Las Vegas - Leave Your Comfort Zone!

So we decided to end up in Las Vegas for the WPPI show! We had originally decided that we wouldn't go because after all... WE AREN'T WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS! But, Casie Shimansky from Rebel Belle Photography, Ron Henry from BlackRapid and Amber from Westcott where all going to be there, so why not take advantage of the situation and meet up with some cool people! And after all, it was Las Vegas, I'm sure we could find something to do if the show sucked!

Luckily the show was pretty cool, I wouldn't say it's the most amazing show I've ever been too, but it definitely has it's place! We ran into a whole bunch of lightenupandshooters and because of that we decided to have a photoshootogether and hit the Las Vegas Strip to do some shooting! We twittered, facebooked and yelled to get the word out! Ron said he would be glad to give BlackRapid straps away, so that brought even more people!

It was an awesome time shooting around the strip in total lightenupandshoot style! We approached strangers, found cool locations and realized one very big thing - EVERYONE THAT COMES TO LAS VEGAS STAYS ON THAT STRIP!
So in total lightenupandshoot style, we had a great idea for a video called - LEAVE YOUR COMFORT ZONE!

To us, photography is adventure. We love leaving the studio not knowing where we are going to end up. To us, this is leaving the comfort zone. When we ended up in Las Vegas shooting on the strip, we realized that
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everyone that comes to Vegas stays on the strip. After all where else will you be able to get a buffet dinner 24 hours a day while playing blackjack and having Elvis serenade you into breakfast time. My point is that everyone that comes to Las Vegas...well comes to Las Vegas!



We wanted to explore, we've done the strip, we've lost at blackjack, we saw the show...now what? Well, we leave our comfort zone, that's what!

We had talked to some locals and instead of asking what was cool in the city to shoot, we asked what was outside of the city! We probably asked 20 people and they all said the normal things like the Grand Canyon and so on...until we ran into Mark! Mark was a photographer and he told us of this place called Nelson.

Nelson, Nevada is a photographers paradise! It's only about 20 minutes outside of the city and the town is home to 40 people! YES I SAID 40 PEOPLE!

Holy crapola, we're totally there!


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We recruited:

Casie Shimansky from Rebel Belle Photography

Hardy WIlson from Hardywilson.com

Dennis Viera from Viera Photographics

and Mikey and I!



We all piled into a rental car ($50.00 for a day rental is about 2 hands at a blackjack table, just think about that when you come to Vegas) and Nelson bound we went! We stopped and picked up some sandwiches and water and headed to the dessert!

Let me just tell you how amazing that day was, if we never left our Las Vegas Strip Comfort Zone we would never have experienced it. We ended up at a place called EL DORADO MINE TOURS, which is run by Tony Werly ( http://www.eldoradocanyonminetours.com ) . This pleace is amazing, it's an abandoned Gold Mine that Tony mantains with tours and canoe and kayak rentals. For you photographers out there with commercial work, he also rents the place out by the day. I'm telling you the mix of rust, sand and all those faded colors are something that is so hard to find it's ridiculous. Definitely put this in your little black book! He has it full of rusted old stuff, even an airplane tail that is sticking out of the ground!

In any case, the point of this entire post is that many times we miss amazing opportunites because we never leave our comfort zone! If we would have done the usual Las Vegas trip we would never have ended up anywhere else than the STRIP! We would have missed the pleasure of meeting Tony and shooting in one of the coolest places we have ever shot!

So this brings us to YOU! We want YOU to leave your comfort zone and show us the results. You can either post your pictures in the comments section or our forum! We want to see how you leave your comfort zone and get some great images out of it! We are going to choose someone after a few weeks and do a story on them. So make sure you get out and LEAVE YOUR COMFORT ZONE!

Now we are not saying, go break any laws (unless the photo is worth it), just get out there and do something that is not your usual. Whether it's talking to strangers, changing your regular route or simply changing your photographic style. Whatever it is we want to see and hear about it. We want you out shooting!

Like always, if you have any questions, just leave a comment!