Very nice.
I do have to ask - is it the case that you are not alone hanging out here waiting for this shot? I could easily imagine that being a popular view.
Alan: This place is very popular for this event. The annual Balloon Invitational is usually mid September. There are hundreds of people sitting at the top of the dunes, looking down on a very large parking lot where the balloons are being inflated and launched. Their children are running up and down the dunes, just being kids, but 'killing' the dunes with footprints. So it is a challenging environment for a photographer. I was constantly moving around trying to get a shot without people in it and the least amount of visible footprints. For this image I actually had the camera turned 90 degrees to camera left. I had run to the top of the dune and looked down on the launch area, so I knew there was going to be a balloon cresting the dune soon. While I was waiting I was doing what every good landscape photographer learns to do, which is keep your head on a swivel and look around. I did not know this balloon was going to come up over this dune. I discovered it cresting the hill and thankfully it was moving slowing. I quickly re-positioned the camera and was able to get a few shots off. I was laughing to myself because the name for the image popped into my head as I was taking the shot. I remember thinking what a perfect name it was for this particular image.
Interestingly, I was in the park the day before scouting and shooting sunset. It was my first time visiting White Sands and I was there alone. I walked into the dunes probably about a half mile and climbed up a dune to wait for sunset. I was taking iphone shots and texting them to photographer friends and family, when I see a guy walking down below. He sees me at the top of the dune and decides to join me. No problem - I like to talk to other photographers. I'm chatting with him and I find out he is part of a workshop with Derek Von Briesen. I had been on a workshop with Derek in Sedona, Arizona. Next I see about 12 people walking the same direction toward "my" dune. I ended up having practically Derek's whole workshop up there with me shooting sunset. When he finally showed up I told him, "just so you know, I was up here first, alone, when your workshop decided to join me. I did not crash your workshop!" He just laughed. The next day at the balloon event at White Sands I kept wondering where Derek and his workshop people were since I had not seen any of them during all of my running around. As I was loading my gear into the car I saw Derek and his workshop atop a dune that was considerably away from all of the craziness going on near the balloon launch area. Derek had his people positioned to shoot with long glass and get shots that had the best chance of being compositions with just white sand and colorful balloons. They were not running all over the place like me.
This was a great quick event to attend. I left Long Beach (CA) airport early on a Friday morning, flew to El Paso, rented a car and drove to Alamogordo, New Mexico. I was able to shoot sunset in White Sands on Friday; shot balloons in town on Saturday (they only launched one day in White Sands) and shoot in White Sands on Sunday morning. I was driving back to El Paso just after noon and was home Sunday evening. A great way to spend a quick weekend and I went alone. Could not find any camera addicts to go with me.
