Hot Air Balloon and Wine Festival

This morning I went to a Hot Air Balloon and Wine festival at Long Branch historic house and farm in Millwood, VA (http://www.historiclon​gbranch.com/) to get photos of the balloons going up for their morning flight. The Hot Air Balloon and Wine Festival runs Friday to Sunday and this morning was the first ( and I think the only) time the whole weekend when they were able to send the balloons up in the air. It was quite a site to see the balloons come over the horizon just barely skimming the tree-tops and come in and land on the farm. As always comments and critiques are welcomed and encouraged.

1.

I like picture #3 the best.

I'm "lucky" enough to see hot air balloons almost every day. The most dramatic shots often are taken when the propane burners are shooting out a big flame.

Nice shots.

Balloons are a fun shoot. Lots of color in that first one!

Thanks for the comments! This was my first experience shooting hot air balloons and I definitely enjoyed it. The colors were amazing!

I like # 1 and 4.

i went on sunday which was prob the worst day... It was too windy. On top of it not a single cloud in the sky which made even landscape pictures very uninteresting.

jpl_1020 - Thanks!

Nathan, supposedly Sunday was the only day they went up because of the strong winds Friday and Saturday. I agree about no clouds in the sky, I was hoping the sky would be better Sunday morning for these images. Did you go for the morning or evening flight?

We went to attempt to see the festivities later in the afternoon/evening. However, we never got to see anything. I guess we left around 5:30 or so as there was no sign of nothing happening. Do you know if there was any balloons later in the afternoon?

I do know last year they took off from another field and attempted to land at the park.

I have talked to several photographers from MD who were down there in the afternoon, and like you they didn't see any evidence of an afternoon flight. One person was there from 3 till about 6 and like you, they saw nothing. I believe the afternoon flight was gonna be around 4:30 so I guess they had to cancel once again because of the wind. If was definitely a tough year for the balloons.

When I was there Sunday morning they took off from another farm and attempted to land around the festival. One did very good and landed next to the house, over by where the food vendors were set up, but the rest had more of a challenge. There were only 8 balloons flying this year so from what I understand it was a very small turn-out for pilots.