Mirage Casino Volcano Erupts On The Las Vegas Strip

        During my trip to Las Vegas last week, I had a loose agenda. To attend the Nightclub & Bar Convention with my friends and to take some fresh photos of Las Vegas. I did manage to get some good shots of the people I saw walking along the Las Vegas strip, but what I really wanted was to take some original shots of Las Vegas landmarks that were new and different. This was a challenge because every time I thought I was heading to an area or taking a shot I thought was unique, I inevitably saw other photographers in the area. So, relative to my other Las Vegas posts, this one will have the fewest number of photos because being unique on a strip full of cameras is not as easy at I thought it would be.

Fountains Of Bellagio

        What I really wanted was to create some images that had a timeless quality to them. What I mean by that is I wanted some Las Vegas photos that were recognizable yet unique. I wanted photos that were obviously taken in Las Vegas yet didn’t necessarily scream when they were taken.

Pirate Show At Treasure Island

        What that ultimately came to mean was that after four days and three nights in Las Vegas, I ended up with five photos of the strip that I’d like to show the world. Averaged out, that’s the equivalent of one keeper every 19 hours. And you thought photography was easy didn’t you?

Aria Hotel & Casino

        The shot above is what I would consider to be my most original shot taken while I was in Las Vegas. This is the only photograph I made where I didn’t see any other photographers before, during or after I made it, so for now, I declare this the Mt. Everest of Las Vegas photos.

The Fountains At Caesar’s Palace

        Way before I knew anything about Las Vegas, I knew about the fountains at Caesar’s Palace because of Evel Knievel. He had one Hell of a crash in 1967 when landing after trying to use a motorcycle to jump the fountains in front of Caesar’s Palace. He wanted to do something that had never been seen before, which is what I suppose I was trying to do as well, except I use a camera, not a motorcycle. It’s hard to gauge failure with stuff like this because it is very relative. Evel did jump the fountains but he fucked up the landing so he broke 40 bones and ended up in a coma for a month. Today in 2011, daredevils have gone the way of the Dodo bird, yet photography has flourished. In my head, that makes me the daredevil today and I challenge anyone to prove me wrong. Heh heh… Good luck!

Traveling Clown Folk On A Footbridge Over The Las Vegas Strip

        Las Vegas can be as much or as little as you want it to be, no matter what you want to do. For me, for this trip it was about catching up with old friends and having some fun with my camera. I didn’t want to take the same old Las Vegas photos that everyone takes, but at the same time, I had no idea what I wanted to photograph instead. I had no idea how I would get shots that were or could be unmistakably Las Vegas yet be different from what has already been done a million times before. The people turned out to be the answer.

In Front Of The Mirage Casino

        I did a lot of shooting from the hip for these photos, which is always fun and a little bit scary because it is so not the way I usually take photos. I’m used to my viewfinder so shooting from the hip is hard for me. I missed a lot, but the Las Vegas strip is a busy place so I ended up with a few that I liked. The moral of the story: Practicing helps out a lot, so don’t get discouraged if you’re not good at it right away. Eric Kim has a great post that explains how to shoot from the hip that is a great read that will help you out a lot.

Jynn Palazzo

        Thanks to random timing and the position of my camera, the woman above will always be known to me as Jynn Palazzo. I wonder what the actual odds are of something like this photograph happening are, where the woman’s name actually turned out to be Jynn Palazzo. I tried search engines but came back with nothing so I don’t think a person by that name exists, but how celestially cool would that be if it worked out? Really cool!

A Chiseled Woman With Caesar’s Statues

        There are so many different people walking up and down Las Vegas Blvd and it can be so crowded that it might seem paralyzing but I promise you this is a place where you can open carry your camera and take all the photos you want.

The Familiar Pose In Front Of A Fountain

        What I like best about shooting from the hip is avoiding situations like what you see above. Looking right into the camera and smiling can be a good photo, I just don’t understand why people try for it so often right off the bat. I like candid and unposed photography much better.

The Deciding Couple

        The sidewalks on the Las Vegas strip always have lots of people on them, so shots like the one above, with a couple that seems to have the place all to themselves is a rare treat. This is in front of The Mirage Casino’s volcano.

Waiting For The Bus & Missed The Spaceship

        The architecture and shape of things along Las Vegas Blvd are like nowhere else. From the photo above we could imagine being in a spaceport and the woman is checking a space schedule for the spaceship looming over her head.

        I don’t know for sure if it was his snake or not but the guy in the photo on the left happened to be walking in front of me so I stuck with him until he eventually set his snake down and just started hanging out, at which point I took his picture. Most people didn’t even notice the snake and the guy didn’t seem to notice any of the people so I’m not sure what his game was.
        The fountain and the woman to the right are in front of The Monte Carlo. The wind was blowing water all over her, so she was turning away from a spray of water when I snapped the pic.

Me, Being Reflected In A Restaurant Window

        I was pleased with the photos I made during my time in Las Vegas. I’m happy to say that my shots didn’t seem like ordinary, cliched postcard shots… They seem to be unique, so I feel good, and that’s what this trip was for in the first place.

Apple On The Strip

        I was happy to be on an internet and computer-free regimen the entire time I was in Las Vegas, but others can’t do without, and the woman above was one of them. Anyway, that’s my take on people of the Las Vegas strip. I hope it helps to inspire you the way Vegas inspired me. I also attended the nightclub and bar convention, so be sure to see my post and photos from that event as well. Cheers!

My Wristband For The Convention

        The people I’ve known the longest go back, way back to the days I lived in Denver, CO. Unfortunately most of us, including me have moved away from Denver, towards warmer parts of the country. It is very rare for all of us to be in the same state, let alone the same room for any length of time but recently it did happen, and with a big helping hand from my friends, I was able to attend this gathering, with my camera.

Laser Displays Make Anyone Look Like A Rock Star

        Anything that can be served in or placed in a bar or nightclub are what this show is about. My Denver friends are all current or former owners & managers in the service industry, so it’s one of those fun business trips fun them, but for me it was a little bit different. I got some great insight into what goes in to making a club or bar successful and just how much thought goes into making sure their customers like what they see and love what they drink while inside.

The Only Way To Know Is To Try

        It doesn’t matter what the bottle or the woman that’s serving them looks like, the only way to know which new alcohols are good and which are shit is to try them one shot or one cocktail at a time for eleven hours, over the course of two days. Welcome to Las Vegas!

        This is better than any gadget or technology show for two reasons: First, it’s in Las Vegas and second, it’s a trade show where as a representative of a company it is your job to sample every type of alcohol in the building. Yep, and the iPad doesn’t even support flash.

This Show Is About Alcohol…

And Having Fun

And Smashing Through Groups Of People

        There is a reason this show is not the drunken frat party you think it must be if it’s a convention center filled with a bunch of professionals right in the middle of sin city: They are professionals so they are not a threat. The people at this show are the people that have to deal with the drunken idiots on a nightly basis, so they know how to act properly when alcohol is involved, even obscene amounts. This is a professional show for businesspeople that know how to get drunk in an exemplary and highly professional manner, not amateur night.
        The next time you are in a bar and you see a group of people that are being a little more obnoxious and loud than you would normally think would be allowed in a place like that yet they get constant, attentive service and never have a break in their good time, then they are a group of pros in the service industry just letting off steam and the staff of the place knows it. They also know the group will regulate their own party just like mafia would, so if anyone actually did start doing something that would legitimately ruin the party a stick would be brought down between that person’s eyes, bringing him or her back into line long before anyone else even saw a problem… Because they are professionals. It was a great experience that had me learning new things, spending quality time with old friends as well as engaging in some old fashioned street photography, which turned out to be an unexpected highlight of the trip. You’ll want to be sure to check out my next two posts which will consist of the people and sights of the Las Vegas strip. Cheers!

About To Land At San Diego International Airport

        I recently had the pleasure of going on the Terminals To Tarmac Tour at San Diego Airport. From the website:

See behind the scenes of San Diego International Airport! The Airport Authority is offering free tours of the airport and airfield, including up-close looks at the runway, endangered species areas and public art. Tours are two hours long and are offered four times a month – each second and fourth Thursday at 10 a.m. and Friday at 1 p.m.

Ryan, Our Tour Guide Through San Diego Airport

        Ryan, our tour guide is a great ambassador for the airport. He has a great sense of humor, was very informative and really brings a lot to the table so the tour was much more than just a photo op or an endless barrage of boring statistics and facts. What Ryan was able to do was show the relationship between the airport and the city of San Diego, and how that relationship leads to exciting things happening at the airport, which in turn makes San Diego an even more exciting city to live in and visit.

Inside San Diego Airport’s Terminal 2

        In a nutshell, the tour breaks down into two parts, each part is an hour long and there’s a ten minute bathroom break in the middle. You start out by meeting your tour group at the commuter terminal, receiving a visitors badge and then jumping into a shuttle bus that takes you to terminal 1 to begin the first part of the tour, which is a walking tour of both terminals. After that the shuttle bus takes you “inside the wire” and out onto the tarmac for a slow, circling tour of the runway and it’s operations.

Performing Art In SD Airport’s Terminal 2

        The puppet show version of Puff The Magic Dragon you see above was going on as part of the Airport Art Program. This was going on in the baggage claim area of terminal two during the tour break so I though I’d throw it in.

        Over a very helpful model of the airport, Ryan explained several things about the airport to us. The tour is very much one of those “have to be there” kind of things, so you should just take the tour because being there, seeing it and listening to the tone and excited inflection of the tour guide’s voice compliment each other in a way that probably won’t be adequately represented here. The video at the end of this post is about 6 minutes long and in it you can here Ryan talk about just a couple things about the airport. He really packs a lot in during that time, so if what you see in the video or in this post seem even remotely interesting to you then go to the San Diego Airport’s website and sign up for the tour! As we walked through the terminal, Ryan told us the trifecta of nouns that make up the theme of the airport are sky, sea and surf. As soon as he said that and pointed out a few things, it all came leaping to the foreground like pieces from the Da Vinci Code… The weather and/or the beach is why people live, move and visit here. I’m one of them. I can proudly say that I’ve been clean and sober from snow and sub-freezing temperatures for over five years, since moving to San Diego from Denver, Colorado. If the weather and the beach are the main reasons people come here, then it makes perfect subliminal sense to remind people of that in the airport. I learned on the tour that San Diego is not a “connecting” city which means that most visitors to our airport are either starting or ending their travel here, so the airport being themed as it is helps people to have a great San Diego experience that starts as soon as they get off the plane. This tour really shines a light on the amount of thought that goes into parlaying our weather and beaches into tourists, the experience they have and the money we want them to spend.

Through The Windshield Of The Terminals To Tarmac Shuttle Bus

        I’ve been through both terminals of San Diego airport before, so I didn’t take too many photos during that portion of the tour, I did a lot of listening. Once our shuttle picked us up and drove us out onto the tarmac… I was listening a little bit less. San Diego Airport only has one runway, so all the action took place right in front of us as the shuttle slowly circled around the runway, eventually stopping on the north side, where I was able to get out and take some photos.

US Airways Jet Plane Lands At San Diego International Airport

        Landings and take-offs all happen in the same direction and that is to the west. From our photo op area on the north side of the runway we had a great, window-free vantage to get some pics of the planes coming and going.

Private Jet Taxis At San Diego Airport

        After that the shuttle drove us to the eastern end of the runway. This put us directly under planes as they came in on their final approach to the airport. From here, we literally had a view of the underbelly, front and back of planes, full of people that are the reason San Diego Airport is not just a place. It’s a thing. It’s an organism that lives only because there are people that live in and visit San Diego, California.

Seconds Away From Touchdown At San Diego Airport

        I didn’t want to plan on learning anything during the tour, but I did. I just wanted a great photo op, but now I want to go back again not so I can take more photos, but so I can listen to what the tour guide will have to say about the airport, and the slight variations that each tour would have because Ryan was not reading from a script, he was telling us a story based on inside information he has as an employee and a guide for the Terminals To Tarmac tour. My destination was the San Diego airport, but my journey didn’t begin until I got there. I’m not an airport, aviation or airplane buff, but after this tour I can see how it would open up a whole new world of photography to me if I was. Coming to San Diego does the same thing for other people in an infinite number of ways. I took these photos yesterday, early in the second week of February and just look at those blue skies, look at all that sunlight streaming in through the terminal windows! The temperature was perfect, the barometer was gorgeous and rising and the humidity had us at a dew point that might make the glass that’s holding your margarita damp. We live in San Diego people! The five plus years I’ve lived here have helped me forget what wind chill, coat checks and winter are, and if you don’t know what any of those things are then consider yourself lucky. Do you like apples? Yeah? Well you can fly from San Diego, nonstop to Maui and London, among other places. How do you like them apples? I thought so. Cheers, and happy traveling!

Video From Terminal To Tarmac Tour At San Diego Airport

San Diego International Airport Terminal 2 Baggage Claim

        I went to the San Diego International airport today to see if I could get a glimpse of some TSA agents and perhaps even get some shots of them patting down some travelers. No such luck. Without a ticket, I was only able to get to the very fringes of the security checkpoints.

The Calm Before The Storm

        As I strolled through the airport, I realized that I haven’t been to an airport for almost three years. I really need to travel more, here in San Diego and around the world. Anyway, being at the airport today, less than one week before the busiest air traveling day of the year made me think I should return next weekend for some real photographic fun.

TSA Agents At San Diego International Airport

        I suspect that any employee at Lindbergh Field will have much less free time than these three over Thanksgiving weekend.

Taking A Break At Lindbergh Field

        The giant piece of art and the chairs above are in terminal 2 at the San Diego International airport. Another idea I had was to shoot the scene above over and over with different people in the chairs each time. The boldness of the art, the reflection on the floor and a mixture of travelers using the chairs at different times of the day over the course of a long time could generate an interesting theme.

Mirrored Exhibit At The Denver Art Museum – 1996

        Even though it can be hard to remember what things were like when my world did not yet include Photoshop or digital cameras, it is much easier to do if you have photos from those pre-digital days to jog your memory. Unfortunately, the cycle that most photos go through has them being passed around for a few days or weeks after they are developed, and then placed in a box or an album where they became forgotten and might never be looked at again.
        The other day I selected about 100 pre-digital prints from a box of my photos that hasn’t seen the light of day for years. It has been a steady walk down memory lane ever since, as well as me foaming at the mouth in anticipation of being able to work on them in Photoshop and them share them with the world. The best thing about this is that it breaks the cycle of a photo ending it’s life in a box or in an album in a basement. The photos are going to live forever now because I had them scanned AND I have a whole new library of memories and images that I can blog about, and I can’t wait to do it! My blog will now span between film and digital. I have created a new tag and category for the blog as well, “Film Photography” that will feature photos I took with any number of film cameras and have subsequently (and very recently) had scanned. The time span will be from around 1989 through 2003, so my earliest photography, photos I took more than 20 years ago will be shared on a modern day blog and seen by the world. It is very hard to describe how excited this makes me!

Amboy, CA & Roy’s Cafe

        Just north of Joshua Tree National Park, situated along Historic Route 66 is the town of Amboy, which consists of Roy’s Cafe and a decaying, 60 year old church. As you head north out of Joshua Tree, you will travel through Bristol Dry Lake to get to Amboy, where you can gas up and have a meal at Roy’s Cafe.

        Roy’s Cafe has been an institution in Amboy and Historic Route 66 since 1938, eventually serving travelers with food, a place to fix and/or gas up as well as stay the night. At the height of travel along Route 66, Roy’s employed 70 people. That all changed in 1972 when I-40 opened up to the north, which meant that Amboy would lose all the transcontinental traffic that made it into a boom town in the years after WWII. I-40 completely bypassed Amboy and Roy’s Cafe, so the area became a ghost town and fell into disrepair. As a visitor during Memorial Day weekend in 2010, it is hard to believe that 70 employees were needed to run the place because I saw less than a dozen travelers the entire time I was there. It is sad to think that 30 years ago, with the stroke of a pen on a map, Route 66 and the town of Amboy became relics of the past, and I-40 became the corridor of the future.
        Barstow, which lies to the west along I-40 boomed, while Amboy and Roy’s Cafe, along the instantly forgotten Route 66 were stripped of their status as a way point for travelers and were reduced to a point of curiosity that people only see if they specifically mean to go there.

Amboy Crater

        At the intersection of Amboy Road and Route 66 were some roadside vendors selling fresh jerky and cherries. The jerky vendor advertised a website: www.freshjerky.com that I explored and found that they have a two California retail locations: One in Olancha and another in Needles, as well as a location in Golden Valley, AZ. My cousin purchased a bag of jerky from this “retail outlet” of Gus’s Really Good Fresh Jerky and it was in fact really good and really fresh. The photo of Amboy Crater above as well as the top photo in this post were taken from the vantage of this roadside vendor.

Approaching Bristol Dry Lake, Amboy Crater & Roy’s Cafe

        The silent movie above shows just how timeless a journey through the desert can be. When you drive through a dry lake on the fringes of the Mojave desert, it is easy to forget what planet you are on, but it’s even easier to forget what year you are in. The grainy, jumpy video above might be 50 years or 50 days old. We just don’t know for sure.

Downtown Amboy

        Desert towns rely on a steady traffic flow of desert travelers for their economy to flourish. In 1972, when I-40 opened and bypassed the town of Amboy, the town went belly-up, and became a novelty destination, which does not encompass enough people to be sustainable for small desert town situated along a now defunct Route 66.

Historic Route 66 Shoe Tree

        After a nice meal at Roy’s Cafe, head east on Route 66 and you will see history rewind before your very eyes. So many people over so many years have passed through here that even roadside garbage has a story to tell.

Immortalized On Historic Route 66

        As you leave Amboy and head east on Route 66, you will notice the shoulder on the north side of the road contains the names of countless travelers, hand-printed with stones for miles and miles. It is difficult to say when this impromptu tradition started, but I think it must go back to the 1920′s. With that in mind, I decided to add my name, with dozens of carefully selected and positioned stones to the roster. Take the time to do the same and who knows what you’ll find in the process. For example, I planned on arranging my name with stones, snapping a picture and leaving. Who would have known that a .38 snub nose revolver and a beer can, so old that it was made out of steel would make an appearance? Either way, Historic Route 66 is American heritage, so on your next road trip, you really should veer off of our interstate highway system and detour along the original cross-country highway… Historic Route 66.

Barbers Point, Hawaii

        Hawaii is a place where you can do a lot of things and it doesn’t matter how old you are because in Hawaii, you can do it all. Even though Hawaii is a an American state, you have to travel overseas to get there, so American tourists in Hawaii are different than American tourists when they are traveling within the the 48 North American States. The beaches, clubs, beachside restaurants, boat and water activities and adventure hiking are all first rate. For solitude you have to leave to island of Oahu. Maui is about 30 minutes by air shuttle and is well worth seeing even if you are not seeking solitude.

Waikiki Sunset, Hawaii

        There is beauty everywhere in Hawaii, so spend at least a month there if you can. A stay that long will allow you to delve into the islands and find things to do that are not in any tourist brochures.

Hoover Dam From Just Above River Level

        If you go to Hoover Dam, it is probably to take a break from your activities in Las Vegas, so you will understand what it means to pay a little more to to get something a lot better. The special tour is $30 and you get a much better experience than you do with the $11 tickets.

        My special access ticket allowed me to get a less than common shot of the dam from a very low level. The sky was blown out so I cropped it and made the dam itself look as dramatic as possible, without going to full on black & white.

        I had a hard time taking pictures in Las Vegas because everything looked so familiar from movies and photos in magazines. I just didn’t see how I could take a unique shot in that town. At the time, The Venetian was one of the newest casinos so a friend asked me to shoot it for her. The shot below is a small section of the architecture of the hotel’s exterior. Every room in the hotel is a suite with queen or king beds and 32″ flat screen TV’s.

Venetian Hotel In Las Vegas

Denver Capitol Building, 1999

        Denver is a great city, no matter what time of year it is. Downtown, LoDo and Capitol Hill in particular are such great places to live and spend time. Anything you need and everything you want is right there, sports, drinks, food, walking, skating, shopping and sightseeing are all touching each other.

Inside Denver Capitol Building Christmas 1999

        There are two very different forms of solitude available to the residents of Denver, the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains. Depending on your mood, the time of year and your own reasons for wanting to get away from all human beings for a while, you can drive to west or south to the mountains or drive east towards Kansas and America’s Bread Basket. Personally, I like the mountain form of solitude better than the endless plains form. Being out in the woods is more engaging and more inspiring for me, I feel like there is more nature per square inch in the mountains.

        Sometimes, the history of Denver is what held my interest for extended periods of time. So many things have happened in Denver in the last 150 years and all of it is interesting and fun to talk about. Click here to visit the city of Denver’s website. There is just so much to do, and there are so many restaurants, all of which you can walk to. Downtown Denver is a great place.

        Four sunny seasons is what you will find in Denver, Colorado. Fall colors, winter wonderland, spring is colorful and warm and summer is hot with thunderstorms that will make you take notice. The mountains are so different with each season and each mountain town is different as well. Estes Park, Boulder & Golden would be good starting points for visitors that want to start visiting mountain towns. After them, head out to Cripple Creek, Georgetown or Central City. Now you’ll be ready to head deep into the Rockies to visit ski towns and do some real exploring!

Mile High Stadium As Investco Field Is Built, 1999

John Elway & Denver Broncos - Superbowl XXXII Champions 1998

        There was a stretch, back in the late 1990′s when I was going to a lot of Bronco games, and almost every game was watched from the south stands, in both stadiums. Those that were attending home games of the Denver Broncos in the late nineties will remember what a time that was. The Broncos had already won the Superbowl and were on track to win for a second time. The new stadium was about to be built and John Elway was just awesome. The pic on the right was taken following the Denver Broncos Superbowl victory parade through downtown. John Elway & The Denver Broncos are on the steps of the city & county building for this photo. I did not take this John Elway shot, but I was standing next to my friend when he shot it. It was such a fun day and we both waited since we were kids to see the Broncos win the superbowl.