Sunrise from a baloon .... I am in need of some tips.

[Jaedon]

Hi there all,

In a few weeks I will be taking my wife on a baloon ride over Orlando at sunrise for her valentine's day present. I haven't given her anything for the past 3 years due to various reasons (children being born....working overitme to pay for the afore mentioned children...etc) so this year I went as big as I could.

Anyway, Here's the scenario.

We arrive at the launch site about 45 min to an hour before sunrise and become part of the crew in the filling of the baloon and preparations for the launch. After it is prepared we launch during the predawn twilight so that we are well in the air when the sun crests the horizon.

Now I will be able to bring my camera bag but I am traveling light due to weight restrictions. I am bringing my widest angle lens I have (14-45) as well as my widest range tele lens (50 - 500) but I am wondering what the pros (or those who have taken ariel photographs before) would recommend for settings (the tele has a fairly low Aperture at f4 - 6.3 but the wide angle has a bit better at 3.5 - 5.6) I am sure to be taking a wide angle shot or 50 of the sun rising over the ocean with the Florida landscape below and if anything looks interesting form the air I am surley going to be shooting with the zoom as well.

Basically if anyone has any suggestion as to things to look for, landmarks (I am sure NASA's bldgs will look neat from up there if I can see them) , suggestions on posing during the set up...etc.... I would greatly appreciate the input.

Thanks in Advance

Jay

[another view]

Sounds like a nice trip! I'd stick with just the 14-45 for two reasons. First, it keeps this more of a Valentine's Day thing and less of a photo thing... , but mainly because you'll have to handhold in low light from a moving platform (slowly, but moving). This will make it difficult to get sharp images with long lenses.

I wouldn't ask anyone to pose while setting up, they have a lot to do and you don't want to break their concentration! Maybe a shot with everyone right before the launch, but I'm not big on posed shots of stuff like this anyway. If you have a flash, you might try some slow sync shots with it at this point (a.k.a. dragging the shutter).

[SmartWombat]

You might also ask if you can use a clamp on the basket (I use a cullmann wide travel clamp) because it's pretty stable in flight apart from people moving in the basket.
That might help in the sunrise photos.

[Jaedon]

oooh kewl idea SW. Are the clamps expensive?