Taken from a hot air balloon flight in the very early morning rays of springtime April 11, 2009. Each ballooning season starts with a shakeout flight. The cold morning sun had just crested the horizon, casting long crisp shadows of the stark trees. We had just launched, flying over Calgary’s Military Museum of the Regiments into a soccer field trimmed with trees.
I was the lone passenger in the Rainbow Balloons brightly colored balloon. We drifted directly over the line of trees giving the bare trees an unusual perspective that was enhanced by the shadow.
The original ground was pretty bland, the usual flat brown featureless dead grass yet to be revived. Leafless trees with smooth white bark. Working with some experimental software at the time delicate differences in the hues along with an overall richness of saturation was brought out of the grass.
Finally the grass was transformed in texture and shape with another experimental software.
Every hot air balloon flight is a rush for the senses. My family has been in the hot air ballooning business since 1980. The first flight of the year is magical, despite the ground cover. The color design of this image was created to reflect my emotion of the flight, of how I saw things. In a way you see things through rose-colored glasses if you will. When I look at the original raw images of the flight, I am always struck by how odd they look. How poorly they match my memory of the flight.
This is my memory of that crisp morning first flight.
