Photo editing - the beginning

I'm just learning how to work with photo editing. Here's a picture I was working with a couple of weeks ago:

And here is the version after I played with it:

Some things are better, some... well, I think are worse. But there you have it. Attempt #1.

Filling the Balloon

First, the teams use a large fan to simply put a lot of air in the balloon. Then the burners are turned on and begin to heat the air, at which point the silk starts to rise...

Fox and the Hound... Balloon Style

Part of the hot air balloon competition was a "Fox and the Hound" style of hunt. The "fox" (or balloonmeister) was given a head start. His job was to go hide a target. After a pre-determined amount of time, the teams were allowed to start filling their balloons and set off on the chase!

Not quite every team is shown here, but many of them. 12 balloons total!

Evening Glow

Evening Glow takes place after sunset. The balloons stay on the ground, and as they turn on the burners to heat up the air in the balloons, the entire balloon glows.

Look up, waaay up!

There will be several pictures of hot air balloons over the coming days, thanks to a fabulous Hot Air Balloon Competition I was able to attend this weekend.

How often to you get to be almost directly below a hot air balloon? When you look straight up inside, if you get lucky, you'll see the burst of flame, like this one.