Just before the start of Lockdown here in NZ I had some time to play around with the a7R IV. Ultimately, I didn’t move over from my a7R III but it was a pretty awesome camera. Just not the leap I needed but it was a good excuse to head out for a hot air balloon ride to find some interesting test shots. 🙂
After living here in Queenstown for 10 years, I finally decided to do a hot air balloon ride. There were two balloons, and that was a nice surprise, as some of my best photos were of the other balloon. The landscape shots were cool of course, but I really think this top-down perspective is interesting.
I saw this sort of photo the first time in a Nat Geo magazine of some camels crossing the desert at sunset. It was so disorienting at first… and then, when I figured it out, I got quite excited! Anyway, as we were about to land in the hot air balloon, I used the opportunity to grab one of my own… it’s quite rare to see white camels here in New Zealand.
We woke up at the crack of dawn to go out to our launching point for the balloon ride here in Queenstown. It was freezing cold, but we were excited as it was the first hot air balloon for the two of us. Just after we launched, the sun came up and caught her across the face with this cool blade of light.
Right before the lockdown, I was lucky enough to take one of these hot air balloon rides. We took off near Lake Hayes and then headed about halfway down Gibbston Valley. I asked the pilot how he knew where he was going to land, and he said he had no idea! It’s always different… I was a little worried but he seemed sublimely confident!
