Vegas - In Words and Pictures !

So I got back from Vegas on Friday, after a total blast of a week ! For those of you who have never been to Vegas, you owe it to yourself to make that trip at least once. The images I am going to blog here can't even come close to showing the sheer scale of the place, seriously, everything is just VAST !

While I was there, the strip had a power cut for almost an hour - that was totally freaky, there were helicopters circling overhead and I had to resort to using my phone as a torch (go on, admit that you do that too haha).

Monday night was packed with dinner and drinks with so many photographers I just don't have the space to mention them all here ... first off we had dinner with David Williams from Australia and some of his close friends. We ate at Noodles Restaurant in the Bellagio. Then off to the Digital Wedding Forum get together at the Westin, just off-strip. Many thanks to Jeff Caplan and Gina Preston for the freebie tequila ! Oh, and just a quick mention about David Beckstead's rather rubbish attempt at tequila slamming ;)

Much of the rest of the week is a blur of restaurants, pubs, walking, walking some more (thankfully I brought comfy shoes), chatting about photography and more walking. However, following the shoot on the last night we landed back in Paris at the Tequila bar (quel surprise) where some of the big names in photography happened to be hanging out. Most I have mentioned in my blog previously but I couldn't let this post go without a shout out to Susan Stripling, purely because she had so much energy (after a week in Vegas that can be tough) and was such good fun :)

So, here is a small selection from the last night, when we went "freedom shooting" up and down the strip. We photographers can be quite competitive, so it was fun trying to out-shoot each other, to see who could get the best shot using our Canon point and shoots :) I was shooting with Randy Kepple, so I need to credit him with a some of these shots - they will be obvious - I am in them !!

This is the view of the lobby in my hotel ... I was staying in the pyramid section (there is also a tower) so you can see the inside sloping upwards - it's incredible - every one of those white squares is a bedroom !
To try to instill a sense of scale I took this shot of the MGM lion - check out the people shadows at the bottom !
A couple of wide views of New York New York - it's like a city within a city - HUGE ! I managed to avoid being coaxed onto the rollercoaster :) Actually, we spent a lot of time in here - well, it did have a fabulous Irish pub in it !

A closer view ...

That pub ... well, the signage (Randy thought it was funny !)

Our drinking buddies ... Tony Bisson and Katie Kelly ...

Random shot of little old me ... The convention was held at both the Paris and Ballys hotels so of course we were there quite a bit too ... Paris is a beautiful hotel with an eiffel tower, arc de triomphe, ceiling painted like the sky, wonderful restaurants ... sigh, I wish I was back there !

Me and my shooting partner under the tower ...

Of course, all good things must end and it was not long before I was facing my 2 flights home (I travelled via Dallas) - the AA flight to Dallas had me in a window seat so I could not resist taking some shots out over the wing - this one was taken as we banked left and shows Vegas pretty well - including the strip.

That's all - til Phoenix ...