The Story Behind the Photo
July 2023: Minimalist
Anne Cosgrove
Thank you for selecting me to share my Story Behind the Photo!
My camera is a Panasonic Lumix zoom lens. I shot this picture in Aperture priority, ISO 100, F/8. This picture was taken a few years ago, in September, early in the morning around 6:30 am. My home is on the flight path for several balloons and they usually wake me up with their very distinct whooshing sound of the burners. I usually get out of bed grab my camera and go out looking for them. Many times they are quite low because there are a few properties around me that provide a place for them to land at the end of their flight. This was a cloudy morning as you can see. The sun was rising and as the balloon would drift in and out of the clouds you could see a hint of the balloon’s colors. I could see a bit of a clearing that the balloon was heading for and waited for it to get there. I took several pictures that morning, but I liked this one because it had a sliver of light shining on the balloon while most of it was still covered by the clouds. I tend to use my exposure compensation on my camera to adjust for lighting, which I used that morning, but not sure what the setting was. There were no view obstructions such as trees or buildings in the way, so the only cropping that I had to do was placing the balloon on the line of thirds. I do have ACDSee for processing, which I brightened that sliver of light a bit and that was it. Since then, a few more balloons have been added on this particular flight path, so it is common to see two or three in the air at once. They really are a beautiful, calming sight to see just drifting around the sky.