Shutter Mike Photography

Arivaca Cienega is part of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife refuge in Southern Arizona.  These boardwalks keep visitors above the marshy grasslands that attract the birds and animals they come to see and photograph.  They also make for some great photography subjects as well by composing them as a leading line through the grassed and  back into the mesquite trees in the background.  The edge of the boardwalk naturally leads the viewer’s eye from the foreground through the image to the termination point of the trees in the distance.

My friend over at Awesome Toy Blog forwarded me an article from the British Journal of Photography about photographer’s rights in the UK.  There has been a lot of buzz in photography news lately about the rights of both amateur photographers as well as photojournalists in the UK being impeded upon by the police.  Although you hear similar stories of “harassment” from the police of photographers here in the US, the British seem to have taken it to a whole new level.  All in the name of anti-terrorism.

New laws that recently went into effect in the UK  could result in jail for photographing police. The laws:

allow for the arrest – and imprisonment – of anyone who takes pictures of officers ‘likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism’.

This seems to leave a lot of room for interpretation by the police while limiting the rights of the photographer even further.  There have been stories of everyone from press photographers to wedding photographers being stopped, questioned and even detained for what the police determine to be “suspicious” photography behavior.  I would hope this would be no more than a minor inconvenience for the truly innocent but at the same time it seems to be taking things too far.  Especially when images of more and more public spaces are readily available to anyone on the web via Google maps and live web cams that record more and more of our everyday lives.  Are the terrorists really the ones standing in front of Parliament with their Canon DSLR snapping photographs?

I posted the other day about the Neon Museum in Las Vegas and the great photography opportunities in their boneyard.  For the signs that make it out of the boneyard the museum restores them to their original glory and installs them along downtown Las Vegas’ Fremont St.  There are nine restored signs in place.  Here are a few of them.

There is a museum in Las Vegas that ironically is all about the glitter that is Vegas yet is itself rather subdued.  No flashing neon arrows pointing to its displays, no prominent location on The Strip, nor will you even be able to find out its location too easily.  The Neon Museum in Las Vegas is a bit clandestine.  You will only be told its exact location after you have a confirmed reservation.  There are no self guided tours of its exhibits and no one gets in without a reservation, usually made months in advance.

All the secrecy makes the experience seem a bit more special.  Like you are a part of a secret club.  The Las Vegas Neon Museum houses, preserves, and eventually restores what has made Vegas famous.  Its neon signs.  Restored signs are displayed on and near Fremont St. while those that are waiting to shine again are stored in the museum’s boneyard.  The tours offered by the museum are of their 3 acre boneyard and will set you back $15.  But if you love Vegas, vintage signs, history, or just a unique experience this tour is well worth it.

The signs are in various stages of repair or disrepair as the case may be.  You are forewarned to wear close toed shoes as the boneyard is littered with broken light bulbs and rusted metal.

The museum is in the process of restoring the mid-century modern lobby of the La Concha Motel as their visitors center which was designed by Paul Revere Williams.  A prominent icon such as the La Concha as a visitor center is sure to negate any secrecy that currently surrounds the museum.

As you would imagine, hotel and casino signs dominate the collection of the Neon Museum.  But not to be outdone in glitz and glamor everyday businesses went all out with their signs in Vegas as well.  The one on the right above is from a Chinese restaurant.

If Vegas did not coin the phrase, “keeping up with the Joneses” it does its best to keep it alive.  The next best thing is always in the works.  That means old hotels are continuously being imploded to clear the way for bigger, better and flashier.  And those casinos that do survive need updated images every few years.  So old signs come down and many find their way to the neon boneyard.  The lamp above is from the Aladdin before it met some well placed TNT and the one on the right is the Golden Nugget.

The boneyard was a gold mine of photo opportunities for me.  It has everything; color, lines and shapes, great compositions, and a story to be told.  The tour does not allow for much exploring on your own, which I would have loved to do.  But if you pay attention there are shots around every corner, from the obvious full-size hotel sign to more subtle ones.  The “fallen star” above is very Vegas to me and cold be telling a classic Vegas story.  What was once a bright star served its purpose, faded and is now laying in a boneyard waiting for another chance.  A sign or a Vegas dream?