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Las Vegas Photography Tips : Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas
The "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada" sign is probably the most famous landmark in Las Vegas; yet it is easy to overlook during a Las Vegas vacation if you don't specifically seek it out. The Welcome sign is on a large gravel island in the middle of Las Vegas Blvd. in front of the Las Vegas Tourist Bureau about a half mile south of Mandalay Bay. Which means you won't see it on your way from the airport, and you won't see it as you tour the Las Vegas strip. It's not that far of a walk, if you're already walking around near the Tropicana, Luxor or Mandalay Bay. If you have a rental car, you can park at the tourist bureau. If you're taking a taxi from the airport, you can instruct the driver to stop at the Welcome sign before going to your hotel. I did this in December 2007 - we parked at the tourist bureau and I walked over to the sign, shot about a dozen photos, and then we went on to Treasure Island. The extra time and distance spent visiting the sign only added about $7 to the cab fare. There isn't any crosswalk or traffic light near the sign, and this section of Las Vegas Blvd. is more like a freeway than a city street. Be extremely cautious crossing the street here. In the first photo posted below, the sign's lights are on but it's still daylight. It's kind of a rare shot you don't see often. Most photos of the sign are either during the day (second photo) or at night (third photo.) You also don't often see photos of the BACK of the sign (fourth and fifth photos below) urging motorists to "drive carefully" and "come back soon". For night shots of the sign, you probably won't get away with leaving your camera on the AUTO setting. I've taken photos in Las Vegas with about a dozen different cameras, and none of them work properly in AUTO mode when shooting a brightly lit scene at night. The camera tends to "think" it's in the dark and will set a slow shutter speed giving you a washed out (over exposed) shot. The Welcome sign is very brightly lit and you'll need to set your shutter speed at about 1/40 second using S (shutter priority) mode. The closer you get to the sign, the faster your shutter speed should be. During the day, you can get good shots in AUTO mode but you want to avoid having the sun in the frame of your shot. The Welcome sign is out in the open, so the position of the sun can negatively affect your images. Cloudy days in Las Vegas are fairly rare but they're the best days for daylight photo shooting. Surprisingly, the Welcome to Las Vegas sign is not copyright protected. Some stock image sites, however, will reject photos of the sign because of the YESCO (Young Electric Sign Company) logo near the bottom center of the sign; which is a trademark rather than copyright issue. If you want to sell photos of the Welcome sign on these stock image sites, you'll have to digitally edit out the YESCO logo. (They won't specifically tell you this though; they just send you a form letter saying your image has "copyright or trademark issues.") http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_to_Fabulous_Las_Vegas_sign Read this Wikipedia entry about the sign for more information and a brief history. |
    
Welcome to Las Vegas sign, just before sunset on December 12, 2007.
Welcome to Las Vegas sign, around 10 a.m. December 25, 2006.
Welcome to Las Vegas sign, around 10 p.m. December 24, 2006.
Back of the Welcome to Las Vegas sign, December 25, 2006.
Back of the Welcome to Las Vegas sign, December 24, 2006.
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