Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Crowded Venues and Lowered Expectations

Add a visit to The Great Reno Balloon Race some day soon. In 2023 it was held Friday thru Sunday, September 8 - 10. Plan on getting to the parking area at 4:30 am. Yep, 0-4-30 dark. If fortune smiles on your visit you will see three events: 5 am Super Glow, 5:30 am Dawn Patrol and 7 am Mass Ascension. The vendor and food area is open 4:30 am to 11 am. The 2023 program will remind me of the special shape balloons present and flying and it includes 70 balloon details (but I think there were more balloons). 

Other large audience venues will come to mind. How do you plan to share this experience with others? Here are my initial thoughts and your experience can be edited in to help others ... plan big. 
  • A crowded venue will mean slow cellular access 
  • Take a power brick and charge cable to recharge iPhone as needed 
  • Use Airplane Mode to save battery as needed 
  • Leave your drones and dogs at home
  • Use Messages to share your location with iPhone users in your group 
  • If some of your group are Android users, give them an Apple Tag for the event
  • Raise the resolution for some photos and videos (maybe not all) 
  • Use the different modes on your iPhone Camera - Night, Portrait, Video, Cinematic, Pano, etc 
  • Shoot video in landscape orientation 
  • Sending several images could result in Message Failed to Send 
  • Watch your Photos status to see if upload to iCloud has stalled to save battery
  • If your images/videos upload to iCloud, consider sending iCloud link instead of images 
  • Before going to the event, create a Shared Photo Album and invite people -- then upload your best images 
  • After all images have loaded to iCloud, review and mark Favorites 
  • Select multiple images and tap ( ... ) to find Slideshow (music and ambient sound) 
  • Edit portrait oriented photos if to be shown full screen (PicCollage 16:9 on black) 
  • Open iMovie and create a Movie, adjust clips, adjust Ken Burns, adjust playback speed, etc 
  • Create a Movie of one image, then turn off Ken Burns and add other video clips and photos
  • Look beyond the screen - take it all in - enjoy the moment - enjoy the energy of the crowd