Waking up at 5 in the morning is never an easy thing, especially when the only reason is to go out and shoot a festival about colorful Hot Air Balloons.
However, the motivation is a little stronger when friends decide to wake up and check it out together (Thanks Dustin and Dave).
The International Hot Air Balloon festival is taking place in Chiang Mai – Thailand, during 3 days from the 25th to the 27th of November.
As expected, there weren’t many people around so early in the morning, except for photographers of course.
The whole event consisted of different groups setting up their balloons as quick as possible and fly towards the southern side of town. Every team started unpacking at sunrise, around 6AM and the last one left ground an hour later. It was a short, quick but enjoyable event to photograph, rewarded by a warm nice coffee-filled breakfast afterwards.
Here are a few shots of the festival.
The festival was taking place in the campus of the Prince Royal College, in the north-eastern part of Chiang Mai.
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At around 6Am, when the sky started to brighten up, every team unloaded their balloons, tightly packed in pick up trucks. The actual part of the balloon, as seen on the floor is called the “envelope“.
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Different teams started by either unloading the envelope or setting up the basket, also called the “gondola“, carefully attaching the burners on top.
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Different teams from different nationalities were participating in the festival. Here, they are making sure the burners are firmly attached.
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A close up shot of the burners, propelling hot air inside the envelope. They are the “engines” of the hot air balloon.
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A farang (foreigner in Thai) opening up the envelope after preparing the gondola and the burners.
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A balloon, already filled with hot air, almost ready to take off before sunrise.
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A Thai team spreading out the envelope while other balloons in the background are almost done.
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The burners propelling hot air in the envelope. Pretty impressive to see huge flames shoot up inside the balloon.
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The first balloons taking off during sunrise with different passengers on board.
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A few more balloons already heading South, while others are getting filled up with hot air.
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More balloons with colorful patterns.
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Some of the bigger balloons were taking more time to be filled up with hot air.
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You could pay a fee to hop in one of the balloons for a ride.
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Balloons heading South to another destination, where they will land, unpack, load everything on a truck and head back to the Prince Royal College for a second round later during sunset.
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The last balloon leaving ground an hour after the event started. This one was the biggest of the festival.
Hope you enjoyed the essay.
Wow! It looks like there were a lot more balloons on the second day. But after getting up at 5am Friday, I really needed a sleep-in today!
Great shots, Daniel. You really captured what it was like being there.
Barbara recently posted..Balloons At Sunrise
Thanks a lot Barbara :)
Argh, getting up at 5am? Guess I’m never going to this one. lol.
Roy Marvelous recently posted..Turkey Day In Turkey & Pilgrims On The Beach
Well luckily, there was also the same event during sunset around 5pm for “normal people” ;)
Some beautiful pictures there. Thanks for getting up so early and for then sharing with us.
Richard Barrow recently posted..Thailand Websites
Thanks a lot Richard. It’s often worth getting up early anyway :)
Wow! now that’s a lot of balloons. Thanks for sharing, I feel like I was there watching them get ready step by step. Love the shot of the last balloon leaving the ground.
Thank you very much Deb! It was short but fun.
Beautiful photos Daniel! Definitely worth waking up early for, especially the pre-dawn early morning skies give an interesting half-awake look to the photos. :)
Abhijit recently posted..Where to find art in Stockholm?
Thank you :)
Maybe the look is also part of how I felt at that time hehe.
We ended up going to the 5pm event and it was madness! I’m kind of bummed we didn’t drag our butts out of bed early enough to see the sunrise launch, but we DID get to see a light show to the tune of Thriller. ;)
Christy recently posted..Thailand’s International Hot Air Balloon Festival
Thanks Christy!
Yeah I was thinking of going to the afternoon event too but I just chose to stuff my face at the Saturday/Sunday markets :)
Would’ve liked to see the show though!
Gorgeous work! Loving all the colors and light.
Thank you Lola :)
Hey Daniel. Glad I stumbled upon your blog. Love your photography.
Interesting that you mentioned about waking up at 5:00 am as I just mentioned that exact thing in my latest post. Ha! These balloon photos are stunning. I have yet to shoot (or ride) a hot air balloon event. Looking forward to it sometime in the future.
– Michelle
my. recently posted..Photo Postcard: Golden Gate Bridge — San Francisco, California
Thank you very much Michelle!
I see you didn’t get up at 5 though. Hard decision but it was worth it!
Fantastic photos! What a great event to watch. Really love the last two pics.
Cherina | Quiet Wanderings recently posted..Arctic Dreams: The Polar Bears of Churchill. PART I
Thank you very much Cherina :)
Shooting hot air balloons is a GREAT reason to get out of bed! Nice images.
It was hard to get out of bed before sunrise but worth it, I agree :)
Thanks!