First time for everything.
As a photographer and a wannabe travel connoisseur, there are many places and experiences that make up my bucket list. Visiting the Eiffel Tower in Paris, seeing the Northern Lights in Alaska, and walking down a path of cherry blossoms in Japan, just to name a few. One of the things on that list used to be seeing a hot air balloon festival. I’m not really sure how it turned out to be the case, since they aren’t uncommon in my area, but I had never seen one before, let alone a festival. So once I heard about the Great Forest Park Balloon Race in St. Louis, I figured it was my best shot. The idea of one singular balloon way up in the sky never really intrigued me. However, seeing different photos overtime of groups of many, many different balloons and their slow decent into the sky always looked so beautiful. Seeing the different patterns, shapes and colors intertwined with the changing sky above showed such uniqueness that I felt I had to get my chance at it.
That is where this awesome event comes in. I currently reside only a couple hours away from the St. Louis area, so the travel aspect was really no issue. That's always a benefit when going somewhere to shoot a subject you are unfamiliar with for the first time. But, the good people and pilots at the GFPBR had everything taken care of and then some! Truthfully, I didn't want to get my hopes up to much at the idea of a bunch of balloons just “racing” in a big field, but I quickly realized it was a lot more than that. It was a lot more than some random community event, but rather felt like a traditional community gathering of all of the different cultures that make up St. Louis. Walking around before the event started and seeing just how many people, families and groups came out to partake in the event blew me away. I mean this thing was absolutely packed. To make Forest Park seem even more overcrowded than it normally does is a feat in itself. But it was a really cool thing to consistently see people of all ages and cultures interacting with each other and just enjoying their day. And it was really cool seeing just how excited everyone was once the show started! Safe to say, I will definitely be making my way to St. Louis for that event in the future, and am already looking for other balloon festivals to check out!
