Lantern Love

It was 9 o'clock at night, and Ryan and I were wrapping up a photo session. I had been commissioned to take some day and night pictures around town to use at work. Ryan got dragged along because I don't enjoy wandering through the unlit park at night. Creepy!

Right as we were driving through downtown, headed back to our house... I saw something in the sky.

Then I saw a bunch of them.


Ooo! Lanterns!

I immediately made Ryan do an about-face and drive us in the direction of the floating spectacle.

We discovered they were being released from a wedding reception.


There was a long steady stream of lanterns forging a path over the city through the night sky.

According to Wikipedia:

"Sky lanterns, also known as Kongming Lanterns are airborne paper lanterns traditionally found in some Asian cultures. They are constructed from oiled rice paper on a bamboo frame, and contain a small candle or fuel cell composed of a waxy flammable material. When lit, the flame heats the air inside the lantern, thus lowering its density causing the lantern to rise into the air. The sky lantern is only airborne for as long as the flame stays alight, after which the lantern floats back to the ground. It is considered good luck to release a sky lanterns, and many Thais believe they are symbolic of problems and worries floating away."

I'm not sure it's really logistically feasible for our wedding, but it's definitely a cool and unique idea and would make for some awesome send off photos.