On Saturday, I went to the Lantern fest in Colorado Springs (Fountain CO) with some friends.  It was my first time attending one of these events.  They have them through out the USA in several states.  

Friends and I headed out early enough to get there thinking here would be crazy traffic (like the renaissance festival), however it wasn't bad as we thought.  We arrived around 3:30 pm, thinking we could get a spot, and settle in.  However, it appeared alot of people were already there.  We entered the race track area and waited on line for our lantern and a smores kit which was included, with a stuck.  In the box was a lighter for your lantern, a marker to write on it, and stuff to make smores.  the next step was trying to figure out which way they were going to go, the lanterns once they went up.  It was hard to figure out because it appeared that the wind would change directions several times.  Anyway, we found a spot and set up for the long wait and I went and hit up a food truck, but I would suggest bringing your own, the lines were extremely long.  But I did get a nice quesadilla.  

The anticipation was killing people I think.  It was pitch dark for a while, but they didn't want to start until 6:45 ish.  They kept saying over the microphone to wait.  They wanted everyone to launch at the same time.  But you know this never stopped people. HA.  Anyway, finally it was time.  The minute they announced that everyone should light theirs up, the entire place lit glowed....it was pretty neat.  Then, I went crazy taking pictures.  I didn't want to light one up, I just wanted to take pictures of it.

I have seen pictures prior to going and thought it was pretty cool, but video and pictures just dont do it justice.  It was kind of magical like. The lanterns rose and went in one direction but when they rose higher they drifted above us back in our direction.  It was like a dance of lanterns.  By the time they rose pretty far up they looked like yellow glowing stars.  

It def takes special settings to capture this correctly as the lanterns are moving so you still need a faster speed setting.  Next time, I will also bring a wide angle lens, because even at 24mm, I couldnt get it all in frame.  #lanternfest#colorado

It was a fun night, and well I do have a few lessons learned for next time.

Here is a video from my cell and below are some images from the night. IT MIGHT TAKE A FEW MINUTES TO LOAD.