Downtown Las Vegas

Ron NiebruggeLas Vegas, Nevada, Photos, Travel 7 Comments

Laser show, Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada.

Laser show, Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada.

We found this vantage point last year after making our way through a 3 story mall on the south end of Fremont Street.  This year we returned, and found the mall dark and vacant, still physically open.  Now I gotta admit, there are a lot of people walking around downtown Las Vegas who I would rather not run into in a dark alley, or a dark mall for that matter, especially while carrying two expensive cameras and tripods (one was for shooting time-lapses).

We got set up and photographed the light show while nervously watching over our shoulders the whole time.  Once the show wrapped up, I quickly folded up the tripods and we bolted for the exit with a feeling of relief, when suddenly 3 young guys came around the corner walking right towards us,  saying something about cameras.  These guys looked like trouble and there was no one else around.  I gotta admit my heart began to race a bit as a put my hand in my jacket and readied the bear spray.  I smiled and nodded hi, acting as relaxed as possible, and they did the same.  Janine and I slipped into the elevator and watched the doors slowly close, breathing a huge sigh of relief as it began to lower us to the relative safety of the crowded street – one with plenty of police presence!

This a a combination of two images exposed 3 stops apart.

Vdara Hotel Photo

Ron NiebruggeLas Vegas, Nevada, Photos, Travel 2 Comments

Vdara Hotel, City Center, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Vdara Hotel, City Center, Las Vegas, Nevada.

The grand opening for the Vdara Hotel and Spa and its 1,495 suites is December 1, 2009.  This is one of a number of properties scheduled to open in City Center this upcoming December.  I have about worn out my running shoes trying to find vantage points to photograph these properties while they are still under construction – I have tried just about every freeway overpass, parking garage and road within a mile or two in each direction!

I may have spoke (wrote) to soon on the assignment work yesterday.  The scope of the work doubled, while the budget shrunk, and so we are now going to pass.  Besides a lot of walking and scouting, I am getting a lot of key-wording and captioning done!

Las Vegas Photographer

Ron NiebruggeLas Vegas, Nevada, Photos, Travel 4 Comments

City Center, Las Vegas, Nevada.

City Center, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Last winter when we were here in Las Vegas, a newspaper article reported that a good portion of the multi-billion dollar City Center project would be open by this October.  Well, it is far from open.  It is tough to photograph such a project and keep cranes, dump trucks and all the other commotion out of the scene – a telephoto lens comes in handy.

I actually picked up a few days of photography assignment work while we are here in Las Vegas (not for City Center).  As a travel photographer, it is always nice to pick up some assignment work while on the road!

Tower Arch

Ron NiebruggeMoab, Photos, Utah 13 Comments

Tower Arch, Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah.

Tower Arch, Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah.

This is a quick and dirty blend of two jpeg images, one for the sunset sky, and one for the rest.  Once I’m home, I’ll re-work this, probably using most, if not all five raw files, but this gets me at least 90% of the way to the final image.

I gotta say, this was one of the tougher hikes home in the dark.  A half an inch of rain had obliterated most the footprints on this lightly traveled trail, and it seemed like the cairns were just out of headlight range – the lack of a moon didn’t help.  But, being able to spend a wonderful evening at this beautiful arch, with out another person within miles made it completely worth it for us!

Check out more of our Arches National Park photos.

Partition Arch

Ron NiebruggeMoab, Photos, Travel, Utah 9 Comments

Partition Arch, Arches National Park, Utah.

Partition Arch, Arches National Park, Utah.

A self portrait of me in Partition Arch.  This is the smaller of two openings at the location of Partition Arch, so maybe this one has a different name.  It is a great location – from the opening you can look down on the trail and viewing area for Landscape Arch.

See more Arches National Park pictures.

Slickrock Trail, Moab, Utah

Ron NiebruggeMoab, Photos, Travel, Utah 5 Comments

Mountain biking on the Slickrock Trail, Moab, Utah.

Mountain biking on the Slickrock Trail, Moab, Utah.

Since we rode the awesome Slickrock Bike Trail yesterday, I thought this would be a good time to post this photo.  It was sure a blast – and we were much faster then last year, that always feels good.

I didn’t bring my camera on the ride, as it is too heavy.  This photo was from two Fridays ago, we did this the night before the 24 Hours of Moab Bike Race.  You see I don’t do much shooting with multiple, off camera flashes and wanted to practice a bit before the actual race.

Most of my flash use is for a minor bit of fill light.  For this, mounting the flash on the camera works fine, as the light is usually just there for a bit of catch-lit in the eyes of an animal, and to brighten the subject a bit – the light really isn’t noticeable to the viewer.  When the flash provides a larger amount of the light source, I think it is important to get the flash off the camera and off to the side, and even behind the subject.

So I practiced multiple setups right up until near total darkness – I wanted some night shots.  I felt like I had everything dialed in, and wouldn’t you know it, on the day of the race my wireless transmitter worked for 3 tests shots and then died.  Nothing seemed to fix it, not even new batteries.

Well clouds saved the day for my daytime shooting as they helped defuse the light and soften the shadows, I didn’t really need flash.  For my night shots, I ended up setting up the camera on a tripod and opening the shutter for about 10 seconds, and manually popping the flash from off to one side to light the bikers.  After a couple adjustments to my distance and the flash power, this totally manual technique actually worked pretty well.  So much for being prepared.