"What happens in Vegas..."

"...will be on Youtube in an hour".

My how times have changed!! It's been 4 years, almost to the day, since I've been in Sin City and the modification to the unofficial slogan isn't the only change. There's been some changes along the strip too. When we were last here, the skyline from our hotel room window was dominated by giant, hulking cranes working on a slew of new hotels and casinos. Now, those cranes are gone and the hotels are standing gleaming sharply in the harsh desert sun. These new hotels lack any of the character and appeal of the older existing casinos & hotels. They are steel and glass and smooth and BORING. I'll see if my opinion changes once we've had a chance to actually explore them - but I can pretty much bet none of them has a pirate ship in a moat out front, nor is there an Egyptian tomb reconstructed in the lobby...

I'm very much looking forward to exploring tomorrow with camera in hand.  You have to do the tour at least twice, once in the daylight, and once at night - despite each property having the same address both day and night, that is where their similarities end as it's a completely different world when the sun sets.

Today's been a VERY long day - it was a restless night last night as we slept fitfully with one ear tuned to the roaring winds threatening to suck the glass from our hotel room windows through the night and into the morning. We were up this morning before the crack of stupid (anything pre-5 a.m. is just ludicrous) to catch a shuttle to the Buffalo Airport, which I have to admit was kinda nice - quaint compared to Pearson International in Toronto - and easy to navigate.

We flew Southwest, also another first. While sitting on the tarmac waiting for the okay to take off, I, who was fortunate enough to score a window seat, watched the plane wing outside my window shuddering in the gusts of wind...and beyond that, the plane next to us at the terminal bobbing and bucking as the wind shook it.  I was decidedly green about the gills by the time we started away from the terminal.

The pilot confirmed my suspicions when he announced they were expecting a fair bit of turbulence throughout the majority of the 5+ hour flight. However, the warnings proved to be mostly unnecessary as the flight was one of the smoothest I have ever had with the wind even providing a generous tail wind that lopped 31 minutes off our flight.

We landed in Las Vegas at 9:29am local time where it was 45F with sunny blue skys and no wind. Of course, with such gorgeous weather welcome us, what do you think was the first thing we did? Yeap...hit the casino! En route to checking in, we tried our luck at a couple of slot machines as we passed through the casino.

My room was ready, so I checked in and we left all of the luggage in my room while we went for a bite of lunch. It was a unanimous order of Rubens all around which we excellent followed by several more hours in the casino which left me considerably lighter in the wallet than I had expected.  At 3pm, the second room was ready so we spent some time in our rooms unpacking for the week. To my surprise and delight, it doesn't appear that I forgot to pack anything!

After freshening up, we made our way to the Mirage Hotel to catch Terry Fator's show - you remember Terry - the fellow that plays with dolls that won season 2 of America's Got Talent? If not, look him up on Youtube, you'll enjoy it, trust me.  This was the second time I've seen him perform live. The first time was when I was here in Vegas 4 years ago and he performed at our convention's opening general session. My seats were so far from the stage I had to watch the video screens to see anything at all as Terry on the stage was a mere speck.  Not so tonight. We were close enough to see the sweat beading on his brow. He has added to his inventory both in puppets and material and the show was excellent.

Terry & Winston the Impersonation Turtle open the show with a number from Phantom of the Opera

Winston as the Phantom

Did I mention we had great seats?! And yes, you were ALLOWED to take photos during the show (just no video) so I wasn't bothered by the fact that Terry looked straight at me several times as I happily clicked away.

Terry and Johnny Vegas perform

Terry and Wrex the Crash Test Dummy

The View from my room (the window is VERY dirty)

- Paula

What a difference a year makes...

I recently had the opportunity to shoot a house for the second time with almost a year in between. And can I just say, what a difference a year makes!!

The original photos were shot with a Canon Rebel Xsi and Sigma DG500 flash.

Current photos were shot with a Canon 7D and a Canon Speedlight 580 flash and the house has been staged!

Girl's bedroom before...

Same bedroom after...

Painting was an absolute must for this room, and you can see what a dramatic improvement it made.

Master bedroom before...

Master bedroom after...

The staging changes in the master bedroom are much more subtle than in the girls bedroom above, but I feel these photos really show the progress over the year in the actual quality of the photography.

Family room before...

Family room after...

Again another more drastic change here, but what a change! This house shows infinitely better this time around.

It's scheduled to hit the MLS market tomorrow, so we'll see what the response is to the great changes this house has undergone!

- Paula

Lions, Tigers & Bears...

Well, tigers...certainly. Lions and bears - not so much.


Today seemed like a perfect day for a trip to the zoo. If you've never been to the zoo in the winter, you don't know what you're missing!


It's been a long time since I've seen my dear friend Jane, so I've been looking forward to this outing most of the week.


All week, the weather today was forecasted to be sunny, clear & above 0. When I left home this morning to pick up Jane, things looked promising. Although it was still quite chilly, the sky was clear & there was no breeze. It looked like a fantastic day to head to the zoo.


A half hour later, with Jane on board and mandatory Starbucks in hand, we were on our way to the zoo.


The parking lot was virtually deserted when we arrived a few minutes before the gates opened. We sipped our coffees and caught up on news and waited for 9:30. Other cars straggled in. More photographers got out... we are a die-hard bunch to be sure!


At 9:30, we headed in and planned our day. The best tips I can give for the zoo are, 1) arrive early and get in before the families and kids, 2) plan your circuit based on the feeding schedules for best chances to see the most activity and 3) if you're going in the winter, dress in layers - long underwear is a good thing!!


Our first stop was the polar bear exhibit, which had been under construction on our prior visit - but also, no bears...yet. So off we wandered to the Sumatran tigers where we met this lovely lady.




Feeding time for the tigers was some time away yet, so we spent some time in the indoor Australian exhibit while we waited and met a Kookaburra who liked his meals tenderized (he must have smacked this poor mouse on the branch a dozen times!).



Feeding time came for the tigers and we returned to watch as they enjoyed a snack of fresh beef ribs.


1:00 came and it was time for the polar bear feeding so back we went and were pleased to see three bears now out in the exhibit.


After the bears, we wandered the zoo for a couple of additional hours, taking random shots. It ended up being overcast and quite chilly so we stayed in the pavilions as much as possible, which unfortunately meant that our lenses fogged over every time were went inside, so much time was spent standing around waiting for the glass to clear.



Our final stop was the rhino building where mandarin ducks share the water with the rhino. the lighting in the building isn't the best, but I wanted to try to capture the stunning plumage of the ducks.


All in all, a very long, tiring day. No really spectacular shots, but the most important and pleasant part of the day was spending time and catching up with Jane.

- Paula