Exploring Nevada

PhotoBlog : Luxor Hotel & Casino

admin — Mon, 28 May 2007 12:53:16 +0000

The Luxor Hotel and Casino is a beautiful hotel located on the Southern end of the Las Vegas Strip. The hotel itself is designed in the shape of a pyramid. While the Luxor is a beautiful hotel from the outside at any time, the hotel truly comes alive at night…when a powerful spotlight on the top of the pyramid directs light out into the night sky. This light can be seen from anywhere within Las Vegas and well outside of it too.

The Luxor is located in-between the Mandaly Bay Hotel and Casino (to the South) and the ExCalibur Hotel and Casino (to the North). All three casinos are connected by a free tram, making it simple to move between them. Additionally, a long indoor walkway also connects the casinos too…and pulls double duty as a nice shopping area as well.

For photography, the Luxor is a great hotel to hit on any photo trip…especially at night. The sidewalks in front of the Luxor (on the Las Vegas Strip side) are very wide, and the thongs of tourists found further North on the Strip tend to be missing this far South. As such, a photographer need not worry about having their tripod knocked around by hordes of people.

Related Information & Photographs about the Luxor Hotel and Casino

PhotoBlog : The Fountains of Bellagio I

admin — Mon, 28 May 2007 11:20:53 +0000

This photograph is of the Fountains of the Bellagio…which is part of the nightly watershow that happens in the “pond” in front of the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. To me, who is too poor to gamble much, this show…which is free to all…is one of the best parts of visiting Las Vegas. And, with the ever-changing light conditions and the beautiful fountains, it makes for a photographers dream come true.

If you plan on visiting the Fountains of Bellagio in Las Vegas to take some photographs, you may wish to read the article I prepared on How to Take Photographs of the Fountains of the Bellagio. It has some helpful tips that someone new to photographing this beatiful watershow might find useful.

Related Information About the Bellagio Hotel & Casino

PhotoBlog : Caesars Palace and the Fountains of the Bellagio

admin — Mon, 28 May 2007 06:59:27 +0000

Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, despite it’s “relative age” in comparison to other Las Vegas hotels and casinos, is still a beautiful hotel inside and out. And for a photographer, it is also a superb place to take pictures of as the hotel is beautiful at night and has plenty of potential “water shots” both on property and off.

This is especially true if you set up by the Fountains of the Bellagio, which are across the street from Caesars Palace. Simply find a place that is “out of the way” around the Fountains, wait for the watershow to being, and you’ll get some great photos of Caesars Palace in the background with the Fountains of the Bellagio in the foreground.

If you plan on visiting Las Vegas on a photo shoot, by all means…make a mandatory stop at the Fountains of the Bellagio. As the Fountains can be kind of tricky to photograph, I’ve prepared a Guide on How to Photograph the Fountains of the Bellagio. You might want to read that over to help you best plot out a photo shoot.

Related Information about Caesars Palace

Travel Log : How to Photograph the Fountains of the Bellagio at Night

admin — Mon, 28 May 2007 05:16:53 +0000

The Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas has one of the best…if not THE best…free entertainment around, the Fountains of the Bellagio. Every evening right after sunset…in the pond that is out in front of the Bellagio Hotel itself…hundreds of high pressure water jets create a truly spectacular watershow. If you happen to be in Las Vegas, taking in this watershow is a MUST see thing.

The watershow happens every 15 minutes and runs to either 11pm or Midnight…I forget which. Each watershow last around 4-5 minutes. The fountains of water are synchronized to the music that plays…making for a wonderful and very memorable free event.

Like everyone else in Las Vegas, if you happen to take in the Bellagio watershow…you are likely to want to photograph it. Well…if you want to take pictures of the Fountains of the Bellagio…you’ll need a few things. And to also follow a few simple techniques. And oh yeah…while you might get lucky…you can probably forget about getting a good picture with a simple point and shoot camera…it just isn’t likely to happen, especially if you don’t have a good tripod.

Equipment Needed

Tripod - A Tripod is absolutely essential if you want to get sharp, crisp images. Unless you dial back to F2, set the ISO to 1600 and find a really steady perch…without a tripod, you WILL be disappointed usually with the pictures you take.
SLR Camera with Full Manual Controls - Yes, you will really want a SLR camera…be it digital or film. Of course, higher end “box” cameras also work, but who wants to drag those things around Las Vegas? Additionally, while most new cameras today shoot superbly at night on automatic mode…due to the lighting conditions of the Bellagio when the Fountains are running, it will be essential that you have the ability to have full manual control over both the shutter speed and aperture size. The bright lights of the Bellagio Fountains will play total havoc on a cameras light sensor.
Wide Angle Lenses - By wide, I mean 50mm or less. While zoom lenses above 50mm might be nice for certain types of close-ups, if you want to capture the whole fountain…you’ll need a wide angle lens. How wide is up to you really. By and large, I ended up using a 28mm - 35mm lens for most photos I’ve taken of the Fountains of the Bellagio.

My Own Equipment

For what it’s worth…here’s the equipment I used for all my night shooting in Las Vegas, including the Fountains of the Bellagio.

Canon 20D Digital SLR Camera
Manfrotto Portable Tripod (not the greatest of tripods, but it works and is light)
Canon 18-40mm L Class Lens for Digital Cameras
Wired Shutter Remote Switch

Helpful Hints and Tricks for Night Photographs of the Fountains of the Bellagio

Digital Cameras are exceptionally nice…as you can see the photo after you have taken it. This will allow you to grab the proper exposure. So even if you use film for your main shooting…consider taking a digital camera along simply to make sure all exposure settings are correct. Once the Fountains spring to life, you won’t have time to change!
Aperture Settings : Common sense stuff here…if you want to capture the intricacies of each fountain, set the aperture size to F4. This will allow you to get detailed captures of the water while still having the hotel in focus in the background. If you want the water to be more “glass like” smooth…set the aperture to F8 or somewhat smaller…depending on the effect you wish to achieve.
Setting Up : The Fountains of the Bellagio is one very crowded event. Happily, at least when I was there, the Bellagio is cool about letting you use tripods on their property to photograph the Fountains. HOWEVER, make sure you keep your tripod OFF the sidewalk around the Fountains as much as possible. Find a “nook” to crawl into…there are plenty available. In your nook…you won’t have to worry about crowds jostling your tripod or having your equipment getting in the way of people. Additionally, don’t move around once the Fountain display is happening…best to stay in one spot for each event…moving between events instead.
Know How to Use Manual Controls : Yes…you WILL need to use manual controls on your camera. You can occasionally get lucky, but you can’t count on it. When I switched to manual from Aperture-Priority, my phtographs impoved 1000% percent. The reason for this is due to the VERY BRIGHT lights of the Fountains. When the lights turn on full blast…well…it will totally throw off your exposure levels if you let the camera decide on the settings to use!
Setting Exposure Levels : Set the exposure levels (both aperture and shutter speed) BEFORE the Fountains begin their show. Once you have the proper shutter speed and aperture size of the Bellagio without the Fountains running…well…guess what…you know have the proper settings for when the Fountains are running, too! And once you have the “right” settings without the Fountains running, you can then dial up/down the settings in increments to capture whatever effect you want to have when the Fountains are running.
Multiple Angles : The Fountains are a big place. Allow yourself at least 3-4 shows to fully capture everything from different angles. In additon to getting some wonderful photos of the Bellagio Hotel itself, you can also get some superb photos of the Paris Hotel and the Eiffel Tower as well as Caesars Palace.
Take TONS of Phtoos : Another nice reason for digital cameras, you can fit a ton of photos on a memory card. Typically I took 50-100 photos of EACH show. Virtually all of them turned out correctly in terms of exposure, happily. But of course not all were good due to the action of the Fountains. Which leads to….
Don’t Try to Anticipate the Fountains : You can’t do it! Taking photos of the Fountains is akin to a fast moving sporting event. Just take photo after photo after photo, and sooner or later you WILL hit things where the water is “just right” in the picture. Trying to “wait” until the Fountains do something you want it to…well…you’ll miss tons of good photos and most likely be “too slow” to actually grab the photo that you really want. Moral of the story is this…set up the tripod, get good settings, then just keep hitting the shutter button for 3-5 minutes straight!

Related Photographs of the Bellagio Hotel on Exploring Nevada

PhotoBlog : Caesars Palace at Dusk

admin — Mon, 28 May 2007 04:35:48 +0000

Caesars Palace is another of my favorite hotels in Las Vegas. And this should not come as a surprise I guess, since being an avid photographer, Caesars Palace is no doubt one of the more “photogenic” hotels and casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.

This is especially so when Caesars Palace is viewed from the Bellagio Hotel and Casino…which is right across the street. Simply find a place with the Fountains of the Bellagio between you and Caesars Palace, and well…presto…the makings of a very nice photograph if all works correctly.

This particular photo was taken near the Las Vegas Strip entrance to the Bellagio and overlooks the Fountains, which were not running yet (they would start up in about 5 minutes). Taking photographs of anything when the Fountains are running can be kind of tricky, and I’ll elaborate more on how you can do it without too many problems later on in another photoblog.

Related Information about Caesars Palace on Exploring Nevada

PhotoBlog : The Bellagio Hotel at Dusk

admin — Mon, 28 May 2007 04:28:24 +0000

The Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas is one of the nicest, if not the nicest, hotels in town. While rates for rooms, drinks and basically everything else is really expensive…there is no doubt, at least to me, that the Bellagio is one of the prettiest hotels in town too. This is especially so when the Fountains of the Bellagio are running.

This particular photo shows the Bellagio Hotel and Casino when the fountains aren’t running. It was taken at dusk and came out surprisingly well.

Like any photos of Las Vegas at night, you really need a tripod to get a decent photograph. And so, me being the dweeb that I am, ran around the Bellagio for more than three hours on this night…taking photographs of the Bellagio, the Fountains, nearby hotels and plenty more. Many of these photographs are in related Las Vegas PhotoBlogs or are in the Las Vegas Photographs section of this site.

Related Information about the Bellagio Hotel & Casino

PhotoBlog : View from the Stratosphere Tower

admin — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 06:35:26 +0000

The Stratosphere Hotel and Casino is located in Las Vegas, and essentially marks the “northern end” of the Las Vegas Strip. The Stratosphere, besides being a popular and very affordable hotel and casino, also has a unique “entertainment” area…or at least as unique as you can be in Las Vegas.

Attached to the Stratosphere is what is called the Tower. The Tower rises 1149 feet above Las Vegas, and serves triple duty as a revolving restaurant/bar, observation deck and amusement park. At 1149 feet above Las Vegas, you get absolutely spectacular views of the whole metropolitan Las Vegas area. And needless to say, the views of the Las Vegas Strip are also superb, too.

Now, while the views from the Tower of the Stratosphere are superb…simply getting up to the observation deck of the Stratosphere is a royal pain in the neck. First you have to wind through a maze of cattle gates, then pay for your ticket ($15 the last time I was there), then pass through a metal detector and have a guard look at all your stuff. Why the strange security measures they have in place here…I have no idea. But it is a pain.

And if you are a photographer…BEWARE. They do NOT allow tripods to be taken up to the top of the Observation Deck. But of course, they don’t tell you this until you reach the security area. And by then…well…what are you supposed to do? Nothing…except get booted out of line. Which is what happened to me.

I was staying at the Stratosphere Hotel at the time, so I went back to my room, dropped off the tripod, came back down, waited for 30 minutes through the line again, bought yet another ticket since they wouldn’t honor my first ticket, and then finally got onboard the elevator.

The elevator ride to the top of the Stratosphere is a remarkably fast one…it takes less than a minute…to go 1100 vertical feet! Also interestingly, the elevator of the Stratosphere is a “double-decker” elevator…the only of it’s kind in Las Vegas to the best of my knowledge.

Since I didn’t have a tripod, I took over 200 photographs while at the top of the Observation Deck of the Stratosphere…secure in the knowledge that few if any would turn out. Happily, I did get a couple of good ones…and posted the good ones in the Stratosphere Observation Deck Photo Gallery.

But I thought this photo was the best one. It came out clear and sharp…and a touch of sharpening in PhotoShop brought out the rest. And I like the photo since I still had a touch of light left in the sky, bringing out the mountains in the background…yet it was far dark enough to fully bring out the lights of the city, too.

In this photo you can see most of the major hotels and casinos that are on the Las Vegas Strip, missing out on just a few like the Mirage, Treasure Island and the Circus-Circus.

The Wynn, MGM Grand, New York New York, Mandalay Bar, Luxor and ExCalibur are all very clearly visible. And if you know what you are looking for, you can also see the top of the Eiffel Tower of the Paris poking up, Bally’s, Caesars Palace and a few other places.

All in all…if in Las Vegas…make a point of making the painful trip up to the top of the Stratosphere Observation Deck. It is worth the cost and the hassle to get up to the top.

Just leave the tripod back in your hotel room.