Grand Union Canal, 21st November 2009

These two look allied here, but they behaved very differently. The white one idled despite the gale, staying stationary relative to the leaves, while the blue scudded one way and another, away with the wind then against it as fast. Baffled by this behaviour we watched a while longer, curiosity piqued.

The only explanation we could think of was that the blue balloon's dangling underwater string was caught in the mouth of a canal-dwelling fish, whose erratic movements dragged it about like a diver drags a marker buoy. To test this theory we scrabbled around the pavements and verges of the canalside path looking for pebbles to throw into the water. The first was encouraging - it landed by the balloon, which then sped away as a spooked fish would do. Fired with enthusiasm we threw more, but the second was less convincing - the balloon didn't rush off at all. The third was the same, and both balloons were then whipped along by the wild wind alone. Pleasantly baffled I captured the scene, before we left for the shelter of a nearby pub.

Sutherland Avenue, 15th November 2009

The wind was blowing this trio along at a leisurely pace when I spotted them, and they skidded eastwards up the road as I snapped. After a few standard grounded shots a sudden strong gust lifted them from the pavement and by chance the cluster was caught by its longest member through railings. The group stayed like this awhile while I smiled and shot and moved on. But I came back the same way a few hours later, and there was inevitably no sign of them at all.

Camden High Street, 14th November 2009

And more orange! The source of these was as evident as that of the branded enbranched balloons before - a few paces further on there was a balloon modeller twisting various shapes. I don't know what this inchoate design had done to offend, nor whether it was discarded by twister or recipient, but I doubt it lasted long on the crowded streets of Camden on a Saturday night.

James Street, 9th November 2009

The Dutch do not have a monopoly on orange balloons, of course. The next day, back in London and hurrying through a chilly night to rejoin friends at a restaurant, I saw these above the crowds. No patriotic fervour here, though - these are branded by TGI Fridays, whose restaurant just south of here must have been handing them out. They were in practically the same spot as one seen similarly snagged over Christmas shoppers a while back. That one was orange too, although no logo was visible, but it was more likely to have been of Friday origin than Dutch pride, I suspect.

Amstel, Amsterdam, 8th November 2009

Amsterdam was always going to draw me back, with its charming combination of canals and happy confusion. There was a glut of celebratory balloons during Queen's Day back in the warm spring, but I wasn't expecting the trend to continue with the city mired in the clammy cold air of the North Sea autumn. Happily, though, my lack of faith was misplaced.

Orange again, hardly a surprise, and floating down one of the larger canals. So baffling is the mesh of roads, canals and bridges that any sighting in this city is hard to site on the map, but vague and hazy memory was here helped by the website of the restaurant in the background. We didn't eat in Zushi, but I was grateful to it nonetheless.

Charles Street, Leicester, 25th October 2009

The first dusk back in GMT, a premature flash in an unknown street on an unplanned and uncommonly fine weekend. As we approached the balloon there was the sharp ting of fast-falling shrapnel nearby and a whoop of near miss from above. My stoop to shoot at least ceased the aimed rain, but not for too long - as we walked on my explanation was punctuated by a pop, its demise prompting happy victorious cries. But I left the scene, and the city, the happier.

Park Lane, 11th October 2009

This was stranded on the grassy central reservation of one of London's fiercer roads to cross, and I hadn't seen it when I began my dash across the lanes. Happily it was right in front of me as I picked my way over the low barriers. It was only a brief gap in the traffic that led to me crossing here, a hundred metres from the bus stop that was my destination, so I count this as a very lucky spot.

The lawn between the twin three-lane highways is hardly crossed, so without wind and weighed down by a burst red on the same ribbon, this could last longer than some. I have no plans to pass by in the next few days though, so I'll never know.

Paddington Recreation Ground, 27th September 2009

I don't usually hang around taking photos in playgrounds - there are few more surefire ways to get a criminal record/beating/string of glam hits blacklisted from the radio. This time, fortunately, I was out with dear friends and their toddler, and hence the swift whipping out of a camera attracted fewer angry mobs than it might otherwise have done.

There were a few of these balloons around, some snagged in trees and some rolling free, and they were evidently printed for the birthday of one of the abundant toddlers. Although the birthday girl (I assume, from the pink) had clearly departed, the balloons kept on entertaining, and the snagged were tugged from trees for play and the rolling kicked about. Small children are hardly the most gentle balloon handlers, and none of the printed pinks lasted long. Their attention span is similarly short, happily, so the popping was likely quickly forgotten, and the rest of the early autumn day enjoyed simply for its warmth and rich light.

Great Western Road, 11th September 2009

I was wandering to the tube station chatting to a friend. She stopped to wait for a bus, I turned back to say goodbye and it shot up suddenly from the pavement opposite. She'd seen this sort of thing before so was neither surprised nor offended by my frantic grasping for the camera, and it was caught before it swirled away swiftly, while we parted less hastily below.

Stockwell Road, 20th August 2009

A slightly blurry blue on a slightly blurry night back in Brixton. I'd returned for the evening to see Animal Collective at the Academy, to whose green-arced entrance I was heading when I spotted this. They were pretty good despite a placid crowd, and it made me smile at the coincidence that their stage set was dominated by a large suspended orb.

Great Western Road, 16th August 2009

Heading home on a hot day I spotted this one being blown haphazardly along the road, scrabbled for my camera on the bus, missed it, and so got off a stop early on the off chance that it would dodge the cars for a few seconds. And it did. In fact despite a wavering path down the road from kerb to mid-lane and back a few times, it stayed intact long enough for me to capture it repeatedly at my leisure.

Such uncommon unhurried opportunities bring their own frustrations, though. Although it was a glorious sunny day, in the late afternoon this bus stop lies in the shadow of the unlovely facade of Westbourne Park tube station, so the shot is as flat and grey as the preceding few. I tried a few wider shots to better represent the scene, but so bright were the blue sky, tower blocks and industrial metal walls on the other side of the road that any attempt to include them rendered the tarmac inky and the balloon itself merely murky grey.

From South Bank Centre, 9th August 2009

And another an hour or so later, whose colour betrays its shared source. No branches caught this though, and it was a far more hurried shot for it.

Incidentally, three days later and some 700 metres from this, I released a few air- and trinket-filled balloons myself, as part of Antony Gormley's capricious One & Other project on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. Although I'd expected, indeed hoped for, them to be burst quickly by the people or sharp edges below, most were gleefully caught by children, who ran off with their trophies intact. And that was more than good enough for me.

From Golden Jubilee footbridge, 9th August 2009

The Giraffe restaurant on the South Bank has provided balloons before, so this orange's origin was not obscure. They're branded and given out to advertise the place, but although this was snagged nearby it was shrouded by foliage and too far from the concrete walkways to be legible, so its power as an advert was gone.

Elgin Avenue, 4th August 2009

This yellow broke a rather long run by current standards, ending a few weeks of fleeting and missed chances. It's the first on a grey day for a while too, after a glorious spring and early summer - I hope the season's subsequent balloons stand on sharp shadows as did those before.

From Ladbroke Grove, 16th June 2009

The Grand Union Canal has been a prolific bearer of balloons over the years, but this is my first on this stretch. After May's move I quickly found that Maida Vale is oddly bereft of supermarkets, so was testing the hike up to the vast Sainsbury's close to this bridge. It's a fair way for groceries and domestic essentials, but man cannot live on imported olives and patisserie fare alone.

I tinkered with this one for quite a while, trying to balance the areas of bright and dark to best show both the sunlit buildings and the family of Canada geese in the bottom right corner. Defeated by a recalcitrant histogram, I was forced to settle for the former.

Hyde Park, 31st May 2009

That last theory can't be said to apply to this, sadly. Yet another sunny day, but for once my thoughts were anything but.

From Streamline Mews, 24th May 2009

A few hours later, still a beautiful day, and a slightly more appealing shot too, despite the distance between me and my airborne subject. It had been a long hot journey on the bus from Maida Vale to this corner of Dulwich, but the heat was subsiding as the sun swung down to tree level. It was another bank holiday weekend and again the city had an air of summery happiness, and such moods always seem to bring out balloons. Or perhaps I just notice them more when happier myself.

Elgin Avenue, 24th May 2009

A gorgeous warm late spring day, but this litter-strewn scene hardly does it justice. Some float beneath Monet-esque bridges, some are swept by the sea towards fiery sunsets, some drift horizontal across the eyeline defying both buoyancy and gravity, but some are doomed to end their inflated days amongst the joyless and quotidian detritus of urban humanity. There's not a lot to redeem this image, save the notion that such shots serve to enhance the appreciation of the more beautiful.