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And some septic areas next to a sewage plant -- no idea where the weird almost rice-paddy-looking effect comes from.
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(849x541, 110.6KB)		 The balloons slowly inflating. There's two balloons in shot; in the field we were in, there were five balloons setting up from various ballooning companies -- apparently the wind's sufficiently picky around here that everyone has to start from the same place. It was fun seeing all the other vans arrive, unload their balloons, and frantically get started -- everyone was there within about five minutes of each other, and lifted off within about five minutes.
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(861x559, 94.0KB)		 Yet another 'classic' balloon shot -- the other balloon from Rainbow Balloons, while it was still near to us. As time passed, the other balloons drifted off in other directions; while the prevailing wind was all generally going the same way, it was impressive how much difference it made as we gained and lost altitude.
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(850x581, 78.5KB)		 Here we are over a different (notice fewer trees) neighborhood, with the Re/Max balloon below us. For those that don't know, Re/Max are a chain of estate agents that have large publicity balloons that fly around -- I guess they also hire the balloons out for trips from time to time.
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Close-up of the other balloon and passengers therein.
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(865x584, 129.6KB)		 A longer view of some of the new developments -- notice that these ones have far fewer trees, because they're newer, so there's more incentive to put in houses rather than make them actually pleasant to live in.
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(852x580, 146.2KB)		 And of course the new houses need big, big roads to get people to and from work. Some of the junctions are more arcanely designed than others, though.
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(872x563, 141.4KB)		 By this point in the trip, we'd left the residential parts of the city and were heading out over industrial areas. This is a pipe warehouse / distribution yard.
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It's surprising how low it is -- it's a similar sensation to taking off in a plane, but a lot nearer to the ground. Weird effect of the trees' shadows on the roof at the bottom, I'm not sure what caused that.
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(812x555, 127.1KB)		 My tribute to Yann Arthus-Bertrand. whee. More septic system, but with less reflective light the colours show up that much more
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(870x589, 84.9KB)		 Julia and I. (me pleased at having remembered to meter before taking the shot to avoid the backlighting blowing things completely away.. One definite advantage of wide-angle lenses is for taking the self-portrait-at-arms-length like this..)
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(866x572, 65.1KB)		 At about this point, our balloon was fully inflated, and thinking very seriously about taking off. I seem to remember someone yelling
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The launching field is pretty small, and in a small valley; this apparently makes for stable wind conditions, which is what you want when launching.
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(873x571, 141.6KB)		 The neighborhood we started off over -- Calgary does well for trees in surburbia, and this time of year is particularly nice for autumn colours.
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(863x536, 164.1KB)		 One balloon had got off before us, we were the second to take off, and as you can see, the other three were all about to leave pretty much at the same time.
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(842x582, 90.2KB)		 And off we go, across the city.
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Sorry, I couldn't help it. I know there must be about a million of this shot in the world, but heck, we were in a pretty rainbow-coloured balloon, so it seemed at least partly acceptable..
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Our ballooning trip with Rainbow Balloons of Calgary, Oct 19th 2002. Camera: OM2S; lenses, Vivitar 17/3,5. Zuiko 24/2, 35-70/3.5-4.5, 65-200/4.
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