If a picture is worth a thousand words, this post is going to a hundred thousand words long (or longer!)

Anyway, after the bomb threat from the previous day, the decision was made to stop broadcasting and posting on anything social network that allowed comments. That meant that we were down to two livestreams and Twiiter and Instagram had to be stopped.

In other words, I lost my job.

But I got ‘hired’ by the official blog so I ended up taking tons of photos for that, most of which weren’t even used.

Morning Launch/Competition

If I remember correctly, the Fiesta balloons were launched in the morning, and then the international competition balloons flew in for one of the tasks.

I offered to help a pilot take a photo of him with his ballon, and although he declined, he gave me a pin from a Hot Air Balloon Festival that he’s the director of!

And I started to get the hang of taking morning shots (the sun rises against the audience stand, so you have to be in the field to get the sunrise in the background)

I really adore the dinosaur hot air ballon, with its tiny arms. And it just looks so excited to be heading off into the sky!

Funny story about this next shot: I took it from the top of our container (where we spend our off time) and COULDN’T GET DOWN. There’s a gap between the roof and the ladder that’s about half my height, and I just couldn’t place my foot down.

I was definitely a funny sight, wailing about how I was stuck on top and that my camera was doomed.

And this is everyone on the container:

throwing the market towards the target

Balloon Fantasia

I actually took the most photos during the morning flights and… only took one for the Balloon Fantasia. And that was only because the dinosaur made me laugh.

Afternoon Flight

For some reason, I tend not to take so many photos during the afternoon, so these are what I’ve got!

I thought the light from the afternoon was pretty good, though, so I didn’t edit these pictures (unlike the morning ones).

Day 2 was definitely a smooth sailing day, for which I am very grateful. Will post pictures from Day 3 tomorrow!