Skywatch Friday - Balloons Over Reno...

A couple of weeks ago, The Great Reno Balloon Races, were held here in Reno. On the Sunday morning, a friend,her daughter and I went up Rancho San Rafael Park, to watch the mass ascension.

Instead of going to the park itself, we went up on the hill behind it. The view was incredible, with the balloons ascending in front of us and then coming low over our heads to land on the other side of where we were.

Here are a few photos I took of the event. The first two were taken with my film SLR camera, but came out a bit faded. I've since been told about poloroid filters and how they brighten a photo, especially landscapes. I've bought one and look forward to playing with it :-)

(CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE)

The balloon carrying the American flag taken against the rising sun..


The fly past ...aren't quite sure what type of planes they are..


Smokey the Bear didn't stay up very long. :-)


The two balloons carrying the American flag and the Nevada state flag. They'd already started rolling up the Nevada flag as I snapped this shot. Even as a Kiwi, I got a lump in my throat as I watched these two balloons rice and gracefully float over us, as 'God Bless America and 'The Stars and Stripes' were sung.


The Mass Ascension begins...


'Wanna Hug??' :-)


Beautiful, colourful balloon...


Balloons swooping in low to drop a bean bag on a target that was stretched out on the ground. This was happening just yards in front of us and was fascinating to watch..


Balloons coming in to land directly across the road from where we were standing..


Walking the balloon down the slope..


Makes me chuckle the way the lady in front, is hanging on for dear to the basket supports :-)

All in all, it was rather a fun morning. :-) I have some more that I took the day before, when I was chasing them all over downtown Reno, where they were landing in the most interesting places !!

Have a great weekend :-)

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Skywatch Friday - Looking Up

The skies, in my part of Nevada, have settled down into their usual, bright blue, cloudless, summer mode.

After living here for a couple of years,I was beginning to think that our summer skies were, for the most part, pretty boring...

That was, until I got really interested in photography, joined SWF and a couple of other photo memes, and started looking at the world around me with new eyes..

It forces you to look at the sky with a new perspective and find other ways that you can highlight and compliment that unrelenting blueness..

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

I was sitting down at my local park, a couple of days ago, watching this one small, wispy cloud, float across the otherwise cloudless sky..

'Yeah, right,' I thought to myself, 'that one cloud is going to make an interesting photo, NOT !!'

Then it disappeared behind the roof of the shelter that I was sitting under. I glanced up and until that point, I had not realised that there were decorative lizards at each corner of the building..

I thought that the lizard definitely highlighted my blue sky and one, solitary, wispy cloud :-)


Taken at the Great Reno Balloon Race, a number of years ago.

I snapped this one with one of those little disposable film cameras, so I'm quite looking forward to going back this year and taking along my 35mm SLR and digital cameras. :-)

Somehow, those plain , blue skies are looking a lot more interesting, these days...


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