balloon
Dec, 2017Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo in Murrieta, California back in 2015 with a camera I borrowed from a friend. There are wine vineyards out there and I saw a bunch of hot air balloons one Saturday morning and I was on a personal photo expedition, looking for cool things to take photos of to put in my portfolio for a new job I was applying for. I had already been working as a videographer and multimedia specialist and was looking for a new job that required photo experience. When I told the interviewer that I didn’t have any photo experience he asked me to go out and take some photos and if he liked what he saw then he would train me because he really liked what I could bring to the table with their lack of video experience. This photo was one of the ones I submitted and by the way I got the job!Time
It was around mid morning, the fog had already lifted and the golden hour had past but I would say from memory it was probably around 11 am or so.Lighting
I used natural light. At the time I really didn’t know a whole lot about the camera or lighting or natural light for that matter, I had borrowed a camera from work and asked a buddy to show me the difference between the still camera and how I could relate my video experience to the still camera. His expertise really helped me capture this image.Equipment
I just used a Canon 10D, it was an older camera with a kit zoom lens, no flash nothing fancy.Inspiration
I was out driving all over Southern California and I knew I wanted to take photos to show people something about California that wasn’t the beach, or Hollywood, I was driving around to different random places and I noticed a bunch of hot air balloons off in the distance. I drove over the the other side of town, where the vineyards are and decided I would just go there and get as close as I could, as I drove up to a particular spot I noticed this hot air balloon was beginning to take off and they were already in the air, I asked them if I could take some photos and why I wanted them for my job and they gave me verbal permission and so I snapped away!Editing
This was another training that I received from good photographers willing to help me out, I used Camera Raw and nothing else, and received some great training on how to work my photos.In my camera bag
Nowadays I’m rocking my trusty Nikon D850 with a manual 35mm prime lens, a nifty 50 (a Sigma 1.4 art lens), SB600 flash, and my 24-120 mm kit lens, but I am always searching for new gear when I can afford it!Feedback
I would definitely say that anyone looking to get some great shots should take one of two approaches, careful planning and randomly driving around, you never know what you are going to find, and these days I never leave home without my camera in my bag charged and ready to go in case I run across anything interesting or photo worthy!
