HOW THEY FLOAT

 

Most of us have seen the big helium-filled balloons at parades or other events but I’ve never seen how they get their lift. I came up from the train station downtown and found this. Those cylinders must be three by three or maybe four. I could not see an outlet and, try as I might. I could not see a connection point to the balloons themselves. Then there is the question of how the helium is produced and compressed into the tanks.                  

Balloon Brigade

The St. Louis Balloon Brigade is a fixture at the Pridefest Parade. I love the combination of psychedelic angel's wings and multicolored spaghetti they wear on their backs and shoulders. I took so many pictures of them but I had to chose a sample.

Today is a travel day. If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere.                            

Hi, Everybody!

What can I say? When you're out, you're out. These pictures and the parade in general remind me of the end of an e e cummings poem. But, in just a spirit of political correctness, I won't name it, leaving it as a puzzle.                   

The Local Entry

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This balloon is at the Great Forest Park Balloon Race year after year. Charles Lindbergh flew The Spirit of St. Louis from near New York to near Paris in 1927. We get the big bubble of St. Louis over Forest Park on a more regular schedule. The couple below are some of the typical St. Louisans the balloon represents.

May not be able to do a post tomorrow. We're supposed to drive to Kansas City right after work tonight for a weekend anthropology expidition in the part of Kansas where my wife grew up. We'll see. The road trip, of course, will be well documented.

What To Do With Gray Skies

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With a subject like the balloon race, my solution was to screw on a telephoto, get in close and then pump some steroids into the pictures with Photoshop. The bottom two pictures give you a sense of scale of the aircraft.

Arise, Thou Mighty Bunny

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The Great Forest Park Balloon Race is not a race in the traditional sense with victory going to the fastest. All the balloons ride the same wind. They call it a hare and hounds event, and I suppose the pun is intended. The Energizer Bunny balloon, sponsored by the eponymous battery maker, takes off first. The rest start to follow several minutes later, launching one after the other. The winner is the chase balloon that lands nearest to the bunny. The event makes the news but somehow the winner is never announced, like anybody cares.

So here's a series of shots of the great pink wabbit being inflated and soaring off above the crowd. I'd be careful of that hole in the bunny's bottom if I were in the crew.

 



 



 

Light The Night

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A few more from Friday night's balloon glow in Forest Park. It's a good thing I'm tall so I could shoot over the heads of the mob on the park's central athletic field.  The third picture is the Energizer Bunny balloon, sponsored by Energizer batteries, whose headquarters is here. Gee whiz fact: the silly thing is taller than the Statue of Liberty. In this image, it gets an application of the Bunny Bottom Burner.

The actual balloon race was yesterday. The sky was a uniform gray so the images will not be brilliant, but we'll get to some.

Who Loves A Bunny?

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The Energizer battery company has its headquarters here. Everyone in North America, at least, has seen their ads with the Energizer battery that keeps going and going and going (on the eponymous batteries, of course). One of their publicity gimmicks is an enormous hot air balloon.

The company is the major sponsor of the Forest Park balloon race. They always give away these pink foam bunny ears. You see lots of children wearing them and some adults. I wonder if the woman wore this sweatshirt in anticipation of getting the accessory.

Good Luck

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The main event of The Great Forest Park Balloon Race was held on Saturday afternoon. Well, it's not exactly a race. Everyone has the same wind. The idea is to land as close as possible to the lead balloon but the participants are at the mercy of the breeze.

It was not the kind  of day for classic hot air balloon shots with radiant colors in late afternoon sun. In fact, the sky could not have been more dull. So, work with the materials at hand. Some more of these tomorrow.

Color Temperature

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That's what makes the top picture from the balloon glow dramatic, IMHO. The leaden skies were at the other end of the range from the intense fires that brought the balloons to life. Still, I think the shots I converted to black and white have some drama, beyond just being exercises in light and shape. The people in the foreground of the bottom picture are lit with fill flash.

Balloon Glow

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The first part of The Great Forest Park Balloon Race, the balloon glow, took place last night. All the airships set up on a large athletic field and inflate while tethered to the ground. When an official sounds an air horn, they are all supposed to blast their burners, lighting up the night sky.

Photography conditions weren't so great. It was very crowded. When the horn sounded the balloons only lit up for 5 to 10 seconds, much more briefly than last year.. There was hardly time to compose, meter and focus shots. A few came out okay. Personally, I prefer the black and white one.

Sorry no comments yesterday. I was out late shooting. When I got home I downloaded, edited, wrote this and went to bed. Gotta get to work this morning.

Balloons-O-Fire

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As noted here before, the best place to get parade pictures IMHO is in the staging area before the march begins. People are standing still, there are no waving arms and hands in front of your lens (I got a lot of that Sunday) and people are ready to pose. This bunch was out there among a lot of people who were really out there.

And by the way, greetings from Toronto. This is just a quick snap taken from the King Street trolley on our way back to the hotel from dinner last night.