Fear And Love In Las Vegas - Steem Creators Conference - Part 1 of 2 (7 Psychedelic Photos)
There was no Loathing this weekend but plenty of Love at the Las Vegas Steem Creators Conference. Maybe a touch of Fear too right before I went on stage for my presentation but with all the love and support from the other awesome steemians in the room, the fear quickly went away.
The weekend was amazing. Friendships and memories were made that will hopefully last a lifetime. Sadly, the event did have to end and on Sunday evening I found myself alone, with my camera for company. I decided to go walk the strip and get some fun psychedelic looking photos. It's a technique that I have played with before, but it had been a while and it was really fun to loosen up and get creative with.
(click the images to view larger)
These photos were shot on a Canon 5dsr with a 24-105mm lens, all handheld, no tripod, no flash, no filters. They are all single exposures and the psychidelic look was achieved in the camera, not in Photoshop. They were all shot at ISO 320, a somewhat middle of road ISO. Most of these were one-second exposures, I needed the longer exposure time for this technique. The aperture varied depending on how bright the lights were, somewhere between f10 and f22. I didn't want to go wide open with the aperture so I could retain a decent depth of field.
Here's the tricky part of the technique. During the long exposure, I zoomed the lens and moved the camera a bit. I start out trying to keep the camera as still as possible during the first half of the one-second long exposure. Then I zoomed the lens fast for the second half of the exposure. For some of the shots I started out with the lens set at a wide angle of 24mm, then I zoomed to 105mm. For some of them it was opposite, where I started out at 105mm, then zoomed out wide. I always tried to make sure the main subject matter was in focus when I started the shot. This technique requires a lot of experimenting and taking many many exposures, making slight adjustments each time in order to end up with a "keeper" shot. I actually shot 179 photos while out there and only ended up with 13 keeper shots. The images were shot in RAW format and processed in Adobe Photoshop's Camera Raw feature. A decent ammount of dodging and burning was done in order to darken and lighten some of the streaky lights.
This look is not for everyone, I get that. But I like it and that's what's really important, haha! It's a great way to "break the rules" and have fun with photography. Experiment! Play!
What do you think of the look? And if you do like it, which image is your favorite?
Please look for Part 2 of this post tomorrow (click follow if you don't want to miss it). I'll be posting 6 more shots...
Large limited edition fine art prints, printed by me personally, available. Click the image titles for info.
Thank you for looking and reading!
Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
More of my Steem Creators Conference posts:
- Karaoke With @coruscate And Many Other Awesome Steemians! Steem Creators Conference (lots of photos)
- Las Vegas Indoor Skydiving At The Steem Creators Conference (lots of photos and a little photo education)
- Las Vegas Steem Creators Conference Presenters - Tons Of Photos And Great Steemians To Follow!
- More Steemy Fun At The Las Vegas Steem Creators Conference - Night Life Photos!
- Photos From Today's Las Vegas Steem Creators Conference
- Check the tag #steemcreators for more great post by other steemians who attended the conference.
@scottshots Great share bro cant wait to see what's next.
Thanks Whale !!! ;) Seriously, it was great to meet you and hang out a bit. I wish you would have been at more of the nightlife locations. If you're ever in Tahoe, hit me up! And next time I'm in LA, I'm going to try to round up the LA steemians for a meetup. Cheers!
SCOTT SHOTS!! I LOVE this post! The name is great and the photos are amazing!! They are especially awesome to me because I see these lights and buildings all the time. My favorite is the Bellagio- that tower floating off to the right is super trippy!!
Sweet! I was hoping you, the local, would like these shots. A different way to shoot what has been shot millions of times. Play play play! Thanks for letting me know your fav, that one did turn out pretty cool. I also like how people were included, something I had not done before with the technique.
Oh, and thank you for the resteem!!!
Now thats really really cool! I dont think ive ever seen that done with so much precision!
Thanks @dynamicgreentk! Yeah, it took a lot of dialing in each shot in order to get the good ones.
It was great to meet you this weekend, hopefully I'll see you at the next creators conference. Cheers!
This is a bunch of colorful and trippy pics, I never thought of using that technique tht way, what a blast this post was!
Stoked you liked the post and photos @elfranz! It's a super fun technique, I hope you can give it a try sometime. Cheers!
Thank you for the resteem @elfranz!!!
This style is so cold!
Brrrrrr! Thank you @wolfnworbeikood!
I love the last one the most with the people watching - they look like small silhouettes. Just them and the beautiful golden lights. Which was your favorite?
I always appreciate your posts because you share your tips and skills.
Congratulations on a successful conference !!
Just as a ps - I can make shots like these without even wanting too!!! Shaky camera syndrome :)
Thank you @countrygirl!!! I'll keep on posting tips with the photos, teaching a little has been part of the fun here on steemit.
Hahaha! Yeah, sometimes even I can get the similar shaky look on accident, especially with the phone camera.
Ok, it's hard for me to pick a favorite but I do really like that last one as well. I don't usually include people with these kind of shots but it added a special element for sure. I'll have to go with that one. That said, I felt the first one was the best attention grabber, and I liked that it had the word love in the shot. Cheers!
Wowowowow!!! Really love this look! I always like the unusual ones that capture the intention. Super stoked to see these. I especially love the last two shots.....or maybe the middle two....or the first....ummmmm....love them all!!!! Fun fun fun ! Thank you for sharing on many levels!
Hahaha! Glad you like that one @everlove... It's a very fun, artistic, and rule-breaking technique that's not that hard to do once you know how. You could easily do it with your camera... Cheers!
I often get that kind of thing, not intentionally, but by great surprise!! Love that you've captured such amazing and intriguing shots--and that you've shared them! We are blessed.
Yeah, I got some on the cell phone on accident at the Ellis Island karaoke lol.
Love seeing everyone's photos. Would love to see what you captured at Ellis Island. I am pretty disappointed in my cell phone pics, even though it's a new phone. I still feel there is nothing like a "real" camera.
It's been fun seeing everybody's different perspectives on the event for sure! Have you seen Silent Joe's big Google Drive with tons of photos on it? I added some photos from Ellis Island to it. Email me at [email protected] if you need the link.
I have seen that drive. It's fun seeing all those shining faces of people having so much fun together. What a weekend!
Cool, great memories of the weekend indeed. And yeah, every time I've checked out the drive I get a big ol' smile on my face. :)
Well well well. If it isn't @scottshots. I'd gone a little different direction in some of the photos but thats's just me.......
.......blahahahaha
My Man! Love you & your family. Bless them for letting you come & play with us for a few days. You're a ROCK STAR! @ogc, @larrymorrison, @steemcafe, and last but mot least @scottshots. We did this together.
Hahaha! Yeah, I'm not sure if this technique would work with the phone camera... so good luck with your direction! Haha! Oh wait a minute, didn't you have a Canon Rebel that @joepate47 was using??? You could do this!
Yeah, I'm stoked the family let me come back. They just wanted their steak dinners back, haha! You guys are the real stars, it's so cool what you pulled off, I was fortunate to be a part of it. Cheers to the ridiculous amounts of fun and love at the Steem Creators Conference!!!
Oooh, whaaat?! That's such a fun effect! I may have to attempt that some time.
Go for it @alevaskye! I bet some of the signs of the popular clubs on Sunset would look really cool like this.
Woah. I have to try this some day! So cool!!!!! Congrats on all the votes. This post totally deserved it!
Thank you @gabyoraa!! I'm stoked so many people appreciated these shots. It's a super fun technique for letting loose and breaking the "rules".