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Las Vegas Photography Tips : Cocktail Waitresses and Casino Staff
By urban photos
I recall the first time I asked a cocktail waitress if I could take her photo (1995 at Caesars Palace, first photo posted below) a nearby bartender overheard me and started giving me a bad time about it. "We have characters in costume for that; it's not part of her job to pose for photos blah blah blah" etc... whereupon she interrupted him and basically told him to shut up before posing for a picture. These are the two attitudes you'll find among Las Vegas casino staff - they either like posing for photos, or they absolutely will not. None of them seem to be ambivalent about it. Nearly all the casinos don't like people shooting pictures in the gaming areas; so you can pretty much rule out shooting a blackjack dealer, roulette croupier, or pit boss in action - although you could probably pay a fee to have a scene set up to shoot those kind of images and to obtain the appropriate releases for commercial use of the images. Bartenders and cocktail waitresses (cocktail waiters are extremely rare) are good at establishing a rapport with tourists and often enjoy posing for photos at the bar or in other non-gaming areas, however. Some casinos also have employees (more like actors and actresses) in costume whose job it is to pose for tourist snapshots. Caesars Palace is one of the few Las Vegas strip casinos that has costumed characters walking around for the specific purpose of posing for pictures with tourists (see photo #2 below, Caesars Handmaiden; and photo #3, Caesar and Cleopatra.) The Stardust used to have a "take your photo with a showgirl" promotion (photo #4 below, me with a showgirl at the Stardust), for $10 you'd get two cardboard framed 5x7 photo prints of yourself with a showgirl. Stardust was imploded in March 2007. I ran into an Egyptian princess once near the entrance to the Luxor, at the end of the pedestrian tunnel from Excalibur (photo #5 below). As the Caesars Palace bartender told me years ago; except for the costumed characters, it isn't their job to be posing for photos. So I suggest tipping $5 or more when any casino staff does pose for a photo for you. Management probably doesn't like their employees being bothered for photos either, so I wouldn't stop anyone who is busy. Around 6:00 a.m. is a good time to shoot photos in casinos, since there is very little activity. The best approach is to simply point your camera at your intended model and see how they react. Usually they stop and smile, and you can shoot a quick photo. If they scowl at your or hold up their hand, put down the camera. You can make yourself more of a nuisance by asking staff to pose with you for a photo, and they often will; although as I mentioned earlier, you should do something like this around 6:00 a.m. when the employees are goofing off due to lack of work. Casinos all have hundreds of cameras (the "eye in the sky") constantly filming every square foot of the casino floor, including every tourist and employee. However, you only have the right to shoot photos of people at random when you're on public property (this is how celebrity photographers, a.k.a the "paparazzi", make their money.) On private property, you are expected to obey the rules of the property owner. So if casino staff tells you "no photos in the casino" then you must comply, or you can be ejected for trespassing. Also, when you shoot recognizable photos of people, you own the copyright to them but you don't have the right to use those photos commercially (such as by selling prints of the photo) without a signed model release. The exception is that you could sell the photos to recognized media outlets for editorial purposes (again, this is how the paparazzi operate.) Las Vegas offers many photo opportunities... don't think that you have to put away your camera just because you went inside a casino.
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Caesars Palace cocktail waitress, March 1995.
Caesars Handmaiden at Caesars Palace, December 2000.
Caesar and Cleopatra at Caesars Palace, August 1998.
Me with an "Enter the Night" showgirl at the Stardust, August 1998.
Egyptian Princess at the Luxor, 1996.
Nice "stock image" type shot of a pit boss with a cocktail waitress at Caesars Palace, 1996.
Mandalay Bay cocktail waitresses, December 2000.
Excalibur cocktail waitress, December 2000.
The friendliest cocktail waitress in the world at the Paris Casino, March 2003.
Aladdin cocktail waitress at the casino bar, December 2000.
Bartender at the Aladdin, December 2000.
Costumed character at the Venetian, who refused to speak to me, December 2000.
Rio Suites cocktail waitress, December 2000.
Venetian cocktail waitress, December 2000.
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