Dallas

The soccer game was played in the afternoon, which left the evening free to pursue some photography in Dallas. Usually when we go to the games, we rarely stray far from the stadium. So I headed south, and ended up in downtown just before sunset.

I kinda know my way around downtown Dallas, but I still got lost and turned around by one-way streets. But I eventually ended up at the Main Street Garden Park.

The park is brand-new, it was dedicated just last November. The neon sign here used to apparently hang over a parking garage on the site of the park, and was refurbished and placed here instead.

The Dallas skyline from the park:


I walked around some, attempting to get some shots looking up at the tall buildings. I wasn't the only one out there...


I had a car pull up next to me and the driver ask for directions to American Airlines Arena. I had to admit that I didn't know the way, and she gave me a suspicious look like I was being deliberately unhelpful. I realized that they must have taken me for a local, since I was wearing a FC Dallas jersey at the time. After saying I was also a tourist, I tried my best to help by offering a vague "it's somewhere over there." I don't think it helped.

The sun was setting and casting some neat light in the sky, which was reflecting off of the glass sides of the Bank of America building. By the time I got close enough for a shot, however, the good light had vanished.


Before the trip I tried to scout possible shooting locations (which was comprised of searching for "Dallas skyline" photos on Flickr and then seeing if I could figure out where they were taken at). I found this spot, located across the freeway from the Dallas Museum of Art. I even looked this up on Google Streetview, and picked out the spot I wanted to stand to get a picture.

But as I got there, the spot I wanted was blocked off for some construction. Dang. So I went over and tried to get a shot from further down the road, as the sky turned to night.

And the curve on the building on the right isn't casued by lens distortion, it's actually shaped like that.

The nearby Arts District is also home to a cool old church that I've been wanting to get a picture of for years. So I crossed the freeway and stopped for a few shots...


The church is the Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe. Construction on this neat old church started in 1898 and finished in 1902. The church has the second largest Catholic church membership in the country.


I had been looking forward to getting shots of downtown Dallas at night for a few weeks now. But of course, the typical Cormack family luck would raise its ugly head once again. The one night that I was able to get pictures downtown just also happened to be the same night as "Earth Hour." Now Earth Hour is where cities across the world switch off the lights on major buildings and landmarks, in an effort to raise awareness for environmental causes.

Downtown Dallas also participated in Earth Hour, much to my dismay. At 8:30, the bright city lights that I had driven down there to photograph were promptly switched off. Oh well, I drove around and stopped for a few more shots. This one is the old Dallas County Courthouse, located by Dealey Plaza. In the distance is the dimly-lit Bank Of America Building.


I drove a few blocks over and went to the top of a parking deck that had some good views of the skyline.

I guess the Dallas World Aquarium, in the foreground, didn't get the memo that they were supposed to switch off the lights.