Photography has always been about playing the long game for me. Rarely do I ever nail the shot the first time. I research locations, plan, read weather reports, but sometimes I just need to lay eyes on the subject to get an understanding on what and how I should shoot a scene or subject. I would say a large portion of my photo outings is scouting. Sometimes, everything does come together and I am good. Sometimes I gotta keep working at it until I finally get what I envision in my head. Something I always tell myself, I don’t take photographs, I make them.

While The Strip might be the destination for most here in Las Vegas, I find the downtown area to be more visually interesting. Older architecture, interesting art, graffiti, people, and such. Its old Las Vegas, and it feels like the real Las Vegas. There is a lot of character here that is really inspiring to me. Landscape photo’s do take a lot of work, planning, long drives, overnight stays, and such. Sometimes I just want to stay close to home. Downtown is a 25 min drive, parking is cheap, and the food is good, so why not make an evening out of it. I have always had my eye on this particular building. I am not the biggest fan of Art Deco, but the sign and breeze block does give it that mid-century modern feel that I do like. Growing up in Southern California, I have been exposed to a lot of ’50s, ‘60s houses. Palm Springs is one of my favorite places to drive around and look at architecture and design. This Downtowner Motel photo was about 5 years in the making. I have walked around this building more than I can count.

Taken several photos, some were okay, a lot were not. You have a large building taking up a lot of real estate. Shooting with my Nikon 14-24mm, has a bit of distortion that I was having issues removing. My Nikon 24-70 has minimal distortion but isn’t wide enough. On the weekends, there are a lot of people in the area. I don’t mind people in the shots if it adds to the image or story I want to tell, but I just want a clean picture of this particular scene. I’ve been here at 5 am waiting for a sunrise, but cars are all lined up on the street in front. Sometimes the weather isn’t helping. Because there are no highrises behind the motel, you need a sky that is interesting and not clear blue. Long story short, I’ve been here a lot. When Nevada shut down, that did help me out quite a bit. The tourists and people were gone. I kept coming back and coming back, chipping away at it. So about two weeks ago, I was in the area photographing a corner market, and unexpectedly, the sky blew up.

I wasn’t expecting it because it was pretty breezy, and I figured the clouds in the area would have left by sunset. I got my shot of the market and raced over to the Downtowner. I had maybe 30 seconds of light left. I didn’t have time to park and set up, so when I got to the 4 way stop, I just stuck the camera out the window and snapped a few photos. I shot with my Fuji X-T4 and Fujinon XF 16-55mm ƒ/2.8 , and it all just came together. I finally got it. During my previous visits, I never tried going out into the street because I don’t like playing in traffic. Of course, I am not 100% happy because there is muraled plywood covering the corner bar. I would have loved to have the bar in the shot. But I think I can finally check this off the shot list and move onto other things.