16th International Hot Air Balloon Festival

This is the first time I attended the Hot Air Balloon Festival and boy was it so far! I've been to Pampanga quite a number of times since I had an EX girlfriend sometime 2008-2009 (I think! Haha!) but this was another thing to attend to since I went along with my photographer friends from the C4. I was excited to say the least because this is kind of the first time I'm gonna see a balloon which is not the usual one you see when going out of the church. It can lift quite a few number of people and the premise was they are going to do that for the 150 dollars you have to pay them. We on the other hand just settled for the 150 peso entrance fee but we had to wake up and travel early (like 1AM in the morning) so we can get there around 4am. It was a long wait and still dark when we arrived on which I spent quite a few energy bars doing long exposures. It was not that nice looking at it now because the lights were too far obviously. I got a prime spot on front and we waited for a few hours just to see these giants in action. I love the big ones and the time they started their flames... it was nice to see in the dark.




They started to fill the balloons with hot air and all the flames were in double time. They needed to fly as soon as possible so they won't be having problems with the wind around 7-8AM. It was nice and very colorful. There were a lot of odd shapes and sizes. Some of them were just for show (like the one for Smart!) but the rest of them tried to fly. Only 2 had problems with it and the others went on a journey to Pangasinan (that is the finish line if I'm not mistaken). This was not bad for a first timer, I know some of my shots were awful but please spare me the drama... I'm a fashion photographer anyway! Hahahahah!











Now how's that? Heheh!

But I'm not that keen on going back to next year's celebration. The travel, the traffic and the people handling the event didn't prepare that much so it was a pain to do. I hurriedly went back to Manila because of work and because this trip was so tiring! I won't come back next year unfortunately! Enjoy the photos! =) Hope you like em!