Beginner going on Hot Air Balloon

[HokieTime]

Long time Lurker, First Post.

As a novice, taking pictures of the countryside from 100's of feet up, what would you recomend?

I am going with my wife and mom on a Hot Air Balloon excursion next week.

I have had my G3 for about a week. I have taken a few shots on auto, and tried the "flower" button for some cool close up shots of bugs. I am a big fan of learning by experimenting, but a balloon trip like this won't come around often, so I want to get some cool pix.

My question is, should I just put my G3 on auto? or landscape, or something else, and point and forget. Should be some incredible views from way up there, with the leaves starting to change.

Thanks for any tips you can give.

--Mike

[Biko]

Use what you feel happy/confident with. Auto as you say you use should do fine, and as you are pointing down most of time you should not have much trouble with exposure level as camera will not be "fooled" as when pointing at a horizon.

If you do happen to shoot into the sun adjust exposure with toggle button - press up and toggle R/L for more/less

Landscape mode is good for more DOF, so as you rise and fall you may want that.

Keep an eye on shutter speed as although balloon's moves slow it is still necessary to make sure you do not get too slow a shutter speed.

Take plenty of memory and battery charged as its not convenient to ask if they can drift over to the right to the nearest store :D

[HokieTime]

Thanks Biko. The "auto" I referred to was the green default area on the dial, its currently my "go to" move.

I tried your up-left-right tip last night, but there wasn't enough light for me to get a good grasp on the functionality. I will experiment more on a sunny day.(hopefully before this weekend).

Thanks again.