The Vegas strip has a lot of places to take the tourist type photos, but I wanted to see if there were any places where you could really work with colors and composition. The first step was to recon the West side of the strip from Mandalay Bay to Bellagio.
First is Tom’s Urban Café (36°06’08.7″N 115°10’24.5″W). It’s an open-air street bar with some very colorful lights containing lots of blues, reds and yellows. The bar, with its’ shelves of interesting liquor bottles, makes a nice backdrop as well. The best location for any model is before getting to the actual seating area so you can get as much of the place in the background as possible. Keep in mind that it can be pretty crowded at night, so think about shooting just before closing when there are fewer distractions in the background.
The best spot by far is the waterfall walls next to Shake Shack between New York, New York and MGM Park (36°06’12.4″N 115°10’25.5″W) The walls are about eight feet tall and rotate through a series of neon colors. The shimmer of the water over the pebbles in the walls gives a nice effect. Since it’s set back a bit from the street there’s almost never any crowds, allowing you to take your time in setting up your shot. The venue is open 24/7 but I have seen the water flow shut off before, but I’m not sure of the hours.
Next is the pedestrian bridge in front of the Aria. A lot of what should be great shots are marred by the plexiglass safety screens along the way. But there is an open area after you get to the top of the escalators (36 06 23.56N 115 10 26.57W). This gives you excellent shots with the Luxury Store signage as a background. Or, if you can get low enough on the model you can get the entirety of the Veer Towers (with their interesting yellow colors) or the Aria in some pretty dramatic shots.
Finally, is the Cosmopolitan. The area around the central escalators is covered with long strings of pink beads that can be interesting. But color correction can be a pain. I wound up having to cool the photo down to the point that they turned blue. The best static shots of the beads are on the second floor by the escalators. One that allows standing shots is to the right as you come up the escalator. The other is a small siting area is to the left.