Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

A friend in the US just posted many great pictures from the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta last week. This brought back many memories of my own visit there six years ago – after all, this event was one of the triggers for me to (finally) get serious about photography.

Off to Albuquerque

Photographer with hot-air balloons — My first event with the new camera

In the times before Corona, I had the chance to travel to the USA twice per year on business. These meetings usually took place in March and September on the US East Coast. In 2015, however, things were different. Several events in the organizations involved in the meetings led to the fall meeting being held a month later than usual – and not on the East Coast, but in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Once the date was set, we quickly learned from local residents that there was a special event the week before our meetings. The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is one of the world’s largest gatherings of hot air balloons, held annually the second week of October. The dry air in the mountains on the edge of the desert provides the perfect conditions for this, so my colleagues and I quickly agreed that we would not miss this unique opportunity and travel a day earlier than originally planned.

This also provided us with another fascinating opportunity, stargazing! The clear air away from large, bright cities is ideal for watching the night sky. This made it clear that I needed a decent camera. Until then, I had taken pictures with my little Olympus, but had never really gotten into it.

After a lot of research, watching reviews and tutorials on YouTube, I had my new Canon Rebel T6s in my hands, along with the Tokina 11-20 mm ƒ/2.8 as an ultra-wide-angle lens, especially for the night sky, and the Sigma 17-70 mm ƒ/2.8-4 as an everyday lens. Fortunately, I had a few weeks left before departure to familiarize myself with the new equipment. And then we took off, on a Thursday, on an Airbus A380 from Frankfurt to Houston, and finally on to Albuquerque.

Hot air balloons wherever you look

The Balloon Fiesta opens early – the “Dawn Patrol” starts at 6:00, well before sunrise. You should be there around 5:00, which in turn means getting up at 4:00. Finally, an opportunity where the jetlag really helped us – the time difference is eight hours after all. It is still dark when the first crews fire up the gas burners to get the balloons ready for flight. The balloons glowing brightly in the night are really an impressive sight!

The take off is before sunrise when the air is still cold and there is no wind. Like sky lanterns, the balloons rise into the brightening sky. Finally, you can see the higher-up balloons already gleaming in the morning sun, while those further down still float in the shadow of the mountains. As soon as the sun shines for everyone, the “Mass Ascension” takes place, and then it gets really crowded in the sky. In 2015, the organizers apologized for the fact that the event had to be scaled down for organizational reasons, so that “only” 550(!) balloons were there.

The balloons land again as soon as the air gets too warm or the wind too strong, but even then it doesn’t get boring. At the “Shape Rodeo”, for example, hot air balloons line up in the craziest shapes – animals, stagecoaches, comic figures, or even a shoe. In the evenings, the balloons line up again for the “Evening Glow”, and on many days, there are also big fireworks.

We were able spend two full days at the festival, Friday, and Saturday. On Sunday, our meetings started, but at least I still had the view from the hotel over to the festival area. The perfect weather added to the many lasting memories that were made. I strongly recommend everyone who has the opportunity to travel to Albuquerque in October. For me personally, the first event with the new camera was also a complete success. I was also lucky enough, since Canon is one of the main sponsors, that I was able to borrow a telephoto lens there for free and shoot with it for an entire day. It definitely whetted the appetite for more!

The Result

It was hard for me to find a “best” among the many great photos that were taken. I decided on the following picture, because it also gives an impression of the size of the festival grounds. In my first photo calendar, the one for 2017, it stands for the month of August.