Hotel Graphic Design

	Hotel Graphic Design Platinum, Las Vegas, NV; 50mm, f16, 1/90, ISO 200, tripod ... plus, I slanted the camera to add extra visual energy by creating strong diagonal lines. © Kerry Drager kerrydrager.com Nikon D3 Digital S...

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10/9/2009 7:38:51 PM

Hi Amalia,
Glad you like this scene! While on a five-day trip to Las Vegas a few weeks ago, my goal was to shoot the lights and colors of the Vegas Strip each evening - a good strategy since I was attending a seminar during the daytime each weekday. But I always like to look for photos close to "home" - so to speak - even when on a trip! So I got up a little early each morning to check around my hotel for possible shooting subjects. The nearby Platinum hotel glowed just after sunup.

I shot a variety of compositions on two consecutive mornings, and my favorite image was this one. I slanted the camera to turn the lines into diagonals for extra visual energy. I left out the sky completely and chose to fill the frame with a tight composition, since my intention was to make this a photo of a graphic-design pattern rather than a photo of strictly a hotel.

Two other notes:

- With my prime (non-zoom) 50mm lens, I composed the shot by "zooming" the old-fashioned way - by moving in physically closer.
- I used a tripod here ... for optimum image quality, as well as to get the preciseness I wanted - in the viewfinder :) - for the composition.

Thanks again for commenting, Amalia!
Kerry

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10/9/2009 10:32:49 PM