Photo Feature - How Did They DO That?

FLIGHT

Ever had one of those “love/hate” relationships? I suppose we all have. I’d like to tell you a little bit about one of mine.

You’d think that an event that is often described as “the most photographed event in the world” would be a photographers dream. That is what many think when they picture the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta – hundreds of brightly colored and spectacularly shaped hot air balloons launching into the clear blue sky on a crisp October morning with the Sandia Mountains to the East and the seemingly endless New Mexican horizon to the West. True, it is all of that and much, much more – an event that really must be experienced to understand. Few spectacles can rival it for its unique excitement and beauty. It really is an event that should be on your “must” list.

So, what’s not to like, you ask? Well, as someone who has been attending and photographing the Fiesta for nearly 20 years now, I still love it for all the reasons described and more…but…dang it, it’s hard – REALLY hard – to get a new shot! Remember, “the most photographed event” part? I am sure it’s true – hundreds of thousands of people attend every year, and I’m sure that 90% of them are carrying cameras. Zillions and zillions of photos, and well, after seeing thousands of them you start to realize that there is very little that hasn’t been done before. That has never stopped me from shooting there, but it has made me try a lot harder to get something special.

The 2005 Fiesta was fairly typical of others – mostly good weather, a couple of no-goes from the wind, etc. I had gotten a few good shots, but nothing to brag about in the first week, and it was Saturday, the next to last day of the 10 day event. I got up early, planning to head north from my Rio Rancho home to see if I could get some shots down by the Rio Grande River. It’s always kind of a game trying to predict where the balloons would be drifting, but since they had been going north the last couple of days I decided not to head to the launch field and instead take my chances to the north.

As I headed out I saw something that is almost unheard of around here. Fog! I was afraid that they might not be launching, so I headed to an overlook where I thought I might be able to see if they were flying. When I got there my heart started pounding! Never before in all my years of shooting and attending the Fiesta had I seen such a sight! Balloons were drifting silently among the trees of the Rio Grande Bosque (river forest). Ghostly, ethereal shadows, hanging in the air. The fog, low and clinging to the bosque floor imparted a layering effect to the trees and balloons, and the rising sun, toward which I was facing, emphasized this condition – one which I have grown to appreciate in early morning back-lit scenes. Here is another example of back-lit morning light with layering effects:

Thankful that I had my camera and tripod with me, I hastily set up and hiked out to aviewpoint and started shooting. I knew I only had a few moments before the fog burned off and the magical, fleeting moment would be gone.

“Flight” is my favorite of the group I got that day, and my favorite of any I’ve taken of the event. I shot it in RAW format with my Canon 300D and Canon 75-300IS lens. The settings were: ISO 100, 1/640sec, f/11 @300mm. The original image was slightly disappointing until I was able to do a bit of post-processing on it. Although it required a bit more work than most images to bring out its potential, I did nothing out of the ordinary and could have duplicated most steps in a traditional darkroom. I used CaptureOneLE for the basic raw conversions, Painter8 for cloning out a few minor distractions and to do minor dodging and burning, and Photoshop5.2 for adjusting levels, applying a curve, adjusting brightness, contrast, hue and saturation. After these adjustments, I ran it through NoisewarePro to reduce the noise in the image and then applied unsharp mask (USM) in Photoshop.

There has been a lot of discussion about the bird in the foreground – whether it was added in PS or should have been cloned out. It was there in the original image and I thought that it enhanced the feeling of “flight”. So I actually emphasized it by making a mask and dodging the background a bit behind it. I was surprised and a bit bemused that it was so controversial. (Those interested can read the comments under the image at http://www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=281896)

Bio:

I have been an avid photographer for something like 40 years, but didn’t start getting paid for it until the mid 80’s, when I got a job doing real estate photography for one of those free magazines that you get at the supermarket. That paid for a few lenses and after a while I had been assigned to do nearly 100 color, full-bleed cover shots. I learned a lot from doing RE photos – especially how to deal with bad light…particularly backlight…and shadows.

Since those days, I have been involved in many aspects of photography as a freelancer/contract photographer. I have shot stills for a weekly TV program, done HS team photos, events, reunions, sports, weddings, designed product brochures and advertisements…have camera/will shoot! I’ve never managed to be a full-time photographer, but still have hopes in that direction. Maybe when I “retire”?

If anyone has questions, comments (or assignments!) contact me at billjemison@cableone.net

For prints of any of the shots in the article please visit http://jemison.dpcprints.com/
Other photographs from my portfolio may be seen here and here.

`Bill Jemison's`

`FLIGHT`