Las Vegas, the city of lights. I love and hate Vegas. I love it for the photography aspect but just hate the whole fakeness of t. It is an overdose of the senses. In any case, I love the lights and photography. A number of years ago I visited The Neon Museum and they collect old Las Vegas signs. They are marvels of engineering and these signs consisted of hundreds of lights or yards and yards fo neon tubes. It’s so cool that you can visit a place to see these. Naturally, I shot hundreds of images. I looked for the abstract, shadows and light as well as color. These are four of the images from that visit.
Street photography is something I really enjoy. I am not just a landscape photographer, but a photographer of all things I see. Las Vegas is a city that bothers me. I can’t take more than 3 days there and if I am in Vegas it is for business. One of my biggest side benefits is to walk the streets and I mean miles of walking at a slow pace capturing the life around me. I look for people, light and shadow and some of the outrageous things. The Statue Of Liberty at the New Yor Hotel is just one of those. On my walk, the light was really nice and I had to shoot it. I like the angle and light and the way I processed this. I had tried several different looks and settles on this one.
I love doing may kinds of photography. I am most happy doing landscape photography, where I can take my time to compose the image and wait for just the right moment of light. I enjoy doing portraits, where I can try different posing and lighting to come out with unique images. Street photography is different altogether and in many cases not understood by many. I love wandering the streets of my hometown as well as the cities I visit. For me, street photography catches the moment, light and life on the street.
I am excited because this coming week I receive the new Fuji X Pro 3 camera which should be ideal for working the streets. I’ll report back after I have some time with this app. These images today were taken in various locations The photo of the couple in front of the sphere was done in Chicago. The man with the violin was made in Copenhagen. This guy is such a good violin player and he strolls the streets in Copenhagen playing at restaurants and parks. He always has a violin case of cash that people donated to him. The image with the man and woman walking was made in Las Vegas. LasVegas, by the way, is a very rich city to shoot street work. I love the shadows, the seriousness of their walk and then the little upside-down plywood cutout behind them.
I love looking for abstracts and one place I found a lot is in Las Vegas and its old neon signs. The secret to getting interesting photos like this is keeping your eyes out for. good shot and see it in a small frame of the overall image. I call this a picture in the picture. This means that the big overall shot is most likely nice, but the tight close up shot is another good shot and part of the big one.
I am always looking for something different and a few years ago I found some great possibilities at a Sign Graveyard. This is one of my many images I amde there are just fun and dare I say anstract.
I always have my camera with me. You have heard this from me many times. One night while in Vegas I grabbed my tripod and took a long walk doing night shots of Vegas. Las Vegas is actually best photographed at night. The Lights and people add to the images. Afterall Vegas is all about the lights. This was a hard image to get as there is no good angle because of pedestrian bridges and cars. But, I did find a spot and was able to get the image shown here.
I like posing images which make you do some thinking. So what is this? Answer, a neon sign at the Neon Boneyard in Las Vegas. This is a very cool place and should e a must see for any visit to Las Vegas. It’s where all the old signs go when they die.
One of the coolest place to visit in Las Vegas is the neon Boneyard Museum. This is where many of the old and classic Las Vegas signs have been taken as they get updated. A place of color, peeling paint, and rust. All the things I like.
One of my favorite places to visit when I am in Las Vegas is the Neon Boneyard. This is like a museum of old Las Vegas neon signs. So many things to shoot there and such great color.
In only three days I head out for a 21 day trip that will take me to Australia and then New Zealand. I’ll be leading a photo workshop in New Zealand for PODAS (www.podas.info). So, it has been a busy week prepping all the details for this trip that should yield some fantastic images. I’ll try to post images here as time and internet connections allow. Todays image is from the Neon Boneyard in Las Vegas. It is colorful and arty. I like the simple composition. If you visit Las Vegas you need to take atour of this place. it is where all the old signs in Vegas go when they die.
