Bruce held the tether and tried to maneuver the camera over the burning man, while I ran around more or less in-frame, triggering the shutter. (The balloon presents such a large surface area to the wind that even a small breeze put the tether completely out of the frame.) The wind continued to increase, and the balloon was showing more signs of distress: the transparent side of it was starting to bulge. In retrospect I think that these weather balloons are designed to burst fairly soon after inflation. Expecting that either the balloon would burst, or a downdraft would smash it into the playa, we tried to be in position to break its fall.