Preparing To Launch

One of the constant struggles in photography is finding interesting perspectives to take photos from. While aerial photography is not exactly new, it's still a fraction of the photos that are taken on land. I was definitely excited to ride a hot air balloon for the first time and be able to see a "live" version of Google maps satellite view.

First thing in the morning tends to be the best time for a balloon ride. The weather tends to be calmer, and there's still enough wind to help push the balloon along. I don't recall seeing hot air balloon rides that don't start at sunrise. In Namibia, this meant getting picked up maybe an hour before sunrise and then driving quite some distance to the launch point. While still quite sleepy, I was eager to board the basket and check out the view. 

Now that it's been about a year since my ride, I feel like I could definitely go for another one. It's a nice change of perspective while moving at what feels like a gentle pace. That's really what travel is all about too - changing your perspective on the world around you.