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Heibloem/Roggel, L1 Balloon, October 14 Where I live balloons are a common sight but mostly in the summer. But now we are allready in the autumn and current temperatures at night are around freezing point! I was supprised to see this balloon showing up. I knew they often flew in the winter but never seen any around here in the winter or autumn. The approach was low and slow. The plan was to land the balloon between a creek and a leek field. They always try to prevent damage to the farmers crops. The pilot managed to put the balloon exactly on the place he wanted! But the balloon decided the other side of the creek was a better place. The balloon dragged the basket into the creek and got stuck. It was a pretty funny sight :)
The pilot activated the balloons afterburner and accelerated out of the creek. Now they had to move the balloon to a more open location. Because there was almost no wind the balloon crew and a few local farmers were able to drag the balloon while the pilot maintained the balloon in a hover. First time for me I saw them drag a balloon this far!
At the road they let al the hot air out of the balloon. In the meantime it was pretty dark. Taking these pictures was hard. Because the sun was almost set I had to pump up the ISO to 1600 (highest for my SLR) and keep the aperture as wide open as possible (F2.8-F4.5). With this I had shutter speeds from 1/10-1/60. My tripod was still at home... ...due to long shutterspeeds and high ISO most of the pictures turned out a bit unsharp but they still give a nice impression of a very nice unexpected occurrence ;)
Guus Luijten, October 14 2009 Website of balloon: www.ebc-ballon.nl Website of L1: www.l1.nl
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