2012 Hot-Air Balloon Festival

What a beautiful saturday morning as me and Abby went to the 17th Hot-Air Ballon Festival over at Clark Airfield Pampanga. We are so excited for this event that we took off Manila as early as 2am. Cruising without traffic, we arrived at Clark at around 3:30am! We had some coffee first at Petron to waken up our senses. 

The moon is really beautiful that morning and i cant help myself taking a photo of it. Using my 70-300mm lens, i captured this really nice photo of the moon. Its still dark when we arrived at our post, just in front of the steel fence. Since there are no balloons at sight yet, i got bored and took this photo...

An awesome view of Mt.Arayat. Its really breathtaking! The clouds are very nice as well. I used my tripod and my shutter release cable on this one.  I used Bulb mode on my shutterspeed at ISO 400.  Its actually dark when i took this photo Thanks to my trusty old tripod i made this photo possible without any blurs.

At last! One of the balloons arrived and they are fast setting up their gear. I am really amazed when they do that. That blazing fire. Like a really strong blow torch.. I was actually wondering if you can put on some marshmallows beside it.. hehe. That would be fun!

And then the National Anthem played. We saw this sky divers descending and one of them has the Philippine Flag tied on his foot! Slowly waving the big flag for everyone to see as the National Anthem plays. Such a thing of beauty.

More flames! More fire! Lets light this baby up! Look how intense that is! Amazing! Gimme some marshmallows and throw in the BBQ! hehe. 

People are actually in awe with the power of the torch! This guy over here is witnessing it all upfront. He is definitely in heat right now.  I hope next year we already have photographer's passes so we can go inisde the fence and take closer photos of the people., the balloons and the drama.. and probably ride one of the balloons! 

The sunkist balloon is already up and thank goodness it showed us her pretty face! We had a sunkist deal at the office and theres big big picture of that balloon at the office. I witnessed it live in flesh  here at the Balloon Festtival.

Asked Abby to take a pose at the balloons. Slowly, one balloon at another is raising up. The sunkist balloon at the back is slowly coming to life! Abby is like a little kid with so much excitement in her eyes. This is her first time to witness the hot air balloon festival and she really liked the experience. Probably next year we will ride one of those balloons! =)

 My good friend Pads came at the event as well. He used his new Lumix GF1 camera. I was kinda surprised he didnt used his D300s! Well the GF1 is an amazing camera as well so i think he got good pictures with it as well. The good thing about it, his camera is really really light and not bulky :) 

This balloon just gave me the smiles. Its really cute. Its like the flower power from Super Mario. This is my favorite balloon design at this balloon festival.

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  Last year, my favorite ballon was the Darth Vader head. Sad thing, i wasnt able to go to the festival. havent seen it live. Thats an awesome balloon. Hopefully next year that balloon flies again at clark airfield pampanga!

Now this balloon is really cute. It made me hungry as well. Never seen the biggest ice cream cone ever? Now here it is! hehe. 

Paragliders flocked the airspace as they graze the skies in groups. This is actually dangerous coz they are so close together and theres a possibility they could tangled up together. Its great watching them flying all together. 

Another view of the balloons. I so love this picture. I actually submitted this one at the Caltex on the spot photo contest. Its like im close by as the balloons are slowly ascending one by one but actually im quite afar. I just used my telephoto and zoomed onto the balloons.

Pads had the courage to as ask this girl to look onto the balloons and take photos of the reflection onto her glasses! I also took a shot of it. The lady obliged and just smiled at us. =)

This cake balloon is really awesome. Very creative! 

the balloons are not the only attraction from the festival. There were also drift cars parked and displayed. I love this skyline! Thise deep dish rims are insane! I love it.

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I saw this photo of the Hot-Air Balloon Festival from Cheyz Pedragosa's blog and i was shocked by the sea of people who witnessed the balloon festival! This is a really great photo and if she actually submitted this at the Caltex Photo Contest, she might probably win! 


It was a really great saturday morning. Me and abs had a great time. Till next year's balloon festival.. hope to catch and witness the balloons again. Hopefully we can ride one of them as well. =) Thank God also for the great weather!




Photos by: Mac Centeno
Thanks to : Ms. Cheys Pedragosa of http://www.thewalkingrecessionista.com/ 
and to  moosehoof.wordpress.com  for the extra photos. 


photos taken at Clark Airforce Base , Clark Airfield Pampanga.