Wow! This shot is well executed. I like the awesome distance you managed to capture and the wide aspect of it. Very well done.

And oh thanks for the Balloon advice. Will keep that in mind :)

Hi Chip...where is this shot taken at? It is a gorgeous scene of so many wonderful things. And I love how the one balloon is big upfront..and the others are distant..VERY nice..For sure we will take your advice about novice balloon drivers...Its a beautiful photo tho!!!

Wow! What an incredible view! Where were you? This is just great: the one close balloon in bright yellow really stands out and helps lead the eye to the gorgeous greens and beautiful blues. As a bonus, after you see all the obvious stuff, you notice all the other balloons up there with you. Wonderful shot.

Great Shot!!! So high up and it covers so much ground! The scenery is spectacular! I love the greens and blues in the picture.
Excellent pic :)

Wonderful photo. I would love to hear the story behind your comment about novice balloon pilots.

Oooohhhh....so beautiful!! I'm loving the contrast of colors here as well as that breath-taking view!! Awesome capture!!

Holy Crapolli! Being afraid of heights { though I will still risk heights}...reading what you wrote gave me a shudder! PLEASE, do share the story behind this comment!
As far as the picture....awesome! REALLY!

Gorgeous shot, but I think you can ride without me..

Excellent shot! Reminds me of my one skydiving trip. I think I would have been more nervous in the balloon. :)

Being able to pilot a balloon takes lots and lots of practice. It's quite an art to be able to get the balloon to go where you want it to go. At different heights, there are wind currents going in different directions. Being able to find those currents and to keep the balloon in those currents takes a lot of practice and skill. The pilot I was with had trouble doing both! He was throwing cheetos (they are nice and bright and lightweight) out of the balloon and watching them as they fell looking for the different currents, but could never get the balloon to the right altitude for the direction he wanted to go. We ended up missing all of the good landing spots and had to settle for a small hilltop where the brush was really thick and had to drag the balloon out to the road. After landing, the pilot noticed that one of the pieces that holds the basket to the envelope was broken, which needless to say made the balloon unsafe to fly and should have been caught in the pre-flight inspection. I've been up with experienced pilots and it's like night and day. They can make the balloon go in almost any direction they want and it's an amazing experience that I would HIGHLY recommend.

If your up for a ride, two great balloon companys in southern California are A Grape Escape and Califonia Dreamin. (That little plug should get me a free ride)

The Temecula Balloon and Wine Festival is going to be held on June 2nd thru the 4th 2006. Most of the hot air balloon pictures that I've posted were shot at the festival.

Your pilot may have been a novice Chip but this shot sure isn't! Excellent capture!

Thanks Chip...for telling us more! Cheetos.....hehehe now that is cute....and one of my little boys favorite things...but he likes the fiery hot ones. It would be unsafe to toss those with him around, as he'd go after em.
This new explanation you have narrated did NOTHING to give me courage to EVER wanna go up in one of these beautiful monsters! The sound baloons make has always scared me since I was a child...and no way.....NO WAY will I ever do this...so THank you-thank you for being crazeeeee enough to go up for the ones of us { chickens cannot fly} who never will! Beautiful photo!

Chip Dawg you have more guts than me!!Great sweeping image of adventure and scenery my friend.
Peace&Respect Jojo

surfcat. what a shot! not afraid of flying...just crashing. glad that all went well considering the circumstances. civ

this is SUCH an amazing picture... the composition is just flawless. great shot!

This is one of the best shots I have ever seen. Absolutely awesome. 10+/10

This shot is so cool, and what an amazing experience!Lovely landscape as well =)

*sigh* (and the good kind of sigh) ... soooo beautiful.

Alright, you will have to excuse my lack of commentary ... I am quite literally speechless. And that don't happen too often, let me tell ya.

Thank you so much for sharing your gift.

This is a truly beautiful and 'expansive' image. Once on your monitor, strangely, or perhaps not ... it is barely constrained within the physical borders of your screen.

Wow!!!, this is too awesome...one of my favorites..

Fantastic scene - I went hot air ballooning once, but it was during the brown, ugly Minnesota winter... nothing like this. Thanks for posting!

I really liked, as purmusic said, the expanse of the image, great view! I just stared at the picture in awe of how those darn goofy things stay afloat.


Thanks!

Wonderful photo. And thanks for the warning. LOL!