This past weekend, my girlfriend and I had a very very quick get away to Vegas. Let’s just basically call it a bender. We were in Vegas for a wholesome Baby Shower and an activity here and there, keep it chill and low key. I will admit, that this trip was very eye opening and a coming of age trip. How was this a coming of age trip, you ask? Well, let’s jump right into it.

Shot on Fujifilm XT-30II, TTartisan 25mm F/2.

This was the first time we ever flown with an extreme budget airline. Normally, at the least fly JetBlue or Southwest. BUT, this time, since we were just planning on being in and out of Vegas, we decided to fly with Frontier. For those of you that have flown with Frontier before, you already know what the deal is. And for those of you that have never flown Frontier, keep it that way! Bottom line, avoid it at all cost. I would recommend it, if you are desperately trying to be on budget and if the destination is at MOST an hour and some change away.

Now, let’s cover how this trip humbled me and made me accept how old and washed up I am. The last time I was in Vegas was about eight years ago, for my best friend’s 27th Birthday. We raged so hard for two and a half days, with possibly about eight hour of sleep for the entire weekend. Both my best friend and myself vowed to each other to go sober for as long as we can when we got back to the Bay. That lasted about four months. Fast forward to now; I could not walk the strip as easily as I did before because I am suffering from all sorts of ailments in my knees, hips, and back. If you really know me, you know I like to sleep early at like 10:30 every night, but we were sleeping at like 5AM or 6AM, so I was definitely a cranky old man. We also got a Fat Tuesday for shits and gigs. My God, was the sugar and booze really hitting me. When we flew back to the Bay, we legitimately slept for the entire day after touching down at 6AM. This is Vegas when you are 35.

This blog post was meant to talk about my experience shooting around in Vegas, but I went off on a tangent about the travel experience. So, let’s bring it back in to talk about the photography.

The expectations and visualizations I had about shooting in Vegas was completely the opposite of what I really witnessed firsthand. I was hoping to get crazy night time neon sign photos and emotional candid expressions of people on the street. But, Vegas has changed a lot through the years. I still was able to get some decent shots. At first, looking at the photos on my camera, I wasn’t satisfied or excited. But, once I uploaded them on my computer and did some post editing work, I started to enjoy and like the photos. As corny and cliche as it may sound, photography is all about trusting the process, whether it be film or digital. You can always do some work to liven up and put your flavor into your photos. The saving grace of this photo trip was the Arte Museum experience. If we didn’t go to the Arte Museum, I would definitely feel defeated and disappointed I couldn’t create cool art for you guys.

So, I hope you all enjoy this little photoset I whipped up. Enjoy!

Las Vegas ‘24

The Improviser.

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