The third annual Carefree Balloon Festival
hosted nearly a dozen balloons on Saturday 21 January in Carefree, just north
of Phoenix. The big excitement was one
of the tethered balloons caught fire and broke loose. Luckily the pilot was able to land it about a
mile away in a golf course. I actually
discovered I took a shot of the runaway balloon while photographing one of the
bands performing. It’s one of the photos
in the Flickr collection at the bottom of this blog, partially obscured by a
tree. You can tell something unusual is
happening because everybody was looking away from my camera and toward the
balloon.
The time of day prevented a lot of
challenges for a photographer. While
there was still some light, I was able to take photographs at ISO 400. But as it got darker, I found I had to
increase the ISO or light sensitivity to 800, 1600, and then when it was really
dark I was shooting my Canon 7D at about 3200 ISO.
Trying to photograph the colored lights
and the band was impossible at 1600 ISO.
I was using an all-purpose Tamron f/3.5 18-270mm lens that day. Other wiser choices might have been a Canon “nifty
50mm” f/1.8 lens or even a Canon 28-135mm f/2.8 lens. Generally speaking, the lower the f/stop
number on the lens, the more light it will let in the camera. You want the “fastest glass” possible for
these evening shoots. What about using a
tripod or even a monopod? Sure, that
would enable you to take photos at various f/stops at longer exposures and
lower ISO settings, UNLESS THE TARGET IS MOVING! Then you’ll still get motion blur. In my opinion, having a camera like the Canon
7D is the best choice because its ISO setting will go to a whopping 12800! Now, at that high an ISO expect some noise in
the photographs. But camera technology
is such that you will see many of my night shots taken at 3200 and a few at
6400 were pretty darn sharp.
My digital darkroom or program of choice
is Lightroom, where I probably do 90 percent or more of my editing. Here, you can make lighting adjustments, do
some sharpening, and control a bit for noise.
You the viewer have the final decision; are the photographs still
appealing?
Locally, next up for me is the Carefree Indian Market and Cultural
Festival February 17-19. There will
be live music and Native American hoop and fancy dancing, so there should be
fun and colorful photo opportunities available.
Then after that will be the Cave
Creek Rodeo on the last days of March.
Happy Shooting!
Jim Patterson
Photos from my Flickr Site