area and some incredibly beautiful waterfalls, Silver Creek Falls State Park, Boardman State Park, beautiful coastal bays, and of course, A lot of other beautiful and scenic places. Unlike the eastern seaboard, Oregon and Washington really have very few people except in their very few large cities. California has almost 40,000,000 people,while Oregon and Washington have under 5 million people each

If you look at NASA's nighttime satellite view of North America, you will see that the entire area within the United States west of the Mississippi river is sparsely settled whereas the eastern seaboard and eastern 1/2 of the United States is densely settled. While looking at a conventional map is one way of getting a feel for the United States and North America, the nighttime satellite view from space shows settlement patterns in such a way as to make it obvious why some people out here I think that it is possible that Bigfoot lives here. For real.

If you want to come out here. The late spring is it wonderful time to do so. You could hit the Walla Walla balloon festival for a day or two and then drive west on a good Freeway and drive along the Columbia River and drive the same road pretty much to the Oregon coast and then go down the Oregon coast for a couple of days, and then zip into the Willamette Valley and take interstate five north and all through Washington, up to Canada if you'd like

I will definitely be in touch for your suggestions and advice when I plan that trip!

 

[otherprof]

What a fun event to photograph! I took hundreds of photos and still have many to go through but here are a few of my favorites. These were all taken Saturday morning as it was too windy Friday night for them to launch. I couldn't stay for the Sunday morning launch but several in our group did and they got some absolutely killer photos up there! This may be an annual thing for me. Lots of air bnb and hotels around and not expensive. Feedback and commentary always welcome.

Untitled by SharonCat..., on Flickr

Untitled by SharonCat..., on Flickr

Up up up! by SharonCat..., on Flickr

Reflected magic by SharonCat..., on Flickr

Untitled by SharonCat..., on Flickr

Great set. The reflections are my favorites.

 

[Tropicalmemories]

Very nice images - I really like the ones with the reflections.

 

[Derrel]

Yeah,feel free to send me a PM when you are ready to plan your trip, and we can discuss a few sites that are worth seeing either by PMs or by phone call.

 

[smoke665]

Very nice, like Tropical above the ones with reflections are killer shots. Every year in May on the Gulf coast they hold a multi day festival Alabama's Official Travel Guide. During the evening they light up the night, with them, quite a sight. These are the ones that flew this year Balloons - Gulf Coast Hot Air Balloon Festival • Foley, AL

 

[SquarePeg]

What a fun event to photograph! I took hundreds of photos and still have many to go through but here are a few of my favorites. These were all taken Saturday morning as it was too windy Friday night for them to launch. I couldn't stay for the Sunday morning launch but several in our group did and they got some absolutely killer photos up there! This may be an annual thing for me. Lots of air bnb and hotels around and not expensive. Feedback and commentary always welcome.

Untitled by SharonCat..., on Flickr

Untitled by SharonCat..., on Flickr

Up up up! by SharonCat..., on Flickr

Reflected magic by SharonCat..., on Flickr

Untitled by SharonCat..., on Flickr

Great set. The reflections are my favorites.

Very nice images - I really like the ones with the reflections.

Thanks, same for me. We had set up on the bridge because the balloons will typically come in that direction and will drop down and hover over the still water right in front of us but right before launch the little breeze coming towards us died off. It was nice that they were so close for so long but they didn’t follow the expected path. Only one or two made it close.
Untitled by

Untitled by SharonCat..., on Flickr

 

[stapo49]

Fantastic images. Really like the third one and how the balloons lead your eye up into the sky.

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

 

[SquarePeg]

Very nice, like Tropical above the ones with reflections are killer shots. Every year in May on the Gulf coast they hold a multi day festival Alabama's Official Travel Guide. During the evening they light up the night, with them, quite a sight. These are the ones that flew this year Balloons - Gulf Coast Hot Air Balloon Festival • Foley, AL

Thanks. They do that in VT too, they call it “the glow” but it didn’t happen on the night I was there because of the strong winds. Not sure I would have been able to stick around for it anyway as we were meeting at 4:30am the next morning.