Bellagio, Las Vegas

Famous Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. You can see the Ceasar’s Palace in the background. Las Vegas looks best at night (see other photos on this blog) but at times it can look beautiful in day time too. I like this photo for the reflection and the white-grey clouds in the sky. Shot with Nikon D7000 and Nikon 10-24mm lens. January 2011.

Venetian, Las Vegas

I was in Las Vegas for CES 2011. While there I took my new D7000 to shoot some photos of casinos and hotels. D7000 has very good high-ISO performance. At ISO 1100 this photo still shows no noticeable noise. I have tested this camera a fair bit and images with ISO 6400 are quite usable. Shot with Nikon D7000 and Nikon 10-24mm lens.

Focal length: 10mm
Shutter Speed: 1/30s
ISO: 1400
Aperture: 3.5

New York New York, Las Vegas

A popular photo spot opposite the New York New York hotel in Las Vegas. I had taken same photo some 12 years ago at the same spot. Compare to notice the advances in technology. I had to work a lot on old photo (shot with film camera and then scanned negative) to remove noise, get correct white balance and remove some blemishes on the negative. This time around you see pretty much exactly what came out of my camera (digital this time) with only cropping and color cast removal. Shot with Nikon D90 and Nikon 18-200mm VR lens without a tripod.

Bellagio, Las Vegas

A lucky shot in the fading daylight while we were having dinner in a outdoor restaurant opposite Bellagio. Believe it or not, I have not done any retouching on this photo beyond a simple crop and some noise reduction. The colors are as they came out of camera. I use +3 Vivid setting all the time. Shot with Nikon D90 and Nikon 18-200mm VR lens, handheld.

Forum Shops, Las Vegas

Forum Shops, Las Vegas. This huge shopping mall has magnificent views. We just watched the scene than actually shop here. It’s expensive! Shot with Nikon D90 and Nikon 10-24mm lens. This wide angle lens gives a typical wide-angle distorted feel to the picture. I used the Brilliance/Warmth filter to enhance the warm orange glow of the indoor lighting.

Harley Davidson Cafe, Las Vegas

This Harley Davidson sign with bright red, white colors was very interesting. In reality the colors came out slightly different than what I saw them there. I didn’t bother playing with the white balance settings later. Shot with Nikon D90 with Nikon 18-200 VR lens without a tripod.

Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas

Planet Hollywood and Paris. Two iconic hotels in Las Vegas in all their night glory. Shot with Nikon D90 without a tripod. The newer digital cameras are getting very good at high-ISO performance that you don’t need to carry a tripod for a decent photo. I have done some post processing to remove noise and boost contrast.

Las Vegas at night

Las Vegas at night (November 1998). Hotel New York, New York. This is an old photo I took with Canon EOS Elan IIE (a film camera) with a Kodak MAX 800 film. This was shot handheld without tripod. The lens was cheap Sigma 28-80mm which resulted in massive distortion. I have used Nikon Capture NX2 to reduce noise and some color correction.