Tyler BlodgettPhotography · Film · Story

Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, New York · Photo Essays

Balloon Festival 2019

21 photographs

2019 Hot Air Balloon Festival held at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck, New York

The crew hauls the basket upright as the envelope fills.
The crew holds open the mouth of a rainbow envelope while the basket waits on its side. Every flight begins like this, held up by many hands.
One crew member's shadow stretches across the blue fabric as the envelope takes on air.
Shadows of the crew stretch across the fabric as the balloon takes its first breath.
Rainbow spinners turn in the evening sun at the edge of the field.
Hands on the ropes, the crew guides a rainbow envelope toward standing.
The rainbow balloon lifts off over the crew's heads, another already high in the sky.
A single balloon drifts up into a clear blue sky.
Passengers pack into the basket, and one woman can't stop grinning.
The burner roars as the crowd gathers across the Dutchess County Fairgrounds.
Hands hold the basket down as the burner roars and the sun flares through the envelope.
A crew member gathers the collapsing fabric, another balloon already rising in the sky.
The crowd looks up as the envelopes fill, a woman in sunglasses caught mid-wonder.
A woman in orange waits beside an orange envelope still spread across the grass.
Seen up close, the balloons become a quilt of red, gold and green.
Up close, the envelope is a wall of color.
Passengers lean out of the basket with their phones as they climb away from the field.
Envelopes swell across the field as the crowd wanders between them.
A woman steadies the envelope while the crowd's shadows fall across the fabric.
Balloons scatter across the evening sky, the nearest close enough to read its number.