ANGELA B. PAN

One of the awesome benefits of staying on the Strip while in Las Vegas is the freedom to just walk around and have so many cool things to see all around you. It’s also pretty awesome when you are still on east coast time on the west coast. So waking up for a sunrise walk on Las Vegas Blvd wasn’t a part of my plan but somehow just happened.

This was the very first image I took on the trip. I loved the way that the palm trees were framing each other but what really caught my attention was the sunlight hitting the side of the Mirage hotel and casino. Those yellow and orange lines are something I feel like you could only see in Vegas. I thought it made for a very cool backdrop and loved how all of this came together.

As I mentioned before, Las Vegas definitely has a very special place in my heart. I used to love visiting as a child so walking up and down the strip, pretty much alone brought back so many memories. Apparently not many people are around at 630 in the morning in Las Vegas so it was like I had the whole place to myself. LOL. And the Mirage used to be one of the coolest hotels to visit and I remember visiting pretty often. Mostly because I remember watching Siegfried and Roy and their white tigers. It used to be one of the best tickets around in the 90s so I was also glad to see how they are honored outside of the hotel with a statue. And I had no idea, but the Mirage actually has a pretty cool night show outside the hotel now. Similar to the Bellagio that you could just walk up and see it but this one is with a Volcano eruption.

My camera settings for this image is F4 at 1/320th sec at ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom.

Walking around, I spotted this guy and I had to take a pic. Not only was the light perfect on him but he reminded me of Daryl from Walking Dead. But only if he was a photographer and not a walker slayer. What do you think?

At around sunset, Andrew and I found ourselves at the Big Chief Overlook. If you’re planning on visiting Dead Horse Point State Park in Moab, Utah, I’d highly recommend starting here. It’s at the very tipty top of the park but it’s great because you get these amazing PAN-oramic views of both sides of the park. The best was that I was able to follow the sunlight wherever it was going as it was setting. It can get crowded with people up there, but the ability to walk around the corner was amazing. I got so many cool shots from up there.  And how beautiful are these rocks against the falling sunlight? They were literally glowing.

Andrew and I spent a lot of time up there. We actually stayed up there way past sunset. Almost to the point where we could start seeing stars out. Not talking or anything, just enjoying the view. At one point, I told him to take some pics with his phone, so he took this one.

Pretty cool, huh? And all with no photo instruction from me. LOL. We joke that he’s this amazing photographer when in fact most of the pics he takes either has a finger in the corner or they’re really blurry. If you’ve seen some of his other iPhone pics, this one is definietly a major achievement. Seriously.

My settings for this image was F11 at 1/160th of a second. Super fast shutter speed to capture this beautiful moment. So glad I got to spend it with Andrew AND Daryl.