The Most Unexpected Photoshoot In Japan

Today I want to share my experience of shooting the 2024 Saku Balloon Festival. This is a very interesting sport that I have only recently become acquainted with however there was an instant connection with the grand scale of these hot air balloons. My mission for the trip was to document one of the teams as they launched off & landed for the first day of the event.

For those who are curious, this event is not exactly a race, rather a set of challenges for each hot air balloon team to navigate. As hot air balloons can only travel up & down, the team consists of professionals in air navigation & weather conditions to determine the elevation that the balloons needs to travel sideways. An example of a challenge that the team has to go through includes dropping a sandbag as close to a marked location on the ground.

Our team "Sky hackers" ranked first in the tournament last year & I hope this video shares some light on this very interesting sport.


Timestamps:
0:00 - A Curious Job
1:38 - Sky Hackers
2:10 - 4am Start
3:45 - Hot Air Balloons
8:17 - My Biggest Mistake?

#nagano #japan