16th Annual Clark Freeport Hot Air Balloon Festival

After years of ‘JUST PLANNING’ to go to Clark Freeport in Pampanga to witness the Annual Hot Air Balloon Festival, which always end up with me staying at home and browsing my friends’ photos (with pangs of jealousy :D) over the internet for days, I was finally able to go to Clark last Saturday! Woot! Woot!

Paragliders. Cloudy, I know. On our way to Clark, I was hoping for blue skies and was already imagining balloons on a clear blue sky in my photos. But then again, I’d rather take pictures of balloons on a cloudy sky than just…blue skies. They say when it gets windy, it’s a no show.

..and besides, the ‘graduated tint’ effect in Picasa is just a few mouse clicks away, right? :D

Time to heat those balloons up! See that crowd? We got there at about 5:30am with this huge crowd and I couldn’t anymore squeeze myself into the front row.

Graduated tint effect, again.

Monochrome.

Pirate in a barrel? My daughters’ favorite.

‘Hot-Air’ Snowman Balloon. Ironic. :D





And the crowd’s favorite I think, Darth Vader. “Do not underestimate the Force.”

"Just for once, let me look at your face with my own eyes.” (Subliminal message: "Tell me, what the #@$%! is my head doing here?!")

Some more featured balloons:

Going, going…

…gone!

Here are some photos I took after the Hot Air Balloon Flight show:

My trusty (and crusty :D) 70-300mm took over during the Aerobatic Flight Display Exhibition.

Skydivers!

My daughters flying a kite with their Dad. Check out their story here.

Next time, I’ll try shooting these hot air balloons at night. :)