Roadtrip Images

We recently had the opportunity to attend the Battle Creek Field of Flight Air Show & Balloon Festival. We met up with some good friends and expert balloon chasers to show us the ins and outs of hot air ballooning.

We took the coach down to Battle Creek, MI and stayed at the nearby Fort Custer Recreation Area State Park. Our friends camp there most every year while attending the festival. We got a thorough education in balloon chasing from the veterans and were prepared for the early morning starts. After several days of cancelled launches due to weather, the balloons finally went up.

It was a 5 am wake up call to get to the staging area by 6:15 am. The balloonists attend a briefing each morning to determine if they’re going to fly and if so, what “tasks” they had to perform. Most balloon festivals are also competitions where they compete for prize money. The tasks they need to perform are to fly along a prescribed path and drop markers onto targets on the ground. They get points based on how close to each target they are.

Once it was determined the launch was a go, the balloonists took off in their trucks and vans to find an appropriate launch site that would allow them to fly the path they were given. We then raced after them to watch. On this morning many of them decided to launch from an open field among a group of houses. After permission was obtained to launch there they all started to get set up. It was a bit of a frenzy as elapsed time is counted for points as well.

After they get the balloon stretched out on the ground they have to partially fill it with large fans (below left). If the balloon is backlit by the sun you can get some nice silhouettes (below center). When they get enough air into it from the fans, it’s time for the hot air (below right)

Once the balloon is standing up they really put some BTU’s into it to get it fully inflated and ready for launch (below). As you can see in the background, everyone else is doing the same thing. It can get a bit chaotic.

In the image below left, it’s an early start to get calm enough conditions to fly. Winds have to be below 10 MPH so mornings are usually a great time to fly. After they’re airborne it’s off to the first target! (below right)

Balloons weren’t the only things in the air that week. There was a full scale airshow at the festival as well. We were fortunate to obtain press passes for the event and went to check out the show. Everyone’s favorite was the fighter jet of course and they had an F-22 Raptor going through some impressive maneuvers. He put on quite a demonstration (below).

Many thanks to a great group of friends for an enjoyable festival. We wouldn’t have been near as good at balloon chasing without their expertise. We stopped for a group photo at one of the balloon launch sites (below).

For a photographer, balloon festivals can be great photo opps. Lots of color and activity. For a landscape photographer it’s a bit out of my usual subject matter but it’s fun to mix things up from time to time. It was also great to spend time with friends and catch up on things.

Balloon images: Nikon D810 with Nikkor 24-120mm @ various settings

F-22 Fighter Jet: Nikon D810 with Nikkor 80-400mm @ 400mm. f/8 at 1/1600. ISO 200