Las Vegas Highlight Reel

I've spent the last week in Las Vegas.  While I spent most of my time playing poker, I did take my camera along and did some shooting when I wasn't in a tournament.



I started with the easiest subject, the fountains at the Bellagio.  I think the experience of photographing those ballerinas a few weeks ago came in really handy, as I was able to play with the timing and try to catch the movement of the water in a predictable manner.  I'll have more Bellagio shots to come shortly.

I stayed at a center strip hotel (the reasonably priced Bally's) and had great access to the big name casinos.  I didn't get particularly creative or unique with my shots. 



In a sense, it's hard to do anything but staged shots in Vegas, as there is so much going on.  Power lines are everywhere, and ads cover almost every bit of open space.  You can see several in this shot, although I did my best to exclude them.  I couldn't really go any wider here, or else the street lights and construction cones and such would start to get in the way.

Down at the south end of the strip, I did my best to get an interesting shot of the MGM.  You can see the construction cones and standing traffic (this signal took 120 seconds to cycle through) but all in all I think it turned out pretty good.



There's a huge construction project going on on this end of the strip, Project Cityscape (I took a few photos you'll see later) so it really felt isolated.  To get back to the center of the strip, I had to walk about a half mile, maybe a mile, through a narrow construction walkway, often covered, with people who are much slower than I.

I'm so glad I didn't stay down at this end like I have in the past.

On Thursday and Friday, I really focused on playing poker, and my photography took sort of a back seat.  I had a couple of hours between tournaments on Thursday evening and decided to do a few daytime shots.



Here we see the "Eiffel Tower" at the Paris casino.  Again, there are basically only two shots of this that work.  This one, and another you may see later, taken from the south.  Otherwise, you'll have a streetlight in the way, or a rail or a big garbage bin or billboard or some such BS.

It had been a long week, and on my final night as I returned to Bally's, I decided I would make a real effort to get this cool long exposure shot of myself.  It took a lot of tries, most of them embarassing as I knelt down like an idiot on the moving walkway and spent a minute or so repeatedly trying to stay still for two seconds.



It wasn't easy.  But I think I did all right with this one.  Although I look terrible!  In my defense, it's one in the morning... although I'm not sure that excuses those bags under my eyes.  Ugh!

106 and 107 - Two West Burnside Businesses

A couple of photos of nearby businesses.  I do like these night shots.  They make pretty boring things look a lot more interesting.



There is a homeless guy dancing wildly there in front of the store, the other guy was playing a guitar and singing.  Powell's does attract the most creative class of street kids.

Today I decided to go for another walk and catch some other building at night.  I wasn't sure where I was going, but I had an eye on a building several blocks away.



Before I even got to Burnside I realized I have never really taken a look at this building.  So I had a real victory there for laziness, and barely walked one block for my photo.

96, 97, 98 : Three Portland Views

I drove up to Vista street on Friday night, just to get a quick shot of the city with the cool clouds in the sky. However, that shot didn't really come out all that impressive.



Instead, this throwaway shot I took of Mount Hood ended up winning the day for me. I am not sure why, it's not really all that special, but I really like it. I don't think I feature Hood enough in my photos, although I see the thing all the time. It's a beautiful part of my town, so here's a view of it with the city.

A fellow Flickr user, Jon, turned me on to a cool municipal staircase in the southwest hills which has a great view of a previously unexploited part of downtown.

It's a pretty short walk from my place to here, so I made it my goal on Saturday as the sunset drew near. Those stairs are brutal, steep and climbing directly up the hill. I don't know how many steps it is (100?) but it was exhausting climbing them.



The view was well worth it, and I certainly shall return.

Today I discovered that it's not really all that far a walk to Macleay Park from my apartment. It was really weird to walk through the trendy shopping along NW 23rd, and then around the NW Industrial area where I like shooting, and then suddenly I am on a hike out in the woods. Portland really is awesome.



I haven't visited this place in some time. It was about time I returned.

Photos from the Waterfront Concert (95.365 and a bonus shot)

There was a concert downtown at the waterfront, and I managed to get down there in time to see some ballet dancers take the stage. This was unexpected and proved to be an interesting shoot.




The lights on the stage were really bright and I was able to play around a bit with a variety of shutter speeds... and still usually ended up with a too-bright shot. I had a lot of them come out pretty good, this mysterious one was my favorite, even though there isn't really a clear view of any of the dancers.

That image is my 95 shot, and it's also slightly cropped.

The Oregon National Guard brought out their artillery to help the Oregon Symphony with their rendition of the 1812 Overture.

I've never shot them before and had no idea what to expect. They are very tricky to shoot, and since they only fired them about five or six times each (in rapid succession!) I didn't really get a chance to look at what I was getting.



As you can see... not much. I think next year, I'll just get in close and see if I can get something a little more interesting.

This bonus shot (which was the primary goal) is cropped and slightly brightened.

93.365

I changed parking garages today.  I had been staying in a pretty nice garage, which was the only one open at the time I started renting there.

In the mean time, several lots have reopened in my neighborhood.  I justified staying at the other lot because it has guards patrolling and the occasional valet passing through.

After my car was broken into last month, I decided that it wasn't worth any extra money to stay there.  So I moved to a lot that is right next door to my apartment, instead of four blocks away.  And it's about 2/3 the price, so there's some extra money.



The drawback of course is that I am now parking in this lot, the one that I like to take pictures in because it looks like an abandoned warehouse.  Yay!

92.365 San Jose Steel

I am happy that the sun is setting a little earlier.  Sure, it means summer is coming to a close, and that is kind of sad... but the light is now strong pretty close to when I get off of work.  If I dawdle around and take my time driving home from work, I can actually arrive at a photo destination late enough that I am going to get quality photos.  So that's good news.



Tonight I stopped at the North Portland industrial area and took an hour to shoot a few blocks.  It's an area I've visted several times, but I still managed to find a few new things.  This sign on the side of a fence really caught my eye with it's bright colors and metal clamp thing.  Of course, I quickly realized a black and white shot would be more impressive, so I went with that instead.  I am glad I did, it came out great!

89.365 Steel Bridge at Night

It was kind of showery this afternoon, and I was really excited that I would be able to get out and break in my new umbrella with some awesome dramatic sky shots.

So as sunset neared, I loaded up the camera and tripod and headed out.  I hopped on the MAX and got off down at the waterfront.  I was truckin' along feeling good when it started to rain.

And then I realized... I had left the umbrella at home.



Unfortunately it was pretty showery through the whole time down at the river.  I managed to get in a couple of shots, and this was easily the best.

Can't believe I forgot the umbrella.  Ah, what could have been...

A very nice lady running a crepe cart downtown, where I stopped for a snack, was really interested in my work.  She and I talked for quite a while, and she was very generous in her praise.  I think I might be able to work out an arrangement with her, she expressed interest in having some product photography done.  That'd be sweet indeed!

86.365 The Morrison Apartments

I'm not sure why I keep thinking I can just walk outside my door and find an interesting shot in five minutes.

Tonight I walked to a bar I thought might look cool, but there were cars in front of it and people hanging out smoking, so I wasn't able to take a shot. I walked to another restaurant, and they were closed. Also, not very interesting. So there was that.

I was pretty discouraged and was considering going for another of the easy "local art" shots, then I realized I'd never really shot The Morrison.



The Morrison is the neighbor to The Civic, replacing the old Civic building and providing low-income housing. It's a nice looking place and it's good to see a lot of the same people living there that used to live in the Civic.

Not really a great shot, but still something relatively new. There's something in that anyway.