Hot-air ballooning holiday in Italy - 56k*

[tfboy]

I haven't posted any shots on Hexus yet, so hope this isn't too much of a spamming catchup session (and this post is pretty much a repost of what I put on a few other forums)

A bit of background - The last few years, I've been lucky enough to join LSUHABC (Loughbourough Student's Union Hot-air Balloon Club) for a week's hot-air ballooning holiday in Italy. This consists of getting up at 4:30 in the morning, getting down to the launch field, having a morning flight, land by 7:30 / 8, get to Fiore where we refuel and then have breakfast. After that, get back to our wonderful villa where we chillout / sleep a bit more and then have an al fresco lunch outside before deciding what to do with the afternoon. Nice, really

Anyway, enough of the chitchat, here are some photos. They're all a bit random as I haven't been bothered to fully sort them, but gives you an idea


Getting ready for a BBQ feast


Timbo doing an inflation




Sunflowers. Certainly not short of sun out there


Packing away after the flight. The basket at this stage is not as heavy as at the start because we've burnt 100-200 litres of propane. But still, always a nice struggle


This is what hot-air ballooning does to you. Makes you all smiley and happy - but I've been clobbered over the head for taking the photo :rofl:


No, it's not Moretti beer, it's a rather nice Latte which is always welcome at breakky (beer is often on the menu too )


Craig doing an inverted dive into the pool back at the villa. Not too bad for an old retired chap. Unfortunately, he cracked his head as he hit the bottom, but a short beer soon sorted that one out

[tfboy]

The obligatory afternoon watersports at the pool. Although water was around 27 degrees, it was hard getting in as the outside temp is around 35! Diving in and then pooling about was the order of the day




One evening we went to Perugia where every summer, they hold a jazz festival. Fantastic free open-air concerts as well as more private venues (REM and Alicia Keys were performing this year).


Ball of fire

This was also the first time I had the opportinuty to try out a new lens I bought a couple of weeks ago. Rather pleased with it, especially for portrait stuff.


Bethany wondering what flavour her cornetto (croissant) will be


Di grinning after a fantastic flight


Béa in front of the Colosseum when we did the night glow



Night Glow at the Colosseum





Most of the telephoto shots were taken with a newly (expensive ) Nikon 85mm f/1.4. I still need to practice with it, and it's not a servo-driven focus although it's quite fast given enough light. But it can produce the most creamy bouquet photos. Low light is not that good though with AF and definately have to work more with manual focus

[tfboy]

Following morning inflation from inside the balloon. Was rather apprehensive taking this as I thought I was going to get cooked! I was standing in a turning vent (slits on the side of the balloon to help rotate when in the air) and as the balloon rose, I escaped through the opening of the vent. Phew!


Todi cathedral. Very pretty inside too. Oh and it's a long walk up to the steeple.



View of the main town square, with Burley in the background


Todi town again


"Hmmm. We can't land there..."


Normally, splash-and-dashes are great fun, but we decided the water was a bit too green for it to be healthy!

[SiM]

Wow, amazing pics! Looks like you had a great time!

[tfboy]

Orvieto cathedral



A couple of old fiats lurking in the side streets




Todi town square, this time from the ground


Arty shot of Land Rover to the rescue of stranded people up the mountain


Morning mist over the town


Balloons in various stages of launch


Sunrise behind the clouds, but almost looke like an atomic mushroom cloud


Todi town seeing the first rays of the morning sun


A balloon solar eclipse!




A few shots of flames

[tfboy]

Last lot, this time mostly of balloons
















You have to love the smiley chute on the team Reynolds balloon








As the ballooning festival has been going on in Todi for the last 20 years, I think there are a few fans or two


Chute of Jubilee seen from inside the basket. The two acrylic windows are somewhat useful to see if you have another balloon right above you - mid-air collisions are not recommended


Quite liked this one because of how long the arm is


Comments appreciated!

[Bobster]

great set of photos, some could do with a touch more contrast and sat, but on the whole a solid set of shots, thanks for sharing

[TeePee]

Beautiful shots. What's required for a Lighter-than-air rating in JARland?

[tfboy]

Thanks for the comments. I need to play around a bit more with post processing. I do think the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 which took the wider angle shots is sometimes a bit "stale" in colour and needs a bit of extra saturation thrown in. Next time, I'll have more of a play. But I do find my D200 has a real tendancy to over expose all the time. I often have it at -0.3eV or -0.7eV to minimise the burnt out details as I reckon you can always boost the rest up a bit if you need to; at low ISOs, noise isn't a problem

Another thing which doesn't help is that at day break which is when we fly, the sun is so low that there is actually very little natural colour saturation around. Everything is very pastel coloured. It's only when the sun gets up a bit that the colours really start to shine. I found the sunflowers were the only exception and they shine all the time

JARland? Where is that? In the UK, you need very little - half a dozen written exams (meteorology, air law, navigation, etc) and something like 18 hours flying to get you your P1 which is the first private licence. On top of that you can then get instructor ratings, commercial ratings so you can earn money for it. It may not seem like a lot, but it ain't easy getting 18 hours flying done unless you take a couple of weeks holiday to blitz it. I've been toying about getting my P1 - don't have a licence yet - too busy taking photos

[Funkstar]

Those are fantastic photos.

Looks like an amazing trip too. I'd love to have a go at that

[colmo]

Brilliant. The baloon 'solar eclipse' is an exceptional shot, and could do well in a stock library or as a fine art print.

I also particularly like the people pictures, aerial landscapes and some of the flame shots.

On the subject of post-processing, did you take these shots in RAW or JPEG? I hope it's the former, it gives you a lot of room to fix exposure and saturation issues.

[this_is_gav]

As above, excellent shots. Enjoyed reading and taking it all in. Cheers.

Plus, you got to see REM. (I'm going down to see them in Manchester next weekend)

[EvilWeevil]

Lovely pics, and, more importantly, looks like an awesome trip. Italy FTW

[tfboy]

We didn't get to see REM - it was the same night as the night glow in Rome. And AFAIK, this is only the second hot-air balloon night glow in Rome next to the Colosseum in history, so it was a bit special. REM have performed more than twice so it's easier to catchup at some other gig.

The night glow actually was on the Beeb telly We were even interviewed It's on the beeb's website somewhere if you really want to see it.

[Whiternoise]

JAR = Joint Aviation Requirements in the EU (i think) issued by the JAR, theequivalent of the FAA in the US . Same sort of thing, but the freedom you get with the licenses - like PPL's - are different. JAR is more restrictive for some licenses if i remember right!

Still, awesome pictures!

How expensive is ballooning generally? It looks like a lot of fun..

[tfboy]

Colmo all photos were shot in RAW. It's the only thing I ever use. At first, I shot in jpeg, but as you say, the recovery possibilities and things like "whoops, wrong colour balance" are immediately correctable with no loss. I hadn't thought of stock agencies! I did register with various stock agencies, but have always been rejected because of "excessive noise". Didn't quite understand why because lots of other stock photos already "approved" had loads of noise on them and were technically inferior to what I submitted.

Thanks for the headsup, Whitenoise.

Ballooning is not cheap, but still cheaper than flying fixed-wing aircraft or other mechanically-powered versions. The biggest cost is for the equipment itself. You have four parts of hardware: balloon envelope, the basket, the burner and the gas tanks. Baskets and balloon envelopes come in different sizes and the latter are quoted in 1000's of cubic feet, so people will talk about having a 70 or a 105 meaning 70,000 cubic feet volume. A 105 in good condition can carry about 5 people. You need to heat up the envelope to give you more lift than weight if you are to go up, but there's a limit to how hot you can get the envelope before you damage it, hence each envelope has a different rating to how much weight it can lift. Of course, outside temp has a big impact. If it's really cold, you don't have to get your envelope as hot to get a big differential between internal temp and external temp. At winter, you can fly over the alps and have a 4 or 5 hour flight! During normal morning temps in Italy, it's about 20 degrees and we get 1 to 2 hours flight.

A balloon + basket + burner + tanks for about 4-5 people will set you back around £20-25k for new kit. Second hand is the way to go, especially when you're starting off. You can get kit in decent condition for around 10 grand.

But on top of that, you really need a 4x4 / SUV with a towbar, trailer and place to keep it all when you're not flying.

And of course you need a crew. 3-5 people is a good number. When you get the hang of it, you can turn up in a field and lift off around 10-15 minutes later and so that includes everything from laying out the balloon, doing your burner tests, inflating it, getting it heated up and finally taking off.

Insurance is about a grand a year for private flying. Then you're running costs are just the gas, which unfortunately is becoming more and more expensive. Oh and every year or x many hours (can't quite remember) you need a C of A for the balloon.

Surprisingly to some, ballooning is probably one of the safest aerial methods of private transport. In the UK, there have only been something like 3 fatalities in the last 20 years. Compare that to single-engined aircraft, helicopters and the like. In essence, the principles are so simple, there's nothing to really go wrong

You can pay to have a commercial flight which will last about one hour and that will set you back between £100 and £150. But if you're really interested in it, you're far better off getting involved in a club. Check out www.bbac.org. I only pay for the gas and the real cost of flying (not paying someone's profit) and it costs around £50 per flight and you get to crew and drive around in a 4x4 playing cat and mouse with the balloon trying to figure out in which field they'll land and be there ready to collect them.

Every flight is a completely different adventure and no flight is ever the same. Everything depends on wind which you don't control

Enough about me plugging ballooning now