Mr. Nittany, Brother Monkey, Mr. Monkey, and I parked on the Brookside Golf Course at around 10 a.m., ate some breakfast sandwiches, and walked up the cart path to the Rose Bowl stadium. On our way, we met the
And this, folks, is why you should avoid having pictures taken of you after slathering on sunblock while wearing a gigantic white jersey.
We crossed a bridge and passed souvenir stands
We hung out under a nice cool shady tent with free food for awhile.
But we sat with the nicest Trojans. The parents came all the way from Denver!
After getting our freebie fill, we headed to the stadium.
It was a beautiful day. Where else can you have this weather on January 1?
We sat really close to the Penn State locker room entrance.
Mr. Diabolina dodged a bullet with the Trojan win. We made a bet with the Diabolinas wherein losers have to wear what winners tell them to wear to dinner.
More fans.
A B-2 Spirit stealth bomber flew over the stadium.
Some Nittany Lion unity.
And they're off!
Tons of game photos.
Then it was officially over.
So sad. USC takes it every year. It's nothing special to them. I think it would've meant so much more to Penn State fans.
Oh well.
The better team won, but at least the Nittany Lions never stopped fighting.
Believe it or not, I have even more photos here. Enjoy.
random comment...i'm not biased by my love for the Monkeys, but Penn State's uniforms have always been my favorite of all college teams. so classic. i agree...the win would have meant more for PS, but USC played great. it was a good game. i enjoyed it, and i'm a sooner :-). did broMo go there as well?
ReplyDeleteNope. BroMo went to my school. :)
ReplyDeleteMy husband is seriously jealous of your tickets, especially the location of your seats.
ReplyDeleteWe were rooting for Penn State too. Darn Trojans. :-( I can't wait to see the results of the bet!
ReplyDeleteNice photos! I loved all of them, thanks for posting!
ReplyDeletei must say, while i absolutely loved all of your rose bowl pics, i thought donna martin was totally going to show up at one point!! beverly hills, usc!
ReplyDeleteUgh...I soooooo dislike USC. I love the Rosebowl though! Glad it's our home field! Glad you had a good time too. The trojans are having their time, it wasn't too long ago when UCLA was the dominate team in SOCAL. It's bound to turn around again sometime.
ReplyDeleteseriously perfect weather for the game.
ReplyDeletemy fave photo is the cheerleaders' hair flying. whee.
yay trojans. i guess.
I have nothing nice to say but: At least the weather was nice.
ReplyDeletetater beat me to it - i loved the cheerleaders' pic. ha!
ReplyDeletebut i DON'T love SC. bleh.
I, too, cannot wait to see the outfits the diabolina's will make you sport.
ReplyDeleteI got your comment on my blog about taking photos in dark restaurants. I think the lens makes the biggest different - I use my 50mm f/1.8 to take all my food photos - the difference between the 3.5 - 5.6 aperture on the kit lens and 1.8 on that one doesn't seem like it would be huge, but it does make it a LOT easier to get good shots without a lot of light. The Canon lens was $80 - I think Nikon has a similar lens. There is also a 50mm f/1.4 that is a few hundred bucks that is built better if you care about things like that :) Mine has been fine for a year and doesn't show any signs of breaking.
ReplyDeleteI try to keep my ISO at 400 to avoid too much "noise" in the photo, but if it's really dark, sometimes ISO 800 is necessary to get a sharp photo. With my 50mm lens, I can usually handhold and get a clear shot at 1/10 shutter speed or so. I keep my camera on "continuous" shooting mode and take a few pics in a row so that hopefully one of them turns out clear. I have gotten a lot better at bracing myself and holding my breath so that I don't shake the camera.
So I guess in summary... my tips are:
-get the 50mm f/1.8 or f/1.4 lens if you don't already have it
-use ISO 400 or 800 if it's really dark, even ISO 1600 is better than not getting the shot at all
-keep the camera on Av mode on the smallest possible aperture (f/1.8 on the 50, f/3.5 on kit lens)
-take a few shots in a row on "continuous" mode so that one is hopefully clear
I hope that helps!
best part of my day: the after party, me drunk, pete carroll shirtless. yum.
ReplyDeleteLove the photos! I'm jealous of your tickets! We saw the stealth bomber fly over as we were walking to the Rose Parade. Truly amazing!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!
hi lady! honestly - your pictures are so amazing!!! you really have such talent! what a fun way to bring in the new year :) xo
ReplyDeleteI feel like I was there!
ReplyDeleteI can barely catch up with all of your activities! So very awesome.
ReplyDeleteBoooo! I would have loved to see Penn State win. I love the sunblock+white top shot. Lol.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this. I am completely unbiased and uninterested and had no idea who actually won until I read this post. And I am from Penn State Fan Land.
ReplyDeleteAmazing photos. I love how you made the cheerleaders look like retards.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite was your PSA about sunblock and white shirts. I read that just as I was wondering why you and Mr Mo didn't look like your usual selves. It's like you can foresee my questions and answer them before I even have to ask.
ReplyDeleteI don't know your connection to Penn State, but being from Big Ten country, I'm always pulling for the Big 10 (even if it's Michigan or OSU playing).
ReplyDeleteI also love the cheerleader pic. I couldn't get over how freakin' lame they were (at least what was shown on TV they looked incredibly lame)!
Also agree with PP that I too was hoping Donna Martin would make an appearance.
Fabulous photos and how awesome to experience the Rose Bowl.
Your pics are awesome! Your seats were great, I feel as if I was there.
ReplyDeleteAs a PSU grad, it was sad to see them lose.
Love the Song Girls pic! And I'll just add that winning is always special. It never gets old, especially when their record was atrocious when I went there. Every win, especially with the enthusiasm and classy leadership of Pete Carroll, is wonderful and every loss heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteLove,
The Nicest Trojan :)
Hubbs loves the the white sweaters the Trojan cheerleaders wear. Other than that, he has no interest in either team that played. I'm sure we would have loved to have had tickets like that no matter who was playing though. Nice! And a perfect day for football.
ReplyDeletei was so sad 'sc won. again. ugh.
ReplyDeletewe heard the bomber at our house and i ran outside just in time to see it pass overhead. so dang cool!