30th annual Steamboat Balloon Rodeo

I haven’t been on a photo shoot for a long time, and talked to Gregg about heading up to Steamboat Springs to shoot the 30th Annual Balloon Rodeo this year. I had heard about this last year, and wanted to come up, but I couldn’t find a room anywhere. So, last July, 50 weeks to the day before this year’s show, I reserved two rooms, and have just let them sit and “wait” for me to come up.

Turns out the hotel is right across the street from where they launch, so we got into town about dinner time, and scouted the lake and launch area for positions.

The first day (Saturday) had an unusual northward wind and all the balloons eventually ended up in or near town. The second day went much better with very light winds creating a box that the pilots could use to return to the landing zone (a few made it back).

Beautiful reflection

They got points for going over the lake and touching the water with the basket (called dip-n-dash), but a few got a little carried away, and ended up in more of a “dunk-n-dash” 

Dunk and Dash

All in all a stellar weekend for balloons, and the high-country Colorado sky with a polarizer on the camera made the pictures look as beautiful as ever.

There are three albums associated with this trip. The remaining two will be uploaded as I have get to cleaning them up.

Other articles from this trip (both mine and Gregg’s) are located at:

• Steamboat Wildflowers
• Baby Mountain Goats on a snowy day in July
• Gregg’s “Steamboat Barn in Alpenglow“
• Gregg’s “Nice Start to the Weekend“

The rest of the Steamboat Balloon Rodeo pictures are below the break.

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