How Cool. I keep telling myself that this would be fun, I just haven't mustard up the courage yet.  :)  Great pictures!!

Great photos again Greg!

There's a hot air balloon festival in Vegas in October. We used to get up at the crack of dawn to go watch them set up and lift. And the different shapes and sizes were amazing. There was a witch on a broom, a wedding cake (from one of the chapels in town), a shoe...I loved it. I've got great photos too but taken with an "old fashioned" camera, lol, and the photos are in an album.

Cool pics Greg. But may I be a critic?

Yes, by all means Job.

I noticed some glare in a few pictures. This is evident when taking pics toward the sun. A good circular polarizer lens filter would solve that problem in most cases. Also the sky would be a richer blue with this filter. I use this filter anytime I'm taking pictures across water surfaces or when taking pictures though glass or glass is in the background when I don't want to see reflections off the glass.

I also noticed that your camera sensor may have some dust on it. Are you using a Digital SLR?

Thanks for the comments Job.  I usually have a polarizer on there, but haven't been using it much lately, I think I've just been lazy!  But I have never tried a polarizer when facing the sun directly, never thought it would do much in those cases since the light waves would be in line with the lens as opposed to perpendicular to it, but I will try it for those situations.  

I think there may some dust on the sensor, and on one of my lenses.  Once again, bein' lazy.  I've just been grabbing my camera and heading out without taking the time to be meticulous and clean my lenses and take care of the sensor.  

Thanks again for the comments, it keeps me on my toes!

Oh yeah, I'm using a Sony DSLR-A700, shooting RAW.  Some of these shots were with my 16mm F2.8 Fisheye, although on the APS-C sensor I don't get the full 180 degrees field of view, and the others were with my 18-200mm zoom.  I know I over-used the distortion of a wide angle lens, but seemed to work well with the balloons.  

I hear ya. I get lazy too sometimes. I finally made it a habit to check and clean my lenses before each outdoor adventure and check my settings. I never read anywhere how to check sensors for dust but came up with my own technique. I'll focus on an object about 50 feet with the button half pressed then finish taking a picture in the blue sky. I then upload the pic to my computer. If there is any dust, it will show up in the pic.

You are correct that taking picture toward the sun even with a polarizer may not work. That's the reason I said "in most cases." It depends on the angle of the sun in relation to what you are shooting. Even if you can't get rid of the entire glare, there is improvement.

Nice pictures, GregL.... glare and all!   lol   You captured the spirit of the event and that's more important than getting the perfect shot with the perfect camera and the perfect lens, IMO.    Thanks for sharing..