Exhibition — Viva, Las Vegas!
On February 13th, I learned that one of my photos would appear for the first time in an exhibition!
The Wedding and Portrait Photography International Expo 2019 (WPPI), which takes place in Las Vegas, Nevada was scheduled to take place from February 26th to March 3rd. My photo would be displayed as part of the Exhibition Shot competition at Gurushots and B&H Photo. Being that this was the first exhibition that Gurushots had in the United States in quite some time, and being my first exhibited photo, I was determined to go see it in person.
My friend Matt, who is also a photographer, and owner of Specht Designs, was also selected to be on display, so we both decided to travel to Las Vegas, and make a vacation of it. This was a great opportunity to meet other photographers and like-minded individuals, check out some of the latest photography gear, and get away from the daily grind for a few days.
Day 1
Matt and his wife and I were all staying at the same hotel (in different rooms, of course), which was the Luxor. My wife was unfortunately unable to get the time off work, so I was solo for the trip. I had never stayed at the Luxor, so got a Pyramid room, just for the novelty of it. The building itself is pretty impressive, with the ascending levels throughout the pyramid. This is no building for those afraid of heights though.
What we called ‘Day 1’ was technically our 2nd day, as we arrived late the night before (and into early morning). So our first morning, we grabbed some breakfast, then headed to the WPPI Expo. We had read online that photography wasn’t allowed on the show floor, so didn’t bring our cameras with us, which turned out to be a mistake. There were cameras everywhere. We ended up returning to the hotel later in the afternoon to grab our cameras and head back.
There were many models setup with professional lighting throughout the show floor, and photographers were encouraged to take photos, test equipment, etc. We got a few photos of the models, but the shots felt a little unnatural.
While at the Expo, we found Matt’s photo on display, and got a photo of him with it. My photo was digital, and some technical difficulties prevented me from seeing it displayed at first. We eventually made our way out of the Expo and out to the strip to see it come alive at nighttime.
Day 2
We started off the 2nd day at the Expo once again. Before heading over though, I wandered around the hotel just a bit capturing some photos, especially some high-up shots looking down that I thought would make excellent tilt-shift opportunities; I was right.
Back at the Expo, we found my photo on display, so naturally, I posed next to it. We also took some more photos of the models at the Expo. Some of these turned out decently enough. We eventually decided to go do something ‘Vegas’ and visited the Neon Museum to watch the “Brilliant!” show, which was really neat and impressive. While there, I got a couple decent ‘neon’ shots of my companions.
We capped off the night by visiting Fremont Street, in the heart of ‘old’ Vegas. There was a raucous crowd, and a concert going on. This gave me an opportunity to capture something I hadn’t really before, which was an actual concert performance. I think the results turned out fairly well.
Day 3
Desperately wanting to see the historic Welcome to Las Vegas sign, we trudged our way to the extreme southern end of the Strip, and got photos of the sign in daylight. I didn’t necessarily want to see this very much myself, but I’m happy with the photos I got of it once there.
This day saw us skip the Expo, and head out on an excursion to Hoover Dam. I had been before, but back before I had any kind of decent eye for photography, or decent equipment. The dam itself was exactly as I remembered, but we took our time and got some nice photos of the structure and surrounding areas.
After the Hoover Dam, we returned to the Strip, taking in the sights at night, including the Bellagio fountains, the half-scale Eiffel Tower, and some long exposures of the traffic on the Strip. We ended the night with another trip to the Las Vegas sign, to get it at night.
Day 4
We really didn’t spend much time in Vegas on our final day. We got up and headed for the airport and came home. However, upon waking up and looking outside, I was greeted by the sight of a rainbow, which seemed a fitting sight. At the airport, I got a nice photo of the air traffic control tower, and grabbed a quick snap of something I rarely see: an empty row of seats next to me. The plane wasn’t at all full, and I had my own row to myself. Now that’s how to travel!
Our trip to Las Vegas was incredibly fun, for many reasons, but also because I met a lot of great people there, and hope to keep in touch with them in the future. Hopefully I’ll be able to go back to another WPPI Expo in the future, and to other exhibitions to see my work on display again.
