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.

Chelsea Bridge Road, from 452 bus, 11th May 2009

This flaccid red and pink pair almost looks like an intentional decoration, but I've never known construction barriers to bear balloons before, and it was a windy day, so I guess they blew there from elsewhere and were caught by the ribbons. For two years this route was part of my long journey to and from work, but this time I had a different reason - I was heading back to Brixton to help clean the house as part of a protracted, tiring and emotional move.

That move, incidentally, is the reason for the vast timespan between the photo date and the publication date. Nearly two maddening months passed before the internet was connected to my new flat, and that turbulent period didn't feel over until I was snugly online again.

Edbrooke Road, 10th May 2009

Way back in August 2006, when I'd just moved (back) to Shepherd's Bush, I saw a yellow escape tucked beside cars a few metres from my new front door after two days on that road. And in a stroke of stunning coincidence, two house moves later, here's a near-identical scene on my second morning on my latest new road.

It's moments like this that make me glad I do this. Although I could do without moving house so much.

Somewhere in Amsterdam, 1st May 2009

And this one, well, it could have been anywhere. Somewhere on a dizzy, dazed and delightful amble through the city we stumbled across another, floating free in one of the myriad canals. There's no point even placing a vague marker on the map for this, so Amsterdam will have to make do with two markers for now, and only one of those accurate. I hope to add to that set before very long.

Vondelpark, Amsterdam, 1st May 2009

And another, hardly surprising given the sheer number around. I suspect its position becalmed in a still lake in the large urban park was the only reason it survived the night, safe from the tramping feet of the revellers. Whatever the reason, its location afforded a charming photo. The park is a veritable maze of lakes and bridges, and I have no idea of the exact one, so the gmap marker has been summarily cast over the park in general.

Thorbeckeplein, Amsterdam, 1st May 2009

I'd rather naively thought that spending the May bank holiday weekend in Amsterdam would be relaxing. Instead, we arrived right in the middle of the Queen's Day celebrations, which had turned the usually neat streets into heaving rivers of rubbish. Our long yomp to the hotel saw us wading though countless millions of cans, bottles, plastic glasses and orange decorations. Happily, those decorations included balloons. Thousands still hung from buildings, thousands lay as tattered rubber rags on the street. This one was caught between the two, a situation that I can't imagine lasted long.