Hot Air Balloon over the Masai Mara - Image Breakdown

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One of the best experiences while on safari in Kenya is an early morning hot air balloon ride over the Masai Mara. You wake up early, well before the sun rises, and the wind chill freezes your ears while you drive out an hour and more to the middle of an open grassland. And then you see them. Magnificent, towering canopies of nylon being blast filled with hot air. You load back-first into the sturdy basket attached to one of these colourful balloons and it starts climbing. Higher and higher you soar as the sun starts rising over the Mara, warming everything that its rays touch. Quieter and quieter it gets, till its just you and the landscape.

Canon 500D and Canon EF 70-300mm IS USM lens at 70mm, 1/320 secs, f/8, ISO 800.