Our #FloatFace 2019 Competition came to a fabulous end with the winning photo by Barbara Marsovszki (below).
We shortlisted seven entries, after sorting through dozens of great images submitted on social platforms and by email.
And we wanted to share all of the seven shortlisted photos with you.
We had to make a difficult choice here in our offices at Virgin Balloon Flights. So many passengers shared joyful, beautiful images of themselves on their hot air balloon rides with us.
Barbara’s winning photograph gained our votes, in unanimity, as the top favourite.
We loved everything about it – the composition, the smiles, the closeness, and the obvious excitement and joy.
It felt like Barbara captured, in one snap, what a hot air balloon ride with us is all about.
As soon as we knew we had a winner, we contacted Barbara via Instagram. She replied straight away:
“Thanks a lot! 😍 We enjoyed our flight so much in September. It was one of our biggest dreams to get onto a balloon flight, and it was a truly unique experience. The pilot and staff were also really friendly and made our day memorable 🎈🤩💝”
With her £200 gift card from Virgin Experience Days, Barbara can now make more exciting memories.
Tight Competition On Instagram
The winning image competed very closely with the runner-up, from a series posted by David Lee Bales also on Instagram.
His photos kept us debating for quite a while. Taken in-flight at Cheltenham Balloon Fiesta 2019, they show the festival grounds below in a beautiful light.
We loved the bright smiles, and also David's humour as he took a fun selfie with the burner in the background. They were all feel-good images.
It was a tough decision to make with such brilliant entries into our #FloatFace 2019 Competition.
One more shortlisted entry reached us via Instagram. Andrei Imbrovschi’s used a selfie stick to take his photo.
This allowed him to seize in his photo an in-flight moment with all the passengers enjoying the ride in their different ways.
All three couples on the right seem busy with their cameras.
For many of us, it feels really important to capture images of such unique experience days.
They will help us look back with fondness at the lifelong memories we made on such an amazing adventure as a hot air balloon flight.
Hearts, Laughs, And Hot Air Balloon Burners
A good number of photos have reached us for our #FloatFace 2019 Competition through Facebook posts. We will look next at the shortlisted entries from this platform.
Elly Wlaznik took a creative approach to the photo she posted of her experience.
She made a heart around the other hot air balloon floating in the background. We liked the sweet feeling of this image.
Then we came across what seemed to be the living image of excitement.
Hannah Beal just went for it without holding back.
Her photo made us all giggle and it could easily win the “mad fun” title of the whole pack.
Another lovely series of photographs capturing different moments of their hot air balloon flight was posted by Emoke Saunders.
We particularly liked her selfie with her husband beside her, taking shots of the landscape.
Then we see them with the burners. Earlier on in the series, they were getting ready for the hot air balloon launch.
All in all, it was a very sweet set of images.
As for Julie Moore’s selfie, we adored her witty caption, which we need to quote here.
“Best experience ever, they say I'm a bit of a hot head .... ha ha”
Julie’s selfie with the burner showing above and behind made us laugh the most.
Get your hot air balloon flight vouchers with us now for the new season, if you feel inspired by these photos.
You will then be able to enter our #FloatFace 2020 competition with your best shots of an amazing adventure.
