The images below were taken at the annual gatherings of the Whiskey-Hill, Atherton, Menlo Oaks Ballooning and Sporting Society, which takes place in Coaling Station A, California in November each year.
WHAMOBASS is the longest continuously-running hot-air ballooning event in the known universe. It has grown to a modest 30-40 balloon non-commercial rally that is held annually on the anniversary of the first manned balloon flight, made by Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes from the Château de la Muette in Paris on November 21, 1783.
WHAMOBASS was founded by Deke Sonnichsen in Whiskey Hill, California in 1964 when the two-balloon rally got its start. It has been held in a number of locations over the years, but seems to have settled for good in the town of Coalinga, on the western edge of the San Joaquin Valley in central California.
THESE IMAGES are panoramic photos taken with a Nikon D1X professional digital camera on a rotating base. The resulting images are transferred to a Macintosh G4 computer. Using software called Apple QuickTime VR (Virtual Reality) Authoring Studio, the images are stitched together and made into a continuous panoramic image.
The flat images below are reductions of the original files.
Happy ballooning and happy viewing!
Brian P. Lawler for WHAMOBASS