TITLE: Inflation

The Festival of Ballooning is held each year at the Solberg Airport in Readington, New Jersey over 3 days in July. Each Friday morning, the media and photographers can go on the field early in the morning before sunrise to see the arrival of the balloons. Over the next couple of hours the balloons get inflated, some of them take off and some remain on the field. It is always fun walking or running to the balloons as they are getting inflated, sticking your camera in on the side of the balloon to get these interesting abstract designs. The people are very nice to let you photograph the interiors either from the left or right by stepping aside for couple of seconds so you can get your images. There are even some owners that let you photograph from the inside of their balloons. I always look forward to the following year to come here and photograph balloons that I already have taken photos of or take images of new balloons that I have not seen before or I may have missed.

This is the largest ballooning festival in this part of the country where you can see dozens of balloons. During the 3 days you have rides, vendors, music and balloon flights. As of now the 2024 festival has been put on a "hiatus" due to increase in operational costs. Hoping for a comeback in 2025.

AUTHOR: Miroslav Vrzala (United States)

I was born in Czechoslovakia in 1960 and emigrated to the USA in 1970 with my parents. In 1978 I got a part time job while going to college in a department store that sold camera equipment. My boss at that time gave me a projector along with some carousels and a screen to view my slides, I remember it was fun setting up all these things to view my photos. Over the years I lost interest in photography, but in 2009 my wife told me to get a hobby. Photography was my choice. Since that time I have joined numerous camera clubs, been in solo and group shows, been accepted into international shows and have sold numerous Photos to collectors in North America, South America, Europe and Africa. I have always been interested in art as long as I can remember, so now I paint with my camera. I enjoy taking photos of landscapes, cityscapes and abstracts. I am not that much familiar with post processing, but I do what works for me to achieve the final result. Amazing what you can do today, go out and photograph in the morning, download, process and print your image, frame it and hang it on your wall, all in one day.

"Look ahead, look up, look down, look left, look right, and don't forget to look behind, there is always something to photograph."