This is the second in a series of posts about my recent trip to Las Vegas. Read the first part here.
Day 3 – Casino Exploration & Neon Boneyard Part 1
My pre-conference itinerary included two all-day bus tours so I inserted a rest day in between to allow myself more than 4 hours of sleep. I was staying at Treasure Island and planned to explore the Vegas Strip on that day. While the strip is technically walkable, the heat makes it virtually impossible to cover the entire 4 mile distance without passing out. So what does a photographer do? Go from casino to casino capturing their interiors with the occasional stop outside.
At least that was the idea. I packed up a small backpack that was only large enough for my camera and two lenses and set about my journey. I had a rough plan to take the Vegas Monorail from stop to stop, ultimately ending up at the Excalibur and sampling their brunch buffet, which is low-end, but cheap compared to the rest of the buffets in Vegas.
I didn’t feel very inspired walking through casinos that morning and never took my camera out. I also struggled to find the monorail stations and became frustrated as I circled around for nearly 40 minutes trying to reach one that would move me closer to Excalibur (which at that point I could have walked to in the same amount of time). It was over 90º and I was almost always outside, sweaty and frustrated. I eventually figured it all out, gorged on low quality buffet food and mimosas, and headed back to my hotel.
After my adventure and a light salad for dinner, I hit up the Neon Boneyard in the evening. It’s a really cool place that collects old neon signs from around Vegas into an outdoor museum. Some of them even work! They don’t allow professional cameras, but they provide one day a month for a one hour photo walk, which I’d already booked for later in the week. Feeling dissatisfied with the outcome of my morning, I decided I’d go to preview what was there to get an idea of the photos I might take with my full camera and tripod setup.
The Neon Museum was really cool and I was happy that I went.
I picked an evening time right after sunset to simulate the photo walk, which was scheduled for Thursday at 11:59 PM. The place was super cool with a bunch of restored neon signs all lit up as well as some non-lit ones mixed in. It took me about 30 minutes to get through and take photos with my phone and then I felt… done. I had a really great time and was impressed with the images I took with my phone. I bought some souvenirs from the gift shop, but left wondering what other kinds of images I’d take with my Nikon and a tripod. Given that the upcoming photo walk would leave me with 4 hours sleep before flying out on Friday, I questioned whether I wanted to do it or not.
Day 4 – Death Valley Sunset & Stars
After a day of not being on a bus it was time to get up and spend the same amount of time in a van! The temperatures dropped to “only” 90 degrees so the weather was a bit more bearable, at least in Vegas. The tour left at 11:30 AM and wasn’t full. I ended up with a row to myself, which worked out great as I also packed a smaller backpack based on my learnings from my trip to Antelope Canyon.
Death Valley is about 2.5 hours outside of Vegas, so this tour had more stops with less travel time. We stopped at Pahrump about an hour outside of the city at a small casino (they’re everywhere) for a bathroom break and snacks. As the tour left right before lunch I intended to pick up a pre-made salad, but they didn’t have any pre-made food. A protein bar it was!
As we neared the California border, we were advised to put our phones in airplane mode as there was no cell coverage in the area. That’s because there’s absolutely nothing around but mountains, small plants, and windy roads. I took photos through the window of the van of the vast nothingness. As we neared Death Vally houses started popping up here and there, but they were sparse.
Our first stop was Dante’s View. This is a hilly area with a view of the vast mountains and salt flat basin below. There are cool colored hills in the distance and nicely defined paths up the hills in the area, which made for good leading lines, especially with people on them.
There was a lot of haze, so I had to do some editing to make the sky appear clearer than it actually was. Some of these images are also processed with a film look preset and appear more pink than reality. I darkened the black and whites to create a mood.
We moved on to the Furnace Creek Visitor’s Center for a quick bathroom and snack break. There’s a cool sign out front that indicates the current temperature: 111 degrees. It was already hot at Dante’s View, but this just confirmed it.
After about 30 minutes we headed to our next stop, Badwater, which is a salt flat and the lowest point in the United States at 282 feet below sea level. It is a vast area of salt on top of mud that seems to go for miles. It was hot, measuring around 108 degrees and I felt a bit like I’d pass out on the way back to the tour van. I really wanted to compose my images so that the vast salt led the viewer out to the mountains, so I tried my best. I gave some of them a black and white treatment that worked out well.
We continued on to Artist’s Palette. This area is made up of colored hills and craggy mountains, which our tour guide proudly proclaimed were used as sets in Star Wars. There were some neat angles, but there was a lot of haze in the distance which prevented me from getting all of the shots I had in my mind. I still focused on leading lines, layers, and triangles in my compositions as much as I could.
The different mountains at different distances made it easy to layer the composition of these images. The haze was even helpful in some cases. Some of these are again processed with a more pink preset which gives them a retro look.
Our plan was to catch sunset at Zabriskie Point, but it was too early for that, so we headed over to our dinner stop. Out of the vast nothingness sprouted a resort of sorts called The Oasis at Death Valley. It was made up of multiple buildings surrounded by palm trees with mountains and desert all around it. It was actually pretty comprehensive with hotel rooms, a large air conditioned gift shop, a restaurant, a buffet, an ice cream shop, and a couple additional souvenir and clothing shops. It also had a small indoor museum and an outdoor museum with old farm equipment and a train engine. It was nice and refreshing, but had a weird, sort of abandoned feel to it. You got the idea that these were the only people out here… We stayed for about an hour and a half and I braved the buffet before moving on to our second to last stop.
The sun was starting to set so it was time to leave our Death Valley paradise!
Zabriskie Point is a popular location to view the sun setting over the mountains and there were already some people ready to take it in. I found the whole place breathtaking. There were hilly mountains to my left, golden in the setting sun. There were dark etched mountains to the right, in front of the setting sun. People were sitting on a ledge watching while photographers set up their tripods. It turned out to be a gentle sunset, but I really enjoyed it, capturing images until the last bits of light went away and the blue hour began.
I really enjoyed the sunset. It was warm and the light changed every few minutes, revealing different textures on the rocks. It was warm, but the sunset felt warm too. It was relaxing to watch it set and I was really excited to capture images of the whole thing.
That kicked off the final leg of our journey, to Death Valley Junction to star gaze. By that time it was very cloudy and not a great night for star gazing, but our guides gave it a try anyway. I setup my tripod for the first and only time on the trip, pointed it toward the mountains, and started some long exposures. We spent more than a half hour there, but I didn’t end up with too many photos since it takes so much longer to set them up. The clouds did part for a bit so that we could capture some stars, but nothing fancy like the Milky Way or an aurora. I actually liked the way the clouds looked – they added visual interest. I also grabbed a light streak from a passing car that came out pretty well.
Our trip home was the reverse, with a quick stop at a gas station where I picked up a nice salad for the next day. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour and could have spent far more time at each location, but it gave me enough of a taste of the area to know what I’d want to see if I went back.
Almost Done
Four days in and I’ve been to five different places with some Vegas sight seeing in between. It was a whirlwind and I took a lot of photos, but I’d go back to each of those places again to experience them at different times of day and longer periods of time. I had a couple more activities planned before and after my conference. More to come.
Relatively Ambitious 
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