I find myself in a heightened state of balloon bliss!

Dianne and Carroll and I arrived at the race staging area in Rancho San Rafael Park around 4:30 this morning and headed for Cloud 9, our VIP tent. The sky was clear with just a sliver of a moon. A casino catered breakfast – an enormous buffet of danishes, muffins, scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon, hash browns, juice and tea and coffee, and mimosos and screwdrivers for those who probably hadn’t been to bed yet. I had been to bed, so it was a bit too early for me …

Crews were laying out their balloons next to our enclosure. We were early enough to grab a front row table and chairs and do all our nighttime tripod shooting while chowing down breakfast at our seats. Because we were at one end of the field, I had no idea how large the staging area is – it accommodates 80 balloons.

First up, at 5:15 am, was the Super Glow show. Crews take turns firing propane into their inflated balloons in time to music. Here’s a short clip of the end of one performance. 

Following the glow show, the balloons were deflated and cooled for an hour while the sun rose in preparation for the daylight staggered launch.

The audience was invited to walk through the field and inspect the balloons with three provisos – no dogs, no drones and no smoking! Over the course of the next hour or so I discovered how enormous this event is. And how taking great photos of hot air balloons is not as easy as it looks!

There is a skill component for balloon crews too, not just for photographers. The balloons have to head out and locate a bean bag with their number on it located in another field somewhere, and land next to the bag. Clearly the pilots need sharp eyesight in addition to maneuvering skills.

Here’s a collection of my favourite photos from today. We’re going back tomorrow for another Super Glow display followed by a dawn simultaneous launch, rather than the daytime staggered launch we saw today.

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Today’s experience was wonderful in so many ways. I spent time with my friends Dianne and Carroll. The balloons are glorious and colourful and fun to photograph. Selfie-takers abound and everyone is smiling – everyone! I can hardly wait to go back tomorrow morning and improve on the photos I took today.