Sunday, December 18, 2016

On Another Cold Night in Cincinnati, Balluminaria

Balluminaria is a semi-regular event in Cincinnati where it's a hot-air balloon glow at Eden Park.  The connection to the moment is it was just as bastard cold that night as it is now.  I needed to use my hands without gloves to operate the camera and after that I drove thirty minutes home before they were really working again.


But this happened:


Cadillac Man sent me a copy as a reminder since this was so long ago I don't think of it much but it was beautiful ... plus it was so damn cold there was no way in hell I would do it again.

To ensure you really appreciate the suffering, this was when photography was like preparing for a jungle safari only with the added blessing of frozen nuts.  I used a huge and heavy Bogen tripod, the camera was a full-size SLR, and the lens was 200 mm plus any lens monkey also carries a kit bag full of other rubbish.


The lights high above one of the balloons could be from a UFO but more likely they're on a quite tall radio / TV tower in the background.

For Millennials, radio and TV towers went extinct during the last Ice Age and this was one of its last nights.  We ate mammoth quite frequently back then and that's why you have none now.

Yes, there was life before cable TV.  Staggering, isn't it.

No comments: