Our meetup group, Illuminate Workshops, met at Memorial Park in Colorado Springs last night. The event was the Balloon Glo, which is held every Labor Day weekend, as part of the Colorado Balloon Classic. The “Glo” takes place after sunset, where the balloons are inflated but tethered so that they do not ascend. The balloons are lit from within by burning gas.
The balloons are first partially inflated by electric fans while the balloon is laid out on the ground. Only then can the gas burners be used to fully inflate the balloon. The heat from these burners is really hot — I could feel the heat from where I was standing. I like the expression on the lady helping to keep the balloon open in the image below!
Feeling The Heat
Here we see a nearby balloon, almost fully inflated.
Inflating The Balloon
Once all the balloons have inflated, their burners were shut off, except for an occasional burst to keep the balloon aloft. After this, there is a countdown so that all balloons are light up to glow simultaneously.
Three Balloons
The countdown was repeated many times during the evening so the crowds could enjoy the huge balloons lighting up Memorial Park. The following balloon “Sprit of Colorado”, gives the title for this post. At the back, one can see a cowboy riding his bronco. The couple in the foreground seem to be enjoying the event.
Spirit Of Colorado
Towards the end of the event, the balloons were deflated. While this was in progress, I made an images of the balloons against the night sky. I was chatting with Efrain Cruz, our host for the Meetup Group, about a light painting workshop that Ben Willmore held at Creative Live last weekend. Efrain proceeded to light paint the basket in the balloon below. While busy, I made an image using the light he played on the scene.
Balloons And The Night Sky
After the event we headed back towards the parking lot. I made this image of the deflated cowboy balloon. The lights in the background were from bungee jumpers, mainly kids, who had lots of fun at the event.
Feeling Deflated
Earlier in the evening, the crowds were lining up to do globe riding in these Zorbs. The two guys were just preparing to deflate the Zorbs before packing up for the night. I managed to make this image of two Zorbs before they deflated the nearest one.
Packing Up The Zorb
Here is another image with the Zorb backlit by the park lights.
Zorb At The Park
I made this image of the interior of the Zorb, where the inner and outer shells are maintained in position by the plastic rods.
Ab Zorbed
That completes this week’s set of images. It was quite an experience going up close to these hot air balloons. This was the first balloon event that I had attended and also the first that I photographed.