More than 2,400 people from North Texas and beyond braved unseasonably cold temperatures to help the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) take a big shot at greatness at Cowboys Stadium on March 23.
Along with more than 200 RIT alumni and student organizers, the volunteers served as key players in an ongoing nighttime community photography project known as the Big Shot, which captures the likenesses of famous landmarks while "painted in the light' of the flashlights of large crowds of volunteers.
Previous Big Shot venues include the National Museum of Play, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, and the Alamo. View images from past Big Shot events.
Around nightfall, a collection of excited but cooperative volunteers clad in dark clothing gathered around a designated portion of Cowboys Stadium before the lights were extinguished the first time in the stadium's history for the site to go completely dark.
Responding to the instructions of the event organizers, conveyed via loudspeaker, the volunteers alternately flashed and extinguished their lights on the broad expanse of one side of the stadium. A photographer perched atop a 40-foot-high scissor lift shot extended exposures of the stadium's "before' and "after' images, yielding stunning results.
As the frenzied strobing commenced, the volunteers, many of whom had waited patiently in formation for more than an hour, began to cheer and clap in game-day fashion.
"It's a chance to be a part of history, to be a part of something special,' said Phyllis Harrison, a photographer who travelled from Dallas to participate in the event. "We didn't want to miss it.'
"This was a spectacular event on every level,' added Scott Saldinger, the head of the local alumni chapter for RIT.
"The photographers, faculty, staff, students and alumni volunteers worked tirelessly to wrap up close to two years' worth of work into what was 30 minutes of photographic excellence for everyone in the community who came out to help illuminate the stadium,' he said.
"It took an army of people with flashes and flashlights to brave the chill and work together in order to pull off an attempt of this magnitude, and we truly appreciate the efforts of everyone involved.'
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