Las Vegas

Las Vegas Snow - December 2008

2009-01-04T16:37:00.001-08:00

So it wasn't until my 17th trip to Las Vegas in December 2008 that I really noticed the nearby mountains. The Canon SX10 camera with 20x zoom is mainly responsible for that. I shot this photo the morning of December 16 from the window of my room on the 20th floor of Mandalay Bay. It had been snowing in the areas nearby Las Vegas at higher elevations but not right on Las Vegas Blvd. until the next day, when McCarran Airport was closed as flights were routed to Salt Lake City, Utah. Imagine getting on a flight for Las Vegas and being hijacked to Salt Lake City. Ugh. It's not quite the same.

Stratosphere Sunset

2007-12-22T13:14:00.001-08:00

I shot this photo December 13, 2007 with an Olympus E500 digital SLR. You can buy posters and other items featuring this picture here.

I stayed at Treasure Island for the first time during this most recent trip to Las Vegas. I had felt that my recent Las Vegas photo series focused too much on the south end of the strip, so I chose Treasure Island which is near the north end of the strip (across the street from Wynn and Venetian.) I've rented cars in Las Vegas 5 or 6 times and it's usually more of a hassle than a convenience for me, since my goal is to shoot as many photos as possible; and driving around then looking for a parking spot subtracts from "photo shooting time."

My first day there, December 12, I arrived just before sunset and took a taxi from the airport to the famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada" sign. I already have a lot of photos of the Welcome sign, but they're all either during the day with the sign's lights off, or at night with the sign lit up. This time I caught the sign just before sunset... it was still light out but the sign's lights were also lit up. It was a nice surprise to get some slightly different pictures of something I've already photographed many times.

The taxi was parked at the Las Vegas Tourist Bureau waiting for me; then we went to Treasure Island. I shot a few photos out of the taxi window on the way.

After checking in at Treasure Island (there was no line at all; one reason I like visiting Las Vegas during early or mid-December is the lack of crowds) I went up to the roof of their parking garage and got a few decent sunset shots with Rio Suites and Mirage. Then I walked about a mile north to the Stratosphere and rode the elevator up to the top for the seventh or eighth time. This was the second time I'd been up to the Stratosphere observation deck since the Stardust was imploded and I'm still disappointed with the way the strip looks without the Stardust (you can view the 314 photos I shot during this trip at my web site (click on Las Vegas Photos #7).

I got a few good shots of the Sahara, Riviera, and Circus Circus at night; which I hadn't done for several years.

My second day, I walked to Fremont Street and shot photos along Las Vegas Blvd. (after you cross Sahara Ave., the touristy Las Vegas strip ends and becomes a more typical urban area of cheap motels, gas stations, fast food restaurants, pawn shops, strip clubs, and quickie wedding chapels.) There's also a miniature reproduction of the Welcome sign at the intersection of Fourth Ave. and Las Vegas Blvd, instead of "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada" it says "Welcome to Fabulous Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada". I took some shots of this sign also.

Downtown I photographed the El Cortez, Main Street Station, and some of the casinos on Fremont Street.

Heading back to the tourist area of Las Vegas Blvd., I was approaching the Stratosphere as the sun was setting, and shot the picture above. Then I walked on to Caesars Palace and shot a few mid-strip photos before heading back "home" to TI.

The third day, I had a morning flight so I didn't shoot any more photos. That's my usual Las Vegas photo taking trip routine: a few hours of night shots after arrival; a full day of photo shooting the second day; then back home the third day. Since I usually walk the entire time (except for going to and from the airport) I'm usually sore, tired, and not motivated enough for another day of photography anyway.

Christmas in Las Vegas & Goodbye Stardust

2007-04-01T15:58:00.000-07:00

I shot both of the above photos on Christmas day 2006.

While I enjoy photographing the massive architecture and array of colored lights on the Las Vegas strip, I dislike the crowds. After a few visits and some Internet research, around 1995, I selected the time segment after the National Finals Rodeo (which has been held during the beginning of December and temporarily transforms Las Vegas into a Texas rodeo) and prior to Christmas Eve as an ideal time to visit Las Vegas. The cowboys are gone, the Christmas holiday tourists haven't arrived yet. Hotel rates and crowd sizes in general are lower than average.

In 2006, however, I decided to come to Las Vegas on Christmas eve and leave the day after Christmas. I thought: "Most people will be home with their families. It can't be that bad." I was wrong.

I recall viewing a web site once which stated that 65% of Japan is atheist, along with about 45% of the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and Norway. I don't know if those numbers are accurate but those are the people who were in Las Vegas on Christmas.

The strip (Las Vegas Boulevard) was packed to full capacity. The odd thing about it in comparison with my other trips along the crowded strip at other times of the year was that most of the people I overheard were not speaking English. It seemed to be mostly Japanese and German. So there I was, trying to navigate through crowds of other people who, like me, don't consider Christmas as anything special.

Almost every casino has one or two Starbucks now. Christmas morning, every Starbucks was so crowded that I wouldn't go in. Some places of the sidewalk were so crowded that you had to go along with the crowd - it was impossible to speed up and go around those in front, or to slow down and let those behind you pass. Parades of jaywalkers prevented traffic from moving ahead at green lights. This was, I think, my 14th trip to Las Vegas, and I'd never seen it this crowded before.

Some dates in February are very good for taking advantage of uncrowded conditions, but I've been trapped in flash floods and downpours in February. One year in March, I was in what seemed like a sandstorm. Well, Las Vegas is in the desert so it was a sandstorm. December is the best time to visit: the days are mild, the nights are very cold; but it doesn't rain often - and the sky is an amazing clear blue, as in the photo of the Luxor above. If you go to Las Vegas during the summer, the daytime sky is often an ugly gray which probably consists of trapped car exhaust.

So. Not only was Las Vegas full of people who don't care about Christmas on Christmas, but Las Vegas itself doesn't care about Christmas. There were a few decorations scattered here and there; Caesars Palace always has a large Christmas tree (or "holiday tree") on their front lawn during December - but otherwise it's business as usual. Everything is open. Fast food joints, convenience stores, restaurants... nothing is closed for the holiday.

Christmas Eve, I walked from the Luxor down to the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada" sign. The only evidence of Christmas Eve I saw was that some people who were going to go into a Subway fast food place were told that they were closing at 6 PM today instead of 10 PM. From the Welcome sign I walked up to Bally's to shoot my favorite neon rings; then back to the Luxor.

Christmas morning, I went back to the "Welcome" sign to get some daylight photos of the sign (the ones I shot the day before, were at night.) Then I walked all the way (4 1/2 miles) up to the Stratosphere. I've been up to the top of the Stratosphere 3 or 4 times, it's a great place for shooting photos. I paid $10 for my ticket to ride to the top - then saw the cleverly hidden line with about 500 people waiting. The ticket says "No refunds" so I tried to give it away to some suspicious people who thought I was trying to somehow take advantage of them by giving them a free $10 ticket. Someone eventually accepted it. And I learned, for next time, you can buy a $20 ticket that lets you bypass the elevator line. At that moment I wasn't in the mood to either wait on a long line or fork over another $20 after I had just thrown away $10.

From Stratosphere I walked back to the Luxor.

Of course, I was shooting photos almost constantly during these long walks; including that photo of the Stardust marquee, above.

That section of the Las Vegas strip, was like a ghost town. I had known that the Stardust was closed (and it was imploded on March 13, 2007; gone forever) but was surprised to see that Westward Ho, next to the Stardust, had been completely demolished except for a skeleton of its sign. Boardwalk Holiday Inn, with the big clown face and roller coaster, had been demolished as well. Wet-N-Wild, which used to be just south of the Sahara, closed a couple of years ago... but it's still sitting there in a dilapidated, semi-demolished state; full of graffiti. You can view photos of this trip at my web site urbanphotos.net, click on "Las Vegas #5".

But what's new? The Sky condos. Some other condo project on Sahara. The Cosmopolitan, going up in between the Bellagio and Monte Carlo, is going to be condos and time shares. The Hilton Grand Vacation Club, more timeshares, just north of Circus Circus. I think Turnberry Place (near the Hilton) started it all. No they didn't - the Jockey Club and Polo Towers have been around awhile. Casinos are out, condos and time shares are in.

The $4.4 billion Echelon Resort is scheduled to be completed in late 2010 at the old Stardust site. I expect they'll build multipurpose units that can be used either as condos or hotel rooms and make their decision at the last minute as to which business model they'll use.

Steve Wynn made a bold move when he began construction of his Wynn Resort across the street from the musty old "New Frontier" around 2003. Boyd Casinos is following this lead with their Echelon Resort at the Stardust site. The strip is creeping north and will perhaps eventually reach Fremont Street. After the El Rancho site and the Wet-N-Wild site are filled in with something - let's see who is brave enough to build a new megaresort north of Sahara near the Stratosphere.

OR will the trend reverse and go south? I recall when the Excalibur was new; and the Luxor; then Mandalay Bay... the south strip seemed to be the new hot spot. It would make sense, since the airport is in that area, to extend the strip to the south. There are some kind of FAA rules or laws governing structure height because of the airport, is that why nobody wants to build south of Mandalay Bay?

Las Vegas is in a constant state of flux. I like a lot of things about it. I'd live there if it wasn't 120 degrees every summer. "It's a dry heat! That's what all the schmucks say." (James Caan in "Honeymoon in Vegas.")

Bally's Neon Tube

2006-10-08T14:20:00.000-07:00

One of the first toys I recall having as a child was a "Lite Brite", which is basically a plastic box with a low wattage light bulb inside and a plastic front panel full of holes. Multi-colored plastic pegs are inserted in the holes and light up like LEDs (light emitting diodes.) Different designs made from black paper come with the Lite Brite, and have letters showing which colored plastic pegs to insert to create a design. "G" would mean you insert a green peg; "R" means a red peg, etc. The black paper blocked light from leaking through unused holes.

It wasn't until my 12th or 13th trip to Las Vegas when I made the connection between my fascination for shooting photos of colored neon lights against a black background and my childhood toy, the Lite Brite. I was only 5 or 6 years old when I had the Lite Brite. I recall being attracted to colored lights at that time. I don't know, however, if that's just the way I am; or if having the Lite Brite made me that way.

The last time I was in Las Vegas, March 2006, I was staying at the Jockey Club next to Bellagio. My last night there, I recall walking past Bally's and feeling too tired to take more photos of the neon rings, which I had taken photos of the year before. A typical day of shooting photos in Las Vegas for me begins around 10 AM and ends around 2 AM; so by 10 PM I'm usually pretty tired of walking or driving (or both) and am pushing myself in search of that "one great photo."

I'd estimate that about one out of 100 of my photos are worthy of calling "great." The photo above, however, is not one photo; but four different photos taken from the same spot pasted together.

As I mentioned, I'd felt too tired to shoot these but my fascination for neon at night overrode my fatigue. I rode the moving walkway and got off at that special spot about halfway to the casino where you can capture this viewpoint of the neon rings around the pedestrian walkway looking west from Bally's property towards the strip.

I've seen a lot of photos of Bally's on the Internet, but don't recall ever seeing this particular angle on anyone else's web sites. And if I recall correctly, the neon did not always have this variety of color. My March 2005 photos only show the neon rings in green and blue; whereas in March 2006 there is also red, purple, and orange.

In any event, in March 2006 I learned that one should never ignore a nearby photo opportunity even if you've been there many times before and think you already have enough photos taken from that spot; because you may still capture something rare. Las Vegas is constantly changing and Bally's could decide to demolish their neon rings or reduce the variety of colors at any time.

February Rain

2006-10-02T17:55:00.000-07:00

I remember the day I shot this photo, it was mid-February 2003 and I was using an Olympus C700 which is a fairly low quality camera (2 megapixels but with 10x zoom) compared to what's on the market today.

I had been walking along the strip near Paris & Bally's when it began to rain. I thought that was a good time to head downtown - Fremont Street is covered by a canopy. I hopped into a taxi in front of the Paris casino and told the driver to take me downtown.

The drive seemed to take a long time. While I wasn't a Las Vegas newbie and knew about being "long hauled through the tunnel" from the airport; I was less aware of the other potential long hauls (long hauling is when a cab driver intentionally does not take the shortest route to your destination, so that the fare will be higher.)

This driver took the freeway (I-15) from Paris to Fremont Street. Las Vegas Blvd. would have been a more direct route, but also has more traffic. So I'm still not certain if I was long hauled or not.

Upon arriving downtown I learned a valuable piece of information: the canopy over Fremont Street is not solid. I had never looked closely at it before. If I had, I'd have seen that it's kind of a latticework that lets the rain fall freely upon your head.

I visited some of the casinos, shot 20 or so photos, and when the rain stopped I decided to walk to the Stratosphere to ride the elevator up to the top. Most of my fellow tourists were wearing shorts and t-shirts, but I had checked the weather forecast and wore my waterproof hooded raincoat and waterproof hiking shoes.

With my camera slung over my shoulder under my waterproof coat, I headed south for the two mile walk to the Stratosphere. As luck would have it, the rain started shortly thereafter. I wasn't worried though, since I was waterproof. I thought.

After a few blocks of walking I felt cold water on my neck. My waterproof coat was leaking!

By the time I arrived at the Stratosphere I was like a drowned cat. Luckily my camera did not get wet enough to quit working. And that's the story behind the image posted above - a view of the downtown Las Vegas casinos from the top of the Stratosphere.

An Introduction to UrbanPhotos.net Las Vegas Photos Blog

2006-10-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

I can remember the first time I visited Las Vegas (although I can't remember the date, it was either in August 1992 or August 1993, but I remember the experience) - the view of the strip from the air took my breath away. I don't have a photo of that particular moment; but the photo above (taken in August 2002) somewhat matches my first in-person view of the Las Vegas Strip.

Reading three different travel guides about Las Vegas, and viewing photos of the Las Vegas strip, still didn't adequately communicate what the real experience would be like.

As a "newbie" low budget tourist who had to rely on a travel agency in my pre-Internet days; I of course was roped into staying on the north strip. I think most newbie tourists who want low price paired with an on-strip location end up either on the north strip (New Frontier, Westward Ho, Circus Circus, Stardust, Riviera, Sahara, and Stratosphere) or at Imperial Palace or Excalibur. Those are almost always the lowest priced resort properties on the strip; therefore shopping by price and refusing to stay off-strip means you most likely end up in one of those nine resorts.

I had chosen the Sahara for my first Las Vegas vacation, and foolishly booked a five night stay. (I say foolish because in hindsight, that was too long of a stay.) At that time I wasn't interested in photography so I did what the typical newbie tourist does: gamble. After about three days my gambling funds were gone so I had two days left to kill in Las Vegas without much cash.

As a "lowroller" I typically budgeted $200 to $400 for gambling and mainly played 25 cent video poker (playing max coins, of course, $1.25 per hand) and 25 cent slots. I lost it all on my first trip but stayed pretty even for my next few trips. I'd lose $100 then win $80; lose $50 then win $100, etc. My only "big" winning trip (big to me) was in 1996 or 1997 when I was staying at the Luxor. For a four hour period, my last night, I couldn't lose. Every machine I played paid off. I broke my luck by switching to a $1 video poker machine. Total winnings for the night were $700.

I had learned that the ideal stay, for me, was two or three nights. And at about this time, after my fourth or fifth trip to Las Vegas, digital cameras had become popular. At the time, one megapixel was the standard. I had brought cheap disposable cardboard film cameras with me once or twice and had taken a few photos; but in the mid 1990's I started bringing digital cameras and spending more time taking pictures.

By my 11th or 12th trip to Las Vegas (my next trip will be #16), I was gambling very little; usually $40 or less, and spending most of my time taking photos and scouting out new photo shooting locations. The parking garage roofs of the Palms, Wynn, and MGM Grand are nice spots.

This has almost become an obsession for me. The huge architecture and dazzling array of neon lights compel me to try to capture the most spectacular images possible. As I upgraded to two megapixels and then three megapixels; then 10x "super zoom" cameras; the increasing quality of the 8x10 prints I could spit out from an inkjet printer motivated me to try for better photos next time.

Initially a large number of my photos were of poor to fair quality. You can view these in my "Las Vegas #1" series (the link is on my web site), which covers what I would call my "newbie photographer" years, 1993 to 2003. Musicians say it takes 10 years to master a musical instrument; actors and actresses seem to be largely unknown for their first 10 years in the industry; so that seems to be a fairly standard period of time to spend practicing through trial and error before getting good at something.

My Las Vegas #2 series, shot in December 2003 with a Fuji S5000 three megapixel super zoom, marks the point where I started to consider myself a photographer; for I had begun to learn how to use the camera's manual shutter speeds and F-stop settings instead of leaving it on "auto"; and also learned the value of a tripod or other solid base for shooting at night.

Series #3 introduced the six megapixel digital camera, which allowed decent quality prints at 20" x 30" poster size. This was very exciting to me; and it was at about this time that I stopped selling compilations of my photos burned to CDs and switched to offering prints for sale along with commercial copyright options. I upgraded to a better six megapixel camera for Series #4 in March 2006. I'd like to upgrade to a digital SLR or at least an eight megapixel "prosumer" model before my next trip.

I put up my web site, urbanphotos.net, on March 23, 2002. My first idea was to sell CDs containing hundreds of my photos for personal viewing at $25 each. This was not such a good idea, as distributing hundreds of full sized photos on CDs resulted in a few incidents of copyright infringement (people using my photos without permission.) I found two different people selling copies of my CDs on ebay at ridiculously low prices. That's when I learned about copyright law and registering copyrights with the US Library of Congress Copyright Office.

Considering that selling CDs was not profitable and left me vulnerable to copyright infringement, it seemed a smart strategy to change business models. So I did.

I now offer three image copyright purchase options: $10 web site use, $25 one-time event use, and $99 commercial use. Delivery is electronic (via email or download). I also offer the options of purchasing 8x10 and 20x30 prints, which are processed through an online photo processor (I upload the photo to them, they make the print and ship it to the customer.)

In any case, why this blog?

My site is all business, and mainly visual. Most visitors probably spend most of their time on the site viewing photos. This blog is intended to give a more personal insight behind the photos that are displayed on my web site. The old cliche says "A picture is worth 1,000 words." So here I will occassionally post a photo and a story that goes with it.