Las Vegas Adventure – Part 1

This is the first post of several chronicling a nine day trip to Vegas. The unfinished draft was over 2700 words, and well, nobody’s going to read that 🙂

I recently had the opportunity to attend a conference in Las Vegas for work. I’ve never been to Vegas before and decided to do a bit of sightseeing ahead of time. I’ve never been to the desert or any of the national parks in that area either and felt that it was an unmissable opportunity to photograph.

I looked at several options for my itinerary – renting a car and driving, taking multi-day bus tours, or taking daily tours outside of Vegas. The challenge was that most things I wanted to visit were 3 – 4 hours outside of the city, which resulted in 10 – 12 hour day trips with a lot of time on a bus. Those trips are also mid-day, which doesn’t result in the best images. Driving myself was a better option, but a lot more work, and I wasn’t comfortable doing it alone. The multi-day bus trips were interesting, but they had far too low of a luggage allowance for my equipment plus what I’d need for the conference after.

I settled on the bus trips and scheduled a few with a couple days in between to rest, recharge, and see things nearby. What resulted was a nine day trip: 5 days personal and 4 days for business. It’s the longest trip I’ve taken away from the family since I was stationed in Seattle a decade ago.

With that out of the way, let’s get started!

Day 1 – Red Rock Canyon at Sunset

Red Rock Canyon state park is 30 minutes outside of the Vegas strip and was a good option for my first day. I flew down in the morning, checked into my hotel by 11, and was picked up around 4:30 for a sunset hike. This was one of my two sunset tours; if I couldn’t arrange sunrise I could at least get sunset.

I booked a group tour but there weren’t enough people on it so they offered me a private one instead. It even ended up costing less because we booked it outside of the booking platform. My guide was a camera junkie and we spent much of the trip talking equipment in between his explanations of the area. He gave me plenty of time to meander around the many spots we stopped at.

The red rocks were really cool, especially in the golden hour light. They are such a different texture than the rocks back home and there is so much open space. The vegetation is different too – hearty and sparse, sometimes yellow, dotting the landscape. The actual sunset turned out not to be very strong, but I captured some images of the rocks in the golden setting sunlight as well as a couple of the sunset that are OK.

I brought a bunch of lenses in my backpack – a 16mm, a 20mm, a 16mm fisheye, a 70-180mm, and a 24-120mm. I wanted choice if I needed it, but it turns out I didn’t – I took all of my images with the 24-120mm. It provided plenty of range for wide shots while allowing nice detail shots as well. I put a polarizer on to enhance the sky and cut some of the haze on distant rocks and bracketed all of my exposures as 5 image sets to capture the highest dynamic range.

There was a bit of hiking involved, and I was glad to get it after sitting on a plane all day. Overall it was a great way to start my adventure. It was relaxing, interesting, and right outside the city.

Day 2 – Antelope Canyon & Horseshoe Bend

Antelope Canyon is a famous slot canyon in Page Arizona with beautiful shapes and shafts of light. Horseshoe Bend is nearby and provides a view of the Colorado River carving through the rocks and wrapping around itself. Both are about 4 hours outside of Vegas, making for a long day that started at 7:30 AM and ended at 9 PM.

After almost missing my bus because I wasn’t asking enough people if they were my tour guide, the trip was smooth sailing. In contrast to my first tour, this one was completely full with 55 people in total. We had a clean bus with comfortable seats and without any ads on the windows, which meant I could snap images as we went along. The land is so amazing with vast areas of nothingness followed by clusters of homes and farms with huge flat mesas in the background. If I had driven myself I would have pulled over a million times and may not have ever reached my destination! I was enamored with images of solitary trees standing amidst pale harsh brush in the red sand in front of the cliffs. I took photos out the window throughout the 4 hour trip.

We stopped about two hours in for a bathroom and food break in Hurricane, Utah, then continued our journey with Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon on either side of us. In between the scenery I edited Red Rock Canyon photos on my laptop and took photos out the window. I had packed the same camera gear as the night before, plus a battery for my laptop, cables, sunscreen, and a lunch box. I looked a bit ridiculous crammed into a window seat with a large backpack and a bunch of stuff on my lap.

A few views of Horseshoe Bend. I laid on my stomach and held my camera over the ledge for the first one. There was a lot of pollen and it was midday, so the water is greener than I’d have liked.

We arrived at Horseshoe Bend first. This is a very popular tourist spot and is very crowded. The bend is about a ten minute walk from the parking lot and the weather was very hot, above 90, and dry. It was certainly crowded but it wasn’t crazy. I only had to wait a minute to get to the front a take a few shots at 24mm with my 24-120mm lens. I swapped it for a 16mm prime and had no trouble getting another few shots. A polarizer made sky blue and the clouds stand out. I even laid on my stomach to crawl out on a rock and dangle my camera over the edge for a more complete view. That one was a bit scary, but I preferred being on my stomach rather than 2 feet from the edge like people having their photos taken.

The time of day wasn’t great. Most images you see of Horseshoe bend are taken at sunset when the light is beautiful and the shadows are soft. My pictures were taken at about 1 PM, when the light is harsh and the shadows are hard. It was also hazy out, limiting the distant view. I still got some images I like and know what to expect next time 🙂

We spent a total of an hour at there but it was more like 30 minutes after getting ready and walking to and from. This gave me about 30 minutes to take pictures and it made me feel rushed. Not the tour’s fault, just the way things are. I’d love to go back and spend more time there, especially for sunset.

Our second stop was Antelope Canyon. The canyon is divided into an upper and lower section and my tour was unclear which I would get. The upper canyon is famous for the light shafts that come in through the open ceiling but it is narrow and very crowded. The lower canyon is more subdued but is larger and can have more interesting light. We ended up going to the lower canyon and that was fine with me.

The canyons are only about five minutes away from Horseshoe Bend, so we got there quickly and had an hour to have our bagged lunch – a choose-your-own-adventure salad or sandwich, a tangerine, chips, and a pineapple juice. Some people complain about it online, but it was fine. After lunch we broke into four groups for the tour. We watched a traditional Navajo dance and then went down into the canyon.

Similar to Horseshoe Bend, it’s about a 10 minute walk until you hit a series of stairs and ladders that go 75 feet underground. The canyon was instantly beautiful, with smooth curves and deep shadows draped in beautiful orange light. It was crowded, but less so than I expected. It’s also far bigger than I thought it would be, taking nearly an hour to walk start to finish. There were a few areas of the canyon I was able to capture without anyone in them, but I spent most of my time shooting up. The abstract shapes and shadows look absolutely amazing with the sky peeking in and there are no people to get in the way.

Tripods are no longer allow so I relied on the high ISO capabilities of my Z8 and bracketed my exposures. I used my 24-120mm lens to provide different framing options and shot at ISO 3200 f/8 with 7 bracketed images ⅔ of a stop apart. Sometimes I’d shift it and take another set of bracketed images just to be sure I had enough to edit afterward.

I took a few with my phone so that I could post them quickly and our guide generously took some of me as well. It’s rare that I take any pictures of myself and his were really great!

I just can’t get over the canyon – the textures, the shapes, the shadows – it was soooooo cool!!!! This is definitely a place I’d go back to again, maybe when it isn’t so hot 🙂

Until Next Time

I have many more photos of Antelope Canyon and a few of Horseshoe bend as well as all of my bus photos to process. We’ll be revisiting this one.