Morning glories

The mornings are getting quite chilly here in the high desert and pretty soon I’ll have to keep the top up on the mustang and switch to the winter car. Meanwhile I’ll drive with the top down as long as possible, which makes “photo opps” more reasonable in the mornings.

The drive I take follows the mountains on the east side of Albuquerque and looks down on the Rio Grande Valley some 600 – 800 feet below. I turn left and head down to the valley just a bit south of the balloon launching field. It’s no surprise these days to see balloons landing here and there, including right across the street, scraping the road and coming to a stop just feet from a road with a 55 mile per hour speed limit.

People here know to watch for balloons at this time of year.

I slowed down a bit and grabbed the shot as I was driving by.

Then just as I was about to turn into my office I stopped to take a shot so that I could actually have the office preserved for all time.  I don’t think I’ve ever taken another one of my office space and this was a good excuse.  Note one of the hazards that the pilots have to try and avoid, power lines, just at the edge of the vacant field next to our office.  This particular morning I think about 10 or 12 balloons came to rest on the grounds.

Right after I parked my car I got out and walked less than 20 feet to shoot this landing.

I went up to the office and figured that the balloons and I were done for the day…. till I looked up and watched these two race by my window.

In the lower left corner of the photo you can see another balloon about to land, right near the road that was in the first image.   You can also see here one of my favorite sights in Albuquerque, fog rolling over the  mountain from the east.  It only happens two or three times a year and I always like how the cloud spills over the peaks and heads on down the mountain.

On the way to work I thought that it was a calm morning because several of the balloons in the valley seemed very high.  Since high flights usually happen in calm winds, I thought that it must have been a perfect morning for flying.  After watching the news this evening though, I found out that there were several minor crashes on landing, fortunately without major injuries or damage.

That’s one thing about these playthings, once they are out of gas you come down where mother nature pushes you.

Tomorrow is special shapes day.  I’m thinking about getting up early to go shoot.  I was supposed to be climbing the mountain in the morning but my hiking buddy won’t get here till noon, thanks to American Airlines acting like an airline that deserves to go out of business.

I’m not really happy to get out of bed early in the morning, but…

maybe for special shapes.

(side note – these photos were taken with my cell phone camera which at 3.2 megapx is equal to the resolution that I had on my first “prosumer” digital camera that I bought for just under a grand in May of 2000.   Granted, it had all the features of a full blown camera, but for resolution, this phone is working out just fine.)