Photographing From A Balloon

Can't think of a good photo project - how about going on a balloon ride? Photographing is both more interesting and more challenging than you would think. Of course weather is important but you don't need a sunny day and you don't have to fly over the Serengetti Plains - though I guess it wouldn't hurt.

Cost of a balloon ride is typically $150-$300 so it's certainly not cheap but I was able to get several interesting photographs on my one hour ride.

I chose to shoot with my 1Ds2 and my 70-200 f4 lens. Had I realized how much the other passengers make the basket move around, I would have rented or purchased the 70-200 f2.8 IS lens instead (as I did for my tour of Vancouver Harbour by boat). Most, but not all of my images were sharp and of course it was the ones I really wanted that had the most problems so be warned.

The basket weighs 600 lb. - incredible. It's divided into segments so that two people are in each segment - I chose a corner. This does mean though that if something you want to shoot goes under the basket you are out of luck - it's almost like shooting sports - anticipate and grab the shot at peak positioning and move on to the next image. Most of my shots were taken aimed almost straight down, some at 45 degrees and very few horizontal - I did shoot the city skyline but the lighting and weather were less than perfect and frankly I have seen a lot better images done from ground level so...



There were a few times I could have used a shorter lens but not enough to warrant carrying the extra lens and taking the time to change - more likely to miss something even better. At the longer end there were more occasions that I could have used 300-400 mm. but who's to say I could have held it steady enough - perhaps the 100-400 might have been a better choice, though with it's push pull zoom and aimed straight down - and with the steadiness issues... Overall I was really happy with the focal length range of the 70-200.

Balloon rides often go early in the morning when winds tend to be least so coincidentally you also catch the early morning sun and long shadows - ideal for photography.

As to subject matter, it depends of course on your path - even within the city you are dependent on the wind to pick the launch point and the actual course - no chance to predetermine a particular image - on the other hand it means each balloon trip is different.

In my case, we launched from a local park in the Fall so there were fall colours, golf courses, a river valley, the local reservoir, railway yards, the Bow River and residential areas. The last I would not have predicted as being interesting but patterns of roofs and trees and roads can be interesting - things that are just roads at ground level are interesting patterns from the air.

I shot 156 images in the hour so take along enough CF cards to handle that kind of shooting. If you are lucky enough to find a great horizon, do consider doing a stitch for a panorama - as everything is at infinity, you can get away with hand holding and simply swing the camera. Don't take too long to do the shots though as the balloon can move along at a fair clip - at ground level there was no wind at all, at the height we were traveling at, we were moving at 10 knots (11 mph, 17 klicks).



A very enjoyable experience in itself and a real photographic challenge. What better - Oh, and by the way, you don't have any issues with fear of heights from a balloon, they told us on the way to the launch site that people don't have a sense of height and of falling - something about lack of a reference point - not like standing at a cliff edge - they were absolutely right.