I’ve always wanted to photograph the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, and other hot air balloon gatherings, and dreams came true when I randomly booked a hotel room in Albuquerque during the 2012 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. My mode of travel? Car, which amounts to a 12 hour, one way drive to Albuquerque. I had to take a day off, to help give me a little more justification toward going, so Melody, Marisa and I took a Friday off for our twelve hours towards Albuquerque. Since this was my first time at the event, I didn’t know what to expect. We had an online schedule, and some suggestions on how to get there. But this definitely wasn’t enough to prepare us for the first dawn patrol. We woke up around 4am on Saturday to get ready and catch a bus to the park. I didn’t expect hundreds of people to be waiting already to catch dawn patrol. This is the first time I’ve seen so many people awake so early. Anxious to get on a bus and prepare for shooting a Dawn Patrol, we arrive there right when the sun was about to rise. I thought it was too late, I was going to miss some of the morning activities. But little did we know, the weather has to be perfect in order for the balloons to take flight. Our first day was only a picture of this car, no balloons, and tired companions.

We didn’t want to waste the day though, so we headed over to the Albuquerque Petroglyph National Monument to do some sight seeing.

As you can tell, the girls were having lots of fun, mocking the ancient glyphs.

We hike a little 2 mile loop through Riconada Canyon, which didn’t have many petroglyphs until you were deep into the trail.

At the end of the trail, we discovered what we came here to look for. I was a little skeptical that there may have been tampering with evidence. It seemed like the glyphs had different styles, which didn’t resemble the board I saw earlier.

We then headed back to the park for some evening glow photos. This time we headed there earlier to make sure we had enough time to relax and prepare ourselves for the balloons.

The weather didn’t seem to be cooperating, and we were scared our weekend would be wasted. But the Balloon Fiesta had a very dependable twitter account that would keep us up to date on the status.

Last minute, we soon saw the balloons being prepped and filled for Balloon glow.

It’s amazing how close they let us get to the balloons. It seemed like we had an all access pass in the grounds.

The evening sun began to drop, and it provided for some beautiful photos. I had to take advantage, just in case the next day’s dawn patrol and mass ascension were a no go. We were leaving the next morning, back to Los Angeles.

Melody and Marisa, with some sensory overload.

That night, we headed back for some shut-eye. We really needed the sleep if we were going to head to dawn patrol the next morning, and our 12 hour drive back to Los Angeles. This time I was determined to be one of the first, instead of waiting in line for the buses. I set up a 3:30am wake up call to ensure we weren’t going to be trapped in a jam again. The next morning we were able to get to the park about an hour before dawn patrol. We were constantly looking at the updates to see if dawn patrol, and mass ascension were truly going to happen. To our surprise, we soon saw some balloons glowing in the distance and headed over to check it out.

Dawn Patrol was underway!

The glowing balloons during the blue hour made for some interesting photos, especially the glowing balloons in the sky.

The balloons soon were being prepared so fast, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I attempted to setup some shots, but it seemed like I wasn’t waiting for the right balloons. I really wanted to get this one, right as it ascends but they soon took the balloon down and I was out looking for another.

So I began to shoot some prep shots of the balloons.

And also some scenic shots of balloons in the distance, I was really a little in over my head. There was way too much going on, and I couldn’t concentrate because of the bright colors, beautiful sky, and just overwhelming experience. I soon just ran around and tried to take as many shots as I could, of the different balloons. It was a great first time at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, and it will definitely not be my last. Enjoy the rest of the Mass Ascension pictures below.