I waited for this flight for a year but it was absolutely worth the wait! The air balloon flights in London are restricted to weather, early mornings, wind directions and speed. The link to the air balloon company site and more information on air ballooning is at the end of this blog. So after seven or eight cancellations, we finaly flew over London from Hyde Park to Wanstead Flats. Starting at about 5:30am the flight lasted for just under an hour. I took my usual trusty Fujifilm X-T1 paired with Fujinon 50-140mm f2.8 and my new best friend - X-Pro2 paired with 16-55mm f2.8. The images below more or less reflect the flight path and have area and building annotations. The general direction with a south westerly wind was from Hyde Park - Marble Arch, Marylebone towards Fitzrovia and Kings Cross, flying further towards Angel and Islington, then swinging towards the east over Hackney and Victoria Park, over the Olympic Park at Stratford and landing at Wanstead Flats, between Forest Gate and Manor Park. I found myself using both X-Pro2 with 16-55 f2.8 and X-T1 (with vertical grip) and 50-140mm f2.8 lens, with slight preference to X-T1 once in the air. Post-editing was done in Lightroom 6. Click on any image to adjust it to your screen size.
Pilot checks the air balloon. ISO800 16-55mm f5.6 1/60s
Time to fly. ISO200 50-140mm f2.8 1/640s
Hyde Park, looking towards South Kensington. ISO500 16-55mm f8 1/100s
London towards city and Canary Wharf. ISO200 16-55mm f8 1/100s
Mayfair. ISO500 16-55 f2.8 1/100s
London towards city and Canary Wharf. ISO200 50-140mm f2.8 1/320s
London towards city and Canary Wharf. ISO200 50-140mm f5.6 1/60s
London towards Westminster. ISO500 16-55mm f5.6 1/250s
Regent Street from Oxford Circus to Piccadilly Circus. ISO200 16-55mm f2.8 1/75s
London towards city and Canary Wharf. ISO200 50-140mm f2.8 1/200s
Cruciform Building (old UCLH now WIBR, UCL) and UCL. ISO200 50-140mm f2.8 1/80s
Cruciform Building (old UCLH now WIBR, UCL). ISO200 50-140mm f2.8 1/25Cruciform Building (old UCLH now WIBR, UCL) and UCL. ISO200 50-140mm f2.8 1/80s
University College London (UCL). ISO200 50-140mm f2.8 1/300s
Cartwright Gardens, St Pancras. ISO200 50-140mm f2.8 1/80s
Foreign & Commonwealth Office, HM Treasury and HM revenue & Customs, Westminster Abbey and Palace of Wetsminster. ISO200 50-140mm f2.8 1/220s
British Library, St Pancras and Kings Cross stations. ISO200 50-140mm f2.8 1/180s
St Pancras and Kings Cross stations. ISO200 50-140mm f2.8 1/180s
Essex Road, Islington. ISO500 50-140mm f5.6 1/250s
Mount Pleasant Mail Centre. ISO200 50-140mm f2.8 1/110s
Mount Pleasant Mail Centre. ISO250 50-140mm f3.2 1/250s
Angel (at the top), Islington. ISO640 16-55mm f5.6 1/250s
St Pancras station and Brish Library. Top right- new Francis Crick Institute. ISO800 16-55mm f2.8 1/250s
St. Paul's Cathedral and The Shard. ISO200 50-140mm f3.2 1/250s
London City, ISO200 50-140mm f3.2 1/250s
London Eye and Westminster, ISO400 50-140mm f5.6 1/250s
St Paul's Cathedral and Tate Modern. ISO500 50-140mm f5.6 1/250s
Packington Sq and Arlington Square Garden, Islington. ISO640 16-55mm f5.6 1/250s
Victoria Park, South Hackney. ISO400 16-55mm f5.6 1/250s
London City, London Bridge and The Shard. ISO640 50-140mm f5.6 1/250s
West Ham Cemetery. ISO640 50-140mm f7.1 1/250s
Canary Wharf and Greenwich. ISO320 50-140mm f5.6 1/250s
Banbury Rd. South Hackney. ISO320 16-55mm f5.6 1/250s
Docklands - Canary Wharf and North Greenwich. ISO200 16-55mm f5.6 1/250s
White Chapel Hospital (blue) and The Shard. ISO640 50-140mm f7.1 1/250s
The Olympic Park - Stratford. The stadium is now home to West Ham FC. ISO640 16-55mm f9 1/250s