Shown above – “Four Aces Poker” by Edward M. Fielding – https://edward-fielding.pixels.com/featured/four-aces-poker-edward-fielding.html
Heading back to Las Vegas in June with the return of one of my wife’s business conferences. Last time I went along I had fun walking around the Las Vegas strip in 105 degree weather. You know it’s hot and dry when you sweat evaporates immediately.
I recall seeing the “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign from my window at Mandalay Bay and thinking, I could walk there. Which I did but it turned out to be like a mile away. One the way back I had to duck into a McDonald’s and croak out an order for a extra large drink to re-hydrate.
How those Elvis impersonators or those guys in the Elmo costumes survive in that heat is beyond me.
Walking around Las Vegas strip in the early morning, and by early morning in Las Vegas I mean before 10 am, one is struck by how dead it is. At night the streets of the strip are full of people hustling around going to shows, restaurants, casinos, gathering to watch Pirate Ships battle, volcano explode and water dance to music.
But the strip is rather dead before 10am. Few stores are even open. The attractions aren’t open. But o f course the casinos never close. There is always an opportunity to gamble your money way. Morning is the time for cocktail shrimp, ice and crisp dollar bill deliveries.
Photographing on the Las Vegas Strip can be a lot of fun as well as being challenging. You are dealing with so many element screaming for your attention from casinos that look like the skyline of New York City or the Eiffel Tower in Paris. So many very large elements and then also so many people bustling around – plus the scorching desert sun of course.
In my few days in Las Vegas I traveled from the Las Vegas Welcome Sign to the Stratosphere and Circus Circus at the every end of the strip. Way at the end, the strip becomes a bit seedier and to my eye more interesting as one can photograph what must be, properties in wait for the wrecking ball.