Open flames and chainsaws: The Balloon Fiesta

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be able to go to the evening events for the 41st annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (and Chainsaw Carving Invitational). UNM had a trip for students on campus during fall break so naturally I jumped at the chance to go for only $4. It was a long bus ride out to the fairgrounds, which are up in Rio Rancho, sort of a suburb of ABQ but still part of it. I was struck by just how open the sky was when we got there:

Killing time until the sun set and the inflating of the balloons for the night flight began, we checked out the carvings from the week's Chainsaw Carving Invitational competitions. Each competitor started out with 2 tree trunks and, in two different rounds, a 90-minute speed round and a round lasting all week (a couple hours each day, non-consecutive, but not to exceed 24 hours total over a 7 day period), turned then into the following sculptures. Keep in mind these are all only (somehow!) done with chainsaws:

 

  

 

 

Soon the sun began to set and I finally got a chance to see the pinkish color that the Sandias are so famous for. It's only visible for about 5 minutes, if that, so photos have to be taken quickly.

By the time the Sandias faded though, the balloons had begun to be blown up all around the field. Since there were no viewing spots and you could just wander around the field in between all the balloons, that's what we did until things got too dark to see, and we parked ourselves in the middle of a huge bank of balloons. For now, here endeth the words: now, just sit back and enjoy an hour and a half's worth of balloon photos!

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You'll notice none of these photos feature balloons in the air. Unfortunate crosswinds made that impossible, so we had to settle for seeing them lit up on the ground. However, that was still plenty neat enough, especially since they coordinated several "blast off burns" throughout the evening, where all the balloonists would simultaneously fire their burners for 5 seconds straight. Balloons would keep inflating themselves around us (in the end there were around 70, at least), and as it got darker, the different balloons' burners served to highlight different parts of each picture, and it was fun to experiment and capture different lightings when different balloons in different parts of the frame triggered their burners. Also, it was cool to see some of the novelty balloons, like Humpty Dumpty, a cow, a panda and a big stagecoach, to name a few. Once again, even though the balloons never got off the ground, it was still a wonderful experience!