The Paris Hotel

One of the amazing things about the new Vegas is how they are recreating some of the worlds greatest destinations.

This is a shot of the Paris Hotel, across the street from the Bellagio.

I love my 17-85mm IS lens. No tripod. Just point and shoot, with a pretty steady hand.

The Bellagio - Part 2

I knew heading out to Vegas would cure my lack of color.

This bizarre looking scene is in the hotel lobby at the Bellagio. In fact, its the ceiling right above the seats.

Like I've said before, this hotel is beautiful around every corner.

I took two frames of this, not sure if I like one more than the other or if there is really a difference. One is at an angle, the other straight on. What do you think?

The Bellagio - Part 1

The Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, NV is a positively breath taking hotel. On our recent trip, we spent a great deal of time here. This hotel hosts one of the world's toughest poker rooms any where. Unfortunately, I can't get in there with a camera.

They spared no expense decorating this hotel. It is elegant like no other, well, maybe the Venetian.

This first picture was taken looking up in one of the domes above the shopping area on the Caesar's Palace side. The colors and the flowers were just beautiful.

This second picture shows the same area from the side. I thought this frame was just about as interesting as the first one.

If you find yourself in Las Vegas, you owe it to yourself to check out this hotel. Heck, even the casino area was beautiful, but I still like the card room.

A little more Vegas

We survived day 2 in Las Vegas.

We headed down the strip today to the Stratosphere. You know me, I love a fun poker tournament. I took some shots from on top of the tower. It was actually a hazy day here in Vegas, so not sure about how well they'll turn out.

On our way back, we stopped at Treasure Island to check out the show. We were standing on the pirate ship side. I captured this first one. I think it turned out pretty cool. It was a difficult time to shoot. The sun was setting.

If I had been on the siren's side of the show, we may have needed to change the rating of this blog. Although taking the pictures would have been fun.
We also walked up the strip a little. I believe I got this one from up by the Bellagio.

I'm finding it tough to shoot here with the Mrs with. She likes to keep moving and I like stop and take a good shot.

Oh well, we are having a blast!!! Not sure if we are going to make it downtown. I wanted to try and get to the Freemont Street Experience and Binion's, but it may not be in the cards.

Welcome to Las Vegas

We started our parent mini-vacation here in Las Vegas. My camera has been with me the whole time.

I haven't much time to process anything yet. The Bellagio is an amazing hotel. I took a ton of pictures there last night. Let's hope some of them will turn out.

Here's a sampling of what I've gotten so far.

The weather here...absolutely perfect. Its 80 degrees during the day and 65 degrees at night. Maybe we'll sell the house and change address'. Or not.

Stay tuned!

The camera is getting packed tonight. A change of scenary will do me good.

I will be leaving for Las Vegas, Nevada tomorrow night. If its color I'm missing, I can think of no better place to shake off the mind numbing beige that is my surroundings then the neon of Vegas.

I wish I could leave right now. I'm that excited!!!

The Cover of Rolling Stone

Growing up, I was a huge fan of the photography in Rolling Stone magazine. The portraits they took always seemed to capture the artists soul.

A wife, 2 kids and a career later, the opportunities for me to "tour with the band" have slipped away. Since early spring in Minnesota is about as appealing as a Dead Grass Collectors Society convention, I tried photographing one of the kids unleashing her inner rock star playing a little Guitar Hero.

The living room isn't exactly the CBGB, but hey...this girl can ROCK!

I miss my camera

Minnesota in Feb/March is some of the most uninspiring sights around.

The snow is dirty. The roads are dirty. Cars are dirty. Everything is covered in a layer dirt. There are no colors to speak of...anywhere.

I started a conversation with fxmixer over at f/11 to try and see if we can come up with some photo assignment/challenges for each other. Still working on that. I think some challenges with due dates will really help getting the ol' juices flowing.

I realize, just recently, that this poor blog hasn't been updated in a month. That's completely unacceptable. So I've dug back into the archives to find this little gem.

This is another of my all-time favorite pictures. It just captures exploring the beach and really gives me that sense of relaxation we get when we are hanging out at the beach.

Believe it or not, this is the Minnesota/Wisconsin area in the summer. I've heard, it may actually get warm again. Anyone know what happened to global warming?

The Barn Photo Redux - The Sequel

Back to this morning.

I drive this little road that connects my residential area with a drive that takes us to downtown. It runs behind a golf course and serves as the edge of our metropolis. I love to call this road "Bob's Road." (Name that movie!)

This bridge is in the golf course. It crosses a little creek that floods every time it gets wet in these parts.

I did touch this up a little in Photoshop. The exposures just don't seem right.
These next two pictures are of our favorite subject...the barn on Bob's Road.

Here are two more angles of the same barn. I'd love to here what everyone thinks.

This barn is scheduled for demolishion this spring. Bob's Road will be growing up and be turned into a real road. So if anyone has ideas of what can be done with this subject let me know. Just remember, I have to take the pictures from the road. As far as I know, this barn is still on private property. The property appears abandoned, but I just don't know.

This second one is very similar to the shot I took last winter only this time, I turned the camera over.

I'm really liking this one. I like it better than the one from last year, but I'm not sure its better than the post from this morning.

I'm a big fan of the rule of thirds. I also really like photos with vast empty space. This fits them both.

Do you like pictures like this?

Lastly, I found these log/brush piles. I've been watching them for a few years. I think there is a photo here, I'm just not sure this is the one.

In other news, I do need to tell everyone that I know have a nice collection of lenses now. I got today a 50mm Prime lens. With this last lens, I think I'm finally got a nice range of focal lengths.

More pictures from the 50mm coming soon.

Be sure to answer these questions! All feedback accepted and appreciated!

The Barn Photo Redux

It's another beautiful day here in MN. I'm approaching my last day at my current job. This caused me some serious issues this morning.

You see, the conditions were perfect for more hoarfrost. Todays coating was about the thickest I've ever seen. Man-o-man getting to work without filling the memory card was a challenge.

I swung by my old haunts to find one of my favorite barns looking might nice.

The only adjustment to this picture was bit of of upping the exposure on the RAW converter. Otherwise, this is as shot.