Ballooning Festival in NJ 2011

[kuul13]

Hi All

I am planning to go for Ballooning Festival 2011 in NJ this weekend with my wife and daughter (2 years). This is the first time that we will visit/do any ballooning stuff and am sure it would be fun. Moreover I will get an opportunity to click some pictures. Though we won't be taking $200/250 rides (too expensive) but tethered rides $25 ones. That takes you to around 100ft but I guess that will be good for the starters.

As I said I will get to click some pictures but I doesn't want to click JUST pictures but some really good pictures and am sure the experts in DPS will help me in giving some ideas/tips to keep in mind when I will be 100 ft above the ground and in the ballooning area. Also, what time of the day would be the best to visit there (photography wise).

Link to the festival page:
The 29th Annual Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning: Home

[Jayman11]

Always wanted to go to this, I'm down in SJ. One of these days hopefully. I heard it's a traffic nightmare cause there's only like 2 roads in and out of the area.

[kirbinster]

There are two of these in NJ, the second one is the warren county farm fest and balloon fair which is a week or two later, I like this second one better. I think you will do better taking pictures from the ground where you are not moving than from the teathered rides, which only go up about 30 or 40 feet. Also remember that while these fairs are all day the ballons actually only go up early in the morning and just before dusk because of the thermal drafts at those times of day.

That said you will probably want to use both a wide lens and a long lens. Taking shots of just single balloons in the air does not give a good picture (in my opinion). You want to have multiple balloons in the picture where possible. I have done this many times and if you go to my flickr page you will find three sets of pictures. Here are a few:

[GreggObst]

Kirbinster makes some good points. I shot the NJ Festival of Ballooning back in 2009 and missed it last year due to a broken leg. Can't give you any advice on shooting from the tethered balloon but I will tell you that some of the best shots are to be found in the farm fields off to the north of the end of the runway. I can predict what will be there this weekend but in 2009 I was able to include vintage fighter planes and round hay bales in compositions with the balloons. Wear sturdy shoes, preferably hiking shoes. In 2009 the mud at the entrance was really really bad. With the drought we've been having, it may not be as bad. But be prepared to run through hay fields to get to where you may want to be.

When they released the balloons the morning I was there, because of the atmospheric conditions, they immediately made a bee line to the Northeast and quickly left the area. Timing is everything. Be in the place where you can get the best composition without a lot of people in your way. And there are A LOT of people at this festival. The night time takeoffs are pretty awesome too because of the flames during the times they are inflating and taking off. It helps to keep your eye on the airport's windsock to see which way the wind is blowing before they take off. You'll want to be somewhere further down in the direction the wind is blowing to if at all possible.

I'll be there this Saturday morning for the morning flight.

[kuul13]

Thank you so much guys for your inputs.. I am not sure how well I be placed to click the pictures keeping my <2 year old daughter in mind. But I will try to make the most of it.. with the tips and suggestions provided by you, I am sure at least I will be able to click some reasonable shots.
@kirbinister, your shots here and in flickr are amazing. I wish I could also click some like those with colored balloons with blue sky. Special mention, I loved the balloon with fire (do you mind giving me tips on the settings that would be the best to get fire shots and the moving balloons?). And yes, I will surely take my 18-135 and 70-300mm lens with me. We are planning to go there in the evening, not sure how bad the traffic would be?as early mornings are not possible for us at this time with the baby.
@Gregg, thanks for really wonderful tips. I will try to keep them handy. Specially this one, "It helps to keep your eye on the airport's windsock to see which way the wind is blowing before they take off. You'll want to be somewhere further down in the direction the wind is blowing to if at all possible". also, can you please let me know "farm fields off to the north of the end of the runway" is too far (walk wise? need to walk a lot?) and since you were there, how was the parking and traffic otherwise?

[SwissJon]

I've grown up around balloons most of my life, My dad was a professional balloon pilot, and my uncle taught Richard Branson to fly.. We must have at least 100,000 photos of various balloons over the years.

I don't know the NJ ballon festival, but I'll tell you a few tips that might help get a few good clicks.

First, arrive at the fields at or around Dawn.. The first flights going off are usually at this time, and it's MUCH more spectacular than the evening flights.. Having the sunrise with the balloons inflating in the foreground is something to get.

Next, take lots of photos as the balloons are being inflated.. As the burners go off with the fans, a half inflated balloon can be a much nicer photo to hang on the wall than a fully inflated one standing up against a blue sky.

Ask the ground crew if you can go to the top of the balloon and photograph inside as they inflate it, especially when they switch the burners on.

A tethered balloon can be bumpy and distort in the daytime, when the winds drop in the early morning or late evening the balloon will be much nicer to photograph..

Try to take some photos of free flying balloons from your tethered balloon, especially if you have the canopy of other balloons in the foreground to frame the photo.

After the sun sets, they sometimes do a night glow, which means they turn the cattle burners on and the balloons light up.. Set your camera on a high iso and try and get that, it can be really special.

Oh.. And one last thing.. The $200 IS worth the money.. If you've never flown before, you'll not regret it.. It's unlikely you'll ever forget your first flight.. After probably 5,000+ flying hours, and working many many summers as ballon crew all over the world, I can still remember my first flight, nearly 35 years ago.. If you can afford it, spend the money.. It'll be the best money you've ever spent.

Have fun.. And don't forget the video function on your camera

[kirbinster]

As Swissjon said the burner shots are great. One year a crew let me go inside the balloon as it was inflating and take shots of he flame coming right at me.

I would suggest that you shoot raw rather than jpeg, that way you can correct white balance after the fact with no problem and have more lattitude to correct blown out skies which are very possible depending on the lighting. In the evening especially it is better to push your ISO up and get a correct exposure rather than keeep it down and under-expose. Take lots of memory cards and a spare battery and shoot shoot shoot. --- Worry about picking the winners later.

[kuul13]

Originally Posted by SwissJon

I've grown up around balloons most of my life, My dad was a professional balloon pilot, and my uncle taught Richard Branson to fly.. We must have at least 100,000 photos of various balloons over the years.

I don't know the NJ ballon festival, but I'll tell you a few tips that might help get a few good clicks.

First, arrive at the fields at or around Dawn.. The first flights going off are usually at this time, and it's MUCH more spectacular than the evening flights.. Having the sunrise with the balloons inflating in the foreground is something to get.

Next, take lots of photos as the balloons are being inflated.. As the burners go off with the fans, a half inflated balloon can be a much nicer photo to hang on the wall than a fully inflated one standing up against a blue sky.

Ask the ground crew if you can go to the top of the balloon and photograph inside as they inflate it, especially when they switch the burners on.

A tethered balloon can be bumpy and distort in the daytime, when the winds drop in the early morning or late evening the balloon will be much nicer to photograph..

Try to take some photos of free flying balloons from your tethered balloon, especially if you have the canopy of other balloons in the foreground to frame the photo.

After the sun sets, they sometimes do a night glow, which means they turn the cattle burners on and the balloons light up.. Set your camera on a high iso and try and get that, it can be really special.

Oh.. And one last thing.. The $200 IS worth the money.. If you've never flown before, you'll not regret it.. It's unlikely you'll ever forget your first flight.. After probably 5,000+ flying hours, and working many many summers as ballon crew all over the world, I can still remember my first flight, nearly 35 years ago.. If you can afford it, spend the money.. It'll be the best money you've ever spent.

Have fun.. And don't forget the video function on your camera

Thanks so much for taking time out to give some wonderful tips.. I will keep all of this in mind and see how good this experience would go. I will definitively take many many pictures and am sure few would be worth to share here in DPS. You have encouraged me to try flying in the balloon.. Unfortunately all tickets for saturday were sold out.. I will try it some other time for sure.. this time I will be spectator and click pictures and make my little angel happy .

[kuul13]

Originally Posted by kirbinster

As Swissjon said the burner shots are great. One year a crew let me go inside the balloon as it was inflating and take shots of he flame coming right at me.

I would suggest that you shoot raw rather than jpeg, that way you can correct white balance after the fact with no problem and have more lattitude to correct blown out skies which are very possible depending on the lighting. In the evening especially it is better to push your ISO up and get a correct exposure rather than keeep it down and under-expose. Take lots of memory cards and a spare battery and shoot shoot shoot. --- Worry about picking the winners later.

Kirbinster, thanks again for the suggestion to click raw.. but I never did that before (i am surprised why?) I am not sure how will I see .nef files and how can i edit them.. i only have photoshop cs2.. I tried clicking raw today but was not able to open it.. are there any free tools to open and edit the files? i would appreciate your help. another thing, i guess would need very high shutter speed to avoid any blurriness, with that said, I have to bump up iso to get some grains. right? other am i missing something?

[kirbinster]

There are free tools, I believe there is a program called Gimp that many here use. You could also download the trial version of Adobe Lightroom, which is free for 30 days and is the full version of the program. Your other option is take plenty of memory cards and shoot in RAW+ full size jpeg. This way you will have your familiar jpeg and will have the raw as a back up just incase you need to really make significant modifications in post processing.