Up, Up and Away – A Grape Escape Hot Air Balloon Adventure

I hate that song, but it works here.

We had experienced a week of torrential rain here in the Temecula Valley and I thought that there was no way this hot air balloon launch would take place. An email came into the DSE Virtual Tour Productions office which stated to contact the hot air balloon company at 5:30am for a go no-go. I knew there was no way and boy was I wrong. It was a-go.

Loading the car the streets were wet from the evening’s rain and a crisp chill filled the air. I was still not convinced that this launch would take place. Regardless, equipment loaded I steered towards the Wilson Creek Winery located in Temecula, CA.

Wilson Creek Winery is the place for the customers and all the trucks carrying the hot air balloon equipment meet. As I arrived I see that I’m the only vehicle in the lot. A thought popped into my mind, “do I have the right place?” But moments later here come four full-sized pick-ups and a van with trailer filled with equipment for the journey.

My task today is to shoot all the ground shots in HDR (High Dynamic Range) imagery and create the beginning of the Virtual Tour for “A Grape Escape” Hot Air Balloon Adventure. This is a two phased operation. Phase one ground shots and phase two in the hot air balloon itself.

It is still dark with a hint of the upcoming sunrise. Unable to see if there were still storm clouds looming I wondered if this would happen. It was cold and wet everywhere, but no matter.

Introductions all-round and my question if this would happen. Rusty, the owner, assured me all would be clear and a great day was going to happen. I raised my head skyward and thought (yeah right!) As sunrise was beginning I could see white puffy clouds but no big rain clouds. Hmmmm, what does Rusty know that I don’t?

They sent aloft a small helium balloon to determine prevailing winds. I was told that the launch site often changes based upon the prevailing winds and they were going to move to another area based on their findings. I must admit Rusty, before they sent up the helium balloons aloft, stated that the winds were coming out of the South West and we would have to move the launch site. Rusty gave the order of the launch location maybe a half mile down the road. So we all headed to his new site location. Fortunately it was a large parking lot of another winery so we would not be in mud up to our knees.



The crew operated like a well oiled machine involving all the customers in the experience of the setup and inflation of the balloons. The sun was just appearing over the horizon and it was going to be a beautiful day. I had no idea that these hot air balloons are so big. The balloon material itself weights around 400 pounds. I’m all set camera on tripod and clicking away, shooting HDR panoramic shots of this process like a crazy man. The sun now is dancing off the wet pavement and glistening through the recently cleaned air. It was beautiful out there. The brisk cold air made it even more exciting as each group of customers loaded themselves into their assigned balloon and like clock work lifted into the morning air. One at a time as 1, 2, 3, 4 and finally number 5 balloon dotted the sky with their brilliant colors. Each different in color but at the same time complementing each other.



As all balloons are aloft I asked the ground crew what was next in the procedure. First, I must compliment all the ground crew for their professionalism and great personalities. What a great bunch of people. Anyway it was off to the landing part of this process. Now understand there is normally no group landing area as you don’t really know where the wind is going to take you. I was assigned to follow the owner’s balloon and was to follow the van and trailer. Radio chatter started loud and clear as each crew member is assigned a balloon and heads to the area where the pilot is estimating their landing area. As they all scatter to all points of the compass I follow my assigned vehicle. Deep in the wine country I see the road is washed out. There is no way my vehicle could make it through. One of the crew had me park my car and join him in the truck to traverse this massively washed out road. Washed out it was, I bounced around in this truck like a BB in a boxcar. Radio chatter continuing as an atmosphere of excitement filled the truck. We came upon a huge open field as Rusty stated that’s where he wanted to put down. The radio chatter continued as Rusty told the driver where to place the van. Then the fun started as the ground crew keyed the radio and stated “Call the Ball” I laughed thinking that this was just playing around. But I was wrong as I hear Rusty the pilot stay I will set it down on the trailer. “Yeah Right!” was my comment, but the crew said that he will. In my amazement I watched this hot air balloon pilot set this huge hot air balloon gracefully down on this small trailer with all aboard. I was impressed and at the same time amazed with his skill level. All disembarked this huge basket with smiles all around as the ground crew started the disassembly process. It was great how Rusty involved all the riders to help in stowing the now collapsed balloon into its storage bag.

All returned back to the Wilson Creek Winery for their Champagne celebration and I could see and hear the total satisfaction of all the patrons who took to the air.

I look forward to the second phase of this job when I will be able to experience what these people did. The “A Grape Escape” Hot Air Balloon Adventure are a group of dedicated professionals who not only have a firm grip on what they do but are a great bunch of people who understand customer satisfaction.

See you all after Phase Two.



Serving Temecula Valley and Desert Communities.

(888) 815-3949

High Dynamic Range Imagery and your Photography (Part 2) - Temecula, CA

Well in part 1, we defined what a HDR is along with AEB and EV. You have to love these acronyms. If you don’t what these acronyms mean read part 1 of this article.

For taking AEB images for HDR processing I strongly recommend a good tripod. Understand any movement during the AEB process will severely affect your final result. I normally use a 2 second delay to make sure there is no movement on my part. You see, part of the processing of a HDR image in the HDR creation software is the alignment process. If there was too much movement in your shoot it won’t be able to align the images correctly resulting in a misaligned image and unusable. Now again be careful when shooting AEB images in an area that has a lot of movement as your photo will not align correctly. The faster your camera can do continuous shots the better.

So now you have all these photos in threes. Yes they will look strange as one is too dark, one way too light and one is okay. Well that’s what you need to create an HDR image. Now we’re going to discuss how to process these type images, pitfalls and results.



Let’s take these three AEB images and make it a HDR. Several software programs are available out there that can accomplish this task. There are also a couple of free programs available. But beware they will only process a HDR image. Well I can hear you say, “Well that’s what I want to do”, am I right? Simply, try to open a raw HDR image . . . .not! You see your HDR image must be converted. So if you see a free HDR generator software make sure it will tone map and be able to save it as a 8bit jpeg. Adobe CS4 has HDR generating capabilities but it is somewhat cumbersome to use and I don’t care for the result. Personally, I use “Photomatrix” this is an outstanding HDR generation software. User friendly with many tone mapping options where you can make it have minor or major changes. It also has a batch process which is great for processing many pictures in groups of three. I normally come back with 300 pictures and process these AEB images in the batch process and auto set the tone mapping process. The batch process will save you a lot of time when doing many AEB images at once. Tone mapping is required in the conversion process and a simple “save image as” gets you to your end result. But you are not done yet, maybe you are but if you are like me into Photoshop it goes for the removal of any unwanted items within the final image. Also I will run it through “levels” one more time to give it the final desired look I’m looking for.



One more note of caution these files are very large and depending what you are doing with them you must keep that in mind. If you are using them in a web page you will want to reduce the image size and dpi to 72. If you don’t do that the image will take forever to load on your page. However, if you are making prints they are okay as is and just size them to the printed format size you are printing too. Don’t reduce the dpi in this case.



HDR imagery will give you a competitive edge against your competitors and you can charge more for HDR than for normal pictures. I can guarantee you this; your customers will want HDR images and purchase HDR prints over standard prints.

High Dynamic Range Imagery and your Photography (Part 1) Temecula, CA

This 2 part article will address High Dynamic Range Imagery known as “HDR” and what one can do with it for fun and profit.

First I think one should understand what HDR is and the best definition I could come up with and was found on “Wikipedia”.

In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminance’s between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wider dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight. The two main sources of HDR imagery are computer renderings and merging of multiple photographs, which in turn are known as low dynamic range (also called standard dynamic range) photographs. Tone mapping techniques, which reduce overall contrast to facilitate display of HDR images on devices with lower dynamic range, can be applied to produce images with preserved or exaggerated local contrast for artistic effect. (Ref Wikipedia)

The above picture was processed as a non-HDR image. As with the same picture on the right is a processed HDR image.

So how is this accomplished in photography and can you do it? Well it depends on the camera you own. No you don’t need a $4,000 camera to do HDR. Some point and shoot cameras and DSLR’s have this feature. But before I get into what cameras do this let me explain how it’s done.

Basically it is a combination of three (3) successive photographs taken at the same subject with different exposure settings. One dark one regular and one overexposed. Depending on the camera you own you can vary these settings to your own liking. Personally I like 2 down and 2 over the automatic exposure setting.

This is known as Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB). Many digital cameras include an Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) option. When AEB is selected, the camera automatically takes three or more shots with different exposure settings for each frame. Auto Exposure Bracketing is a very useful option for taking HDR scenes. Understand, AEB was not really intended for HDR photography, but rather for ensuring that at least one of the pictures would be as close to perfectly exposed as possible. This is probably why some camera models only make it possible to auto bracket three shots at a maximum of one Exposure Value (EV) step difference or even less. Note, three shots spaced by one EV are often not sufficient for properly taking HDR scenes. This is why it is important to look at the settings of the Auto Exposure Bracketing features of a camera model to determine whether that camera will be convenient for HDR shooting.

The number of frames per second that the camera can take (referred to as "burst rate") is another important factor for HDR shooting The faster the auto-bracketed shots, the less pronounced ghosting and mis-registration problems will be.

Does your camera have the AEB feature and to what EV? Those are 2 very important questions one should research before buying a new camera when you want to be able to take dramatic HDR pictures. In part 2 of this article we will discuss what settings you want to set your AEB (within your cameras limitations) and how to process those images to your desired effect. Now understand HDR imagery can be taken to the ridiculous side, so how and where you apply it is only restricted by your imagination.