2017 Bushwick Collective Event: Full of Hot Air?

Up and away

Last year, summer of 2016, I experienced, for the first time, a ride on a hot air balloon at the “Balloon and Craft Festival”, in Ballston, NY. It was a bit unusual to go to this event, because I have a slight fear of heights. So what was my purpose? I was with two friends of mine who asked me to help them shoot a children’s tv show for them, so i thought why not. I wanted to see what journey my new hobby with cameras would take me. I was blessed with a beautiful weekend, sohttps://www.linkedin.com/feed/ our ambition was on and charged. With so much great food and activity going on at this festival, one can’t help but feel happy. The smiles were shining along with the sun, the kids laughter made all of our worries go away. The old school barbershop band had me feeling nostalgic even though I didn’t grow up in that era I couldn’t help but feel inspired. We had such a great shoot, and i was able to sneak in some photos from this enjoyable and creative weekend. On a side note, I must say the lemonade was one of my favorite parts of the entire weekend, it went perfectly with my sausage, pepper and onion sandwich. It’s everything you’d expect from a festival. I highly recommend everyone to go and check this festival out, or any hot air balloon festival in your area. After the first day of shooting we had a chance to experience the festival in small doses because of our busy shooting schedule, but the next day is when it was all going down. My first ride on a hot air balloon will be forever engraved in my mind. It was sort of like the first time i ever kissed a girl but less romantic and more fun. Moments leading up to take off I was hesitant, because I have a slight fear of heights, but something told me to let go of that fear, because i may never get this chance ever again. It was a decision I will never regret, ever! It was a very liberating experience to see the world from this point of view. For a moment there, I was lost in awe, and forgot that I was on that balloon to shoot a scene for the children’s show. My friends had to reel me back in to focus and shoot, but I know they were just as excited as me, because we were all experiencing our first flight on a hot air balloon. The pilot who was in charge of the family business was great with making us feeling comfortable, especially when he purposely brushed the tops of trees to slow the balloon down so we wouldn’t crash land, it immediately played on my fears which made me feel a bit uneasy, as we approached landing the pilots wife, daughter and son-in-law found us a safe place to land which was literally in someones front yard. Once we landed an old tradition for the pilot is to bare a gift for the person whose yard we landed in, which was cookies and a bottle of champagne. After landing safely from this exciting ride, the pilot and his family threw a ceremony for us to make us official aeronauts. They prepared a little breakfast for us and everything. We were knighted. We were asked to kneel down on one knee as the (wife and daughter) held a champagne bottle over our heads while they read an aeronautic right of passage. It reminded me of my days in the navy when we crossed the equator to go from a pollywog (a sailor who has never crossed the equator) to a shellback (a sailor who traveled a vast amount of the earth’s oceans). You can’t make this stuff up. Our trophies were empty champagne bottles with the date on them, from the mimosas we drank. I’m not one to have champagne poured on my head but I didn’t mind because now i can tell people that i am officially an “aeronaut”. I’ve conquered land, air and sea.