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You climb out of bed at 4:30 AM and don layers of sweat shirts, jackets, caps, gloves. It's cold in pre-dawn October in the desert at 5000 feet. You grab your camera. You head for a 200 acres expanse of grass near the Rio Grande River. You queue up for coffee or hot chocolate and grab a gooey cinnamon roll or a breakfast burrito or an Indian taco. There are already mobs of people there with you, waiting for dawn.
You may wander down the row of vendor booths selling souviners. But if you're eager, like I am, you take your breakfast goodies out onto the field. You stomp your feet to keep warm and you watch the pickups rolling up with trailers in tow. Hundreds of trailers, spaced out in organized rows like stalks of corn planted 100 yards apart. Out of each one comes a folded up wad of silk and a big wicker basket. You watch people lay the silk out on the grass, stretching it for yards and yards. Despite the mob, no one walks on the silk. The wicker baskets are laid on their sides so the huge gas burners they carry can be aimed into an opening at the bottom of the expanse of silk.
Light behind the Sandia Mountains to the east hints that dawn is coming. Burners fire with a roar and heated air begins to flood the silk.
You follow the roar and heat of the burners. You know that inflated silk, the hot air balloons, will launch in waves across the field. People follow the launch waves like schools of fish, oozing from wave to wave to follow the lift-offs.
You grow tiny among the balloons as they fill with heated air. They bulge and expand and raise their heads. Towering ribbons of colorful silk rise above you, blotting out the sky. There is nothing in your world but color and the rush of flames heating the air inside the silk canopies. There is nothing but pattern and shape and excited voices urging, "Look at that one."
Before it's fully light, a few balloons launch. They test the wind, check the currents.
When officials are satisfied that the wind is right for the mass launch, the dawn has come, and hundreds of balloons bloom around you.
Balloons lift off in quick succession now. People wave and shout. Lucky passengers look down at the masses left on the ground.
The chase crews jump in their vehicles and take off the follow the wind and bring back their balloonists from the morning ride.
You follow the launch waves across the field until the grass is trampled and bare and the sky is a crazy quilt of color.
It's 9 AM. The sun blasts through the clear desert air and you shed layers. The show is over for the morning. Now you can stroll among the shops and grab some souviners. Maybe you head home to look at your photos or take nap or enjoy a day on the town before you come back for the evening events.
You've just attended a mass ascension at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. This event takes place in October each year in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 2009, the balloon fiesta runs from Oct. 3 - 11. It's the most photographed event in America. In addition to the mass ascension I described, you can also attend gas balloon races, fireworks shows, chainsaw carving competitions—don't ask what that has to do with balloons, because I don't know, balloon glows (balloons lit up by their burners in the evening dark, while still tethered to the ground), flying competitons, special shapes events (featuring balloons shaped like cows, castles, stagecoaches, Darth Vader, bees and clowns). The special shapes are always a favorite as are the days designated for nothing but special shapes.
For more images, take a look at A Shutterbug's Blog: The
