We are back from Vegas, safe and sound, and our flight was less than an hour late. We had a bit of a bumpy ride getting into Minneapolis, and one of our group did mention the possibility of kissing the ground upon arrival. Here is a view of Caesar’s Palace, which gets bigger and bigger every time we visit.
These hotels/casinos are so humongous, it is hard to judge the distance. You want to think twice before deciding to just “walk over there”…it could be a mile! (Our highs were around 105 degrees, so you definitely don’t want to take any big hikes.)
Although Paris, France, is officially the City of Lights, I think Las Vegas must be a close second. It is an interesting city in the daytime, but it is a dazzling display of excess at night. Ruby asked if I would share how I take pictures at night. Vegas at night is pretty easy because it is such a brightly lit scene. When I snapped the first picture, though, the flash went off, and for a scenery picture, I knew that was the kiss of death. I suppressed the flash and took a second picture — MUCH BETTER! Here are my first and second pictures:
By the way, the “Eiffel Tower” is in front of the Paris Hotel & Casino, which is where we stayed. Pat and I went down to get coffees (and an OJ for our non-coffee drinker) to a little French pastry shop. Oh, my, how tempting their pastries were! We were good, though, and just came back with the beverages. (And look at those prices!!! They are a little hard to read but $5+ per pastry.)
So my recommendations for pictures at night: make sure you suppress the flash, unless you are taking a picture at night of something only a very few feet away that you want illuminated. There was so much light in Vegas, the shutter speed was pretty fast. For most night shots, though, you might need a tripod, or at the very least rest the camera on something solid. The shutter will stay open longer when there’s less light, and you will need to keep the camera very steady. If you take a picture and the lights look smeary, you know your camera wasn’t steady enough. Even resting your elbows on a railing is a big help in the steadiness department.
AND — guess who was out my window this morning? MR. HUMMER!!! I’ve only had Ms. Hummer this summer, so that flash of red on his throat was quite a thrill.
And Mr. Hummer was followed by a black-capped chickadee and a goldfinch.
–Sue
