Vegas Night Lights

At the beginning of the week I was itching to get out of our calm and quaint neighborhood in Henderson and capture some photographs of Vegas. For our first trip to the Strip with J, we had no expectations besides enjoying the flashy (really flashy!) and colorful lights of the famous Las Vegas!

We quickly learned that one does not just drive up the Strip, find a parking spot, and merrily be on their way to enjoy the festivities. Anyway....one hour later we finally make it to the Bellagio Fountains. With time to kill before the show, we enjoyed people watching and J enjoyed people chasing (and staring).

And when I usually feel awkward with my camera out everywhere we go, I would have felt MORE out of place if I wasn't snapping away at everything. Bonus of living in a tourist town! 

On a related note, I also felt a tiny sense of accomplishment as I thought of my journey from a snap-happy tourist to a photographer in control of my camera. (And as I type this I laugh because just this week I somehow smacked myself in the head with my camera's hot shoe. Ow!)

After finishing my NYIP lesson this week on natural light and night photography, I felt confident that I would be able to get beautiful shots of the fountains. What I didn't count on was my terrible timing when releasing the shutter. Even with a shutter speed of a few seconds, I would miss the big shots of water nearly every time. But now I know, just like with fireworks, you don't stop clicking until the show stops.

Moral of the story, I don't know "Billie Jean" like I thought I did.