Monday, September 14, 2009

Texas

My husband and I got a chance to go to Dallas, Texas to see the BYU Football game vs. Oklahoma. This would be the first time that my husband and I had had been on a trip by ourselves in 2 years (mostly due to the cute one year-old that is sitting on my lap as I type this.) It was great fun and the fact that BYU was able to pull off the upset win was definitely the highlight. I am posting a few (okay--actually A LOT) of pictures from our trip.

We stayed at the Gaylord Texan. It is an amazing hotel with several acres of indoor gardens and walkways.




We were able to tour the new $1.3 billion dollar Dallas Cowboys Stadium the day before the football game.




The black streaks that you see on the field are little pieces of rubber that are used under the artificial turf to give it some bounce. While we were touring the stadium, there were several trucks on the field working the rubber into the turf and "vacuuming" up the extra pieces.



Did you notice the jumbo screen in those pictures? The HUGE HD display is 72 feet high and 160 feet long and spans nearly 60 yards. It weighs as much as a full jumbo airliner and uses 30 million light bulbs!!

We also toured the Texas Rangers stadium as well. They are both located in Arlington, Texas and within walking distance of each other.



These were taken from the Texas Rangers dugout.



The BYU v. Oklahoma game was Saturday evening. Here is the team warming up.



Max and the "Stretch Y" on the Jumbotron!



A play leading up to the winning touchdown.


The winning touchdown pass from Hall to Jacobson.


Jacobson's winning touchdown catch. I just love how open he is and the offensive line's immediate celebration!



The celebration after the game!



I also learned some photographic lessons:
1) Don't take a camera on a trip that you haven't used for over a year. You won't remember how to perform some vital functions on the camera despite the fact that you think it is pretty similar to your current camera!
2) Camera's manufactured prior to 2008 shouldn't be used at ISO settings of higher than 400. The result will be some really ugly noise!

I debated for several days before the trip whether I should take my older and slightly smaller Nikon D70 on this trip. I eventually decided to do this and upon taking my first picture regretted my decision for the above reasons. I got some okay pictures but with each click of the shutter I wished I had my current camera. If you are still reading this--thanks for sticking with me through ALL these photos!

8 comments:

Eddingtons said...

All theses photos are great!!! Glad you had such a great time!!!! Glad BYU won, go Cougars!!!

Laurel C. said...

What do you mean "stick with me through all these pictures?" Your pictures are so fun to look at! I love the angles that you capture. You definitely have "the eye."

I'll bet you loved the Gaylord Texan. If it is anything like the Gaylord Opryland Hotel (in Nashville), then it was probably stunning. Gaylord was a client of mine when I worked for FranklinCovey. I stayed at the Gaylord Opryland twice while I helped them develp training materials. It was in December while they had the place decked out for Cmas. Wow! Amazing. I'll bet you had a fabulous trip! Glad you and G could get away!

Courtney White said...

I'm still here at the end and wanting to see more! All of these are spectacular! I totally agree about the noise issue with older cameras, I took an old one with us to Yuba lake and was frustrated with the results. But these are very nice!! I'm feeling all BYU spirited now!

Mom and Camera said...

Laurel--the Gaylord Texan was fabulous! I had heard stories of the Gaylord Opryland and that this one was amazing, too. I was SO not disappointed. It would be very cool to see at Christmas.

Courtney--I am sure you can feel my pain. I couldn't figure out how to move my focus point (something I have come to rely on for EVERY picture.) I was frustrated that I had to go into the menus to change my ISO--something my new camera does with a quick dial. And the noise--I regularly take my camera to 1000 ISO and with a good exposure don't have huge noise issues. However--I didn't dare go anywhere near that with this camera and several times really wanted to.

Natalie said...

You are way too hard on yourself. These are amazing pictures. And even if this is a lesser quality camera then that just tells you what an amazing photographer you are to still take awesome pictures. I am more jealous than you can even imagine. What an awesome experience. Thanks for sharing it with pictures!!

Unknown said...

Gayle! These pictures of the game were incredible! Thanks for sharing! I love your "eye" for sharpness! That one of the winning touchdown deserves to be in a sports mag! You're great!
xo
Missy

Tara said...

Those photos are incredible!! ALL of them!! You are so talented!

Brenda said...

I love these! That's just all I can say. They're getting me all excited for Saturday! :-)