It’s 3:30am and we just got off at the Dau Bus Terminal, on our way to the last day of the Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. Still bleary eyed from lack of sleep, we hopped on a jeep bound for the gates of Clark and bargained with our driver for a direct ride to the Hot Air Balloon field.

We arrived just before 4am and were greeted by a long queue of people waiting for the gates to open. Oh man and I thought we were early!
The gates opened at around 5am and everything went to hell. The single line became an almost free for all; I guess the PIHAB admin should have deployed some staff to control the lines as heads tend to get hot in these instances especially those who had been waiting in line since midnight. This can easily spell trouble.

The venue quickly filled up and the trucks bearing the deflated balloons were soon at the field, firing off their flames into the darkness of the dawn. I was lucky enough to secure a photographer’s pass from Caltex and Digital Photographer Philippines and we were soon herded inside the balloon area. Without such, I can only shoot from behind the fence using a telephoto lens, inside I was able to use my ultrawide lens and get really close to the action.