During Memorial Day Weekend, I covered the Rio Grande Classic hosted by the local hot air ballooning club, Top Gun Ballooning. The past two years had been canceled thanks to the COVID pandemic so it was nice to see familiar faces again.

This year was a bit rough for the pilots. A good number just didn’t reach the targets. It was even worse for me on the first day when only a few pilots got to the target I was stationed at (there were three targets). The second day was too windy for flying. And then the third day saw better success but, it wasn’t easy for the pilots.

Generally, photographing hot air balloon competitions is nice because it’s generally easy to know where the pilots are going to aim for. The targets obviously! So waiting by the targets is a near guaranteed way to have a good view of the balloons. Except this year, I guess.

It’s been a while since I’ve made a post. I guess this has been the trend lately for me. I’ve photographed a couple other ballooning events since December through June but, I just wasn’t happy with what I got. It’s not to say that these photos are much better but, man, I’ve got to post something. Also, I did promise to share these photos… and I’m delivering them five weeks late… but let’s not think too much about that!

Check out the photos below. I hope to produce some better ones like I did three years ago. Check out that blog post because I think those pictures were much better!