Cave Creek Balloon Festival May 2015

Falcon Field Fly By

The weather in the Phoenix area for late May was absolutely delicious, with a high barely reaching the 80s, a far cry from the previous five Cave Creek balloon festivals held in the middle of winter.  Now, this is the desert and sure it's warm, but the night in winter can be FREEZING!  

Lauren Riley Performs

This was the 6th annual balloon festival.  I took photos of the early fly-by from planes based at Falcon Field in Mesa, local country singer Lauren Riley, and the balloon glow.  

Lauren Riley Close Up

Photographing the performers on stage was difficult during the day as the backlighting pretty much washed out the details of the musicians.  As it got darker, my luck improved and I was able to use the stage lighting.  

And as it got dark, I had to use high ISO to capture the balloons as they were fired up by their owners.  

Balloon Light

For those interested, I used a Canon 5D Mark III and Canon 70-300mm lens.  Some of the photos were also treated with MacPhun's Noiseless Pro to eliminate noise that comes from photographing at a high ISO.  

Until My Next Adventure, 

(Sedona, With the Tamron Tailgate Tour)

See You On Down The Road!

Jim Patterson

Here are all the keeper photos from Flickr!