Heading to a family-type event on Saturday that will have 6 hot air balloons on hand for tethered rides and at dark, the "balloon glow". Has anyone had experiences with hot air balloons and photography?

Tips or suggestions besides staying out of the balloonist way?

I will be using my Nikon D7000 and my Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 & Tamron 28-200 f/3.8-5.6 lenses. Those should keep me covered for almost everything. Weather is to be sunny all day.

I've never shot balloons, but my two cents would be: expose for the balloon glow, fill flash your subjects.

I was able to get a few good shots from the Balloon fest, made a total rookie mistake and forgot to reset my ISO from doing Harvest Moon pics a few weeks before. Had it set at 3200 almost all day until I realized the mistake. Oh well, lesson learned. Had fun spending the day with my kids.

Balloon at night, doing full burn
Balloon by Glockspeed31, on Flickr

From inside the basket looking up.
Balloon Burner by Glockspeed31, on Flickr

Sunset on the Farm
Sunset by Glockspeed31, on Flickr

Silverwings skydiving team
Silverwings flag by Glockspeed31, on Flickr

when I got out of the Army, I worked with a hot air balloon pilot.

ended up being his crew chief.

It was a lot of fun.

I broke my SLR chasing balloons in a jeep across the open mesa outside of Albuquerque

Someday,  I should upload those old pics.

Pilot got divorced and moved away,  I haven't been around a balloon in years.