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Unfortunately, the image below is a representation of what a stalled economy looks like. Sure, there is a lot I want to share about the beauty of Las Vegas, but there is the other side. Las Vegas was the fastest growing city for several years in a row, then the real estate market fell, tourism slowed and the general economy came to a screeching halt. There are many construction sites that have been frozen in time. Not only on the strip, because there are a few on the strip that are major efforts that have stalled. But there are a lot of areas near where I live where office buildings and condos sit idle – no construction workers, no activity – just desolate areas with evidence left behind of what it might have been.
My intent in the image is to capture the mood, the somber feeling you get when you stand near these areas. The trash left behind in the foreground, the rented construction vehicle sits idle and the building itself only partially finished. Someday some of these projects might start up again.
Nikon D300 ISO 200 f/16 48mm 1/125th sec
One of the most visited sites in Las Vegas is the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas….or old Las Vegas. I do remember what it was like to drive down Fremont Street, way back when I was a visitor here myself. The Fremont Street Experience was built as a way to attract more tourists to the downtown area, to bring business back to the ‘old school’ casinos such as Binions and The Plaza. Essentially, it did just that. It is an interesting and unique spot in Las Vegas. Lots of photo ops, lots of unique characters…
In continuing with the Self Park series, this shot was actually taken last summer – during the Summer of ‘69 celebration series. Both of the annual Kelby Photo Walks were at Fremont Street. I think for the next one I want to take it out to the Strip….I digress.
Whenever we go down to Fremont Street, we park in the main parking garage that is not part of one of the casinos – it is at the tail end of the experience, right above Hennesseys. I always thought it had a nice view from the parking garage, so I did finally make it down there to get a few shots. This is an HDR of five images, taken at f/25, tone mapped in Photomatix Pro and I made a few other adjustments with white balance in Lightroom. I have played with this with many different white balance settings – from the absolutely garish to the hardly there and this is the one I like best (today anyway). That is the beauty of expressing your self through imagery….you can make it whatever you want. There is still a lot of discussion out there in the photographic world on the right way to do HDR – I agree with those that are like minded with me – whatever level of tone mapping you do and your end result is up to how you want it to be. There is not hard fast written rule on how HDR should look, it is simply another way of translating.
Nikon D300, ISO 200, 32mm, f/25, HDR of 5 images
As I have mentioned in the past, I am not native to Las Vegas. However, I have been here long enough to become familiar enough to know that there are two sides to Las Vegas. The way visitors see it (or expect it to be) and the way the locals see it. When I first started this blog it was to share with others what it is like on the local side. My mind wandered on what sort of topics might be of interest.
Architecture of Las Vegas is often discussed, the feats accomplished or the smartness of how the scale of Las Vegas is displayed in the buildings that make Las Vegas what it is…hotels/casinos. If you spend any length of time with someone who lives here they are likely to tell you that they don’t spend a lot of time on the Strip or at Fremont Street (unless it is because they are at work). So, what is it that the locals do here – or what do they see.
When I go places, I go looking for what the locals do, where they eat, how they get around…one ongoing project I have started with a funny little side trip on my honeymoon (more to come on that later). So, what is it that locals in Las Vegas see that not all visitors do. Partly, we see the other side of the architecture. This first photo I am posting is just the start of the idea and we will see where it goes. This is the view from the parking garage at the Monte Carlo. I started the Self Park project awhile ago as just a way to keep the juices flowing – and so far it is mostly comprised of photos taken with my Canon G10 (as that is the camera that is with me all the time). Frankly, who knows which tool I will use to capture now days, the G10 is always with me – but so is my phone……
It isn’t during the golden hour, it isn’t even the best time of day to have taken it – I was just there at that moment. Stay tuned for more.
I have been in Las Vegas over 10 years now and feel pretty acclimated to the climate. I used to kid people and give them a hard time when it was 40 something outside and they would say it was cold. I was born and raised in Minnesota, it truly gets cold there. My favorite story to demonstrate that is when my daughter was two weeks old my mom called me and told me that we should get out of the house that day – as it was going to get warmer, up to zero degrees. Warm up to zero.
But, really it is all relative. For instance, in Minneapolis in the fall the temps fall from 70s and 80s in the summer to 40s in the fall….and even down to 20s and 30s as winter approaches. That is a 50 to 60 degree difference. Down into the 20s and 30s people start to say it is getting cold. Las Vegas is 100s in the summer, cools down to the 90s, 80s and 70s (about a week of each it seems) and then we get down into the 50s…and over the last week only in the 40s for highs (20s in the morning). That is a 60 degree difference as well….so it is cold to us who live here in the desert.
This weekend we have a storm pushing through, it has been raining on and off for the last three days. We here in Las Vegas get really happy and excited when it rains, because it just doesn’t happen that often. This week is a one year anniversary to one of the biggest storms I have ever seen here. On my son’s birthday last year in snowed. Las Vegas does usually see a snow event each year, but last year it snowed many inches really fast. The southeast suburb of Henderson saw 8 inches that day. My house on the west side saw 3 to 4 inches. The picture below was taken in my back yard. School was canceled for the next day – snow drifts existed for months (those in the shade).
It was a heavy wet snow, and it took us an hour to pick up my husband from work to go out to dinner for my son’s birthday. A normally 15-20 minute drive took an hour….the roads were awful, and of course people here don’t know really what to do in a snow storm. Some drive to fast and spin out (we saw more than a dozen of such folk on the side of the road because they had damaged their car in the spin). Some drive really slow – which by the way Las Vegas folks is what everyone else does when it snows. It was weird driving in such snow again, I flashed back to several snow storms that I drove through as part of my daily commute there. I remember the Halloween storm in Minnesota in the 1990s – it snowed 36 inches in two days. But, it is all relative – 4-8 inches of snow here (where there is no road equipment to handle it) is comparable to 36 inches in Minnesota.
Hey everyone, it is National Eat Outside Day…..unless you live in the desert. (I suppose we could eat outside if we wanted to, but for it to be comfortable outside we need it to be late at night – or we need to be visiting Mt. Charleston, which is kinda hard on a Monday – with work and school, etc.)
So, go outside if you like and enjoy the day!
This shot was taken on our road trip in 2008, somewhere in Nebraska.
Unfortunately, I feel obliged to do a post about the responses I have received regarding the chosen photograph for the Las Vegas photo walk. While I truly expected that there would be people who were not happy with the photo I selected, no matter what photo was selected, I did not expect some of the truly ugly feedback. First and foremost, this gathering was exactly that – a social activity with photographers. To spend time with people who have something in common. The contest was secondary – as could easily be noted by the few images that were actually submitted for the contest.
But let me set the record straight for those that have commented.
- The only people I knew prior to the walk were my family, and they were not eligible to win the contest.
- Photography is subjective. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I respect that.
- While on the subject of respect – I did not attack you personally with the photo I chose, so I am unsure why it is warranted and ‘okay’ for you to attack me personally.
- I also did not threaten anyone, so I am unsure why it is warranted and ‘okay’ for you to threaten me.
In the end, it was a great experience and I look forward to more in the future. I have thoroughly enjoyed looking at the chosen photos from all the walks around the world and I hope you do as well. There has not been a lot uploaded to the Flickr site, I hope to see more up there soon.
The Photo Walk on Saturday went really well. It was a bit hot and humid, but nowhere near the 113 that was predicted. The breezes from the surrounding storms were nice but it gets frustrating when my hair keeps blowing into my mouth.
Thanks to all of you that participated, I had a great time meeting everyone and am excited to do it again. Next time we will probably do the strip, but I am open to ideas. I will still organize, but just let me know where you might like to go. I didn’t take many shots myself on Saturday, it was so much fun watching everyone else having fun – including my family, which I believe everyone did meet.
Here is the group shot, the atmosphere and typical of what I actually did shoot on Saturday.
Las Vegas Photo Walk Group
Temp hung around 100 most of the time
Sparkly
I have been waiting for the opportunity to use this…..think I might be using it a lot more often going forward.
One day until the next Photo Walk
Last year was the Scott Kelby’s First Annual Worldwide Photo Walk, and I was a participant. It was in August last year, and it was a total blast! I met many people and even went on another photo walk with some of them. Then life got busy, as it often does, and the group did not get back together again….which did make me a little sad.
This year, the sneak peek email for NAPP members went out a few days before the official announcement for Scott Kelby’s Second Annual World Wide Photo Walk on Scott Kelby’s blog and I eagerly anticipated signing up for the Las Vegas walk. Even better – I signed up to be the leader of the walk. I really am very excited to meet even more people this year. Unfortunately, as a leader I am not eligible to win any of the really HUGE prizes – over $11K worth now for the world wide winner. But, I actually look at this opportunity to meet some great people and have a good time. Another unfortunate circumstance – it is the middle of July in Las Vegas – today (2 days before the walk) it is going to be 110+ outside. That is one of the down sides of living in Las Vegas.
Regardless, this is going to be a ton of fun. There is a free concert on Saturday night on the 3rd Street stage on Fremont Street – Jefferson Starship. The concert starts about two hours after the photo walk ends, giving us enough time to socialize and cool down after the official walk. The photo below is from the 2008 walk.
I am going to start scheduling a photo walk about every other month. I think it is a great opportunity for people to get together, shoot some stuff and do some chimping. Even my teenagers are into it.
I truly enjoy finding the little details that make Las Vegas just that much more than the glitz and whirring noises. With a little time invested, you can begin to notice really interesting things. Not only is this town full of beautiful architecture (which I will share with you from time to time), glitzy shows and LOTS of tourists – but there are many that call this town home. Some are human, some are not.
This pair hang out in the big water feature at the Bellagio. They can usually be found along the wall on the Strip side of the water feature – too hot in the summer way out in the middle of the ‘lake’. So, yes there is more to the Bellagio water feature than the water show. Don’t get me wrong, I could spend a whole day watching the water show. Not only is it spectacular to watch, but it also causes the air temperature to drop during the show (especially nice on a summer evening when it was 105 during the day).
