Downtown Las Vegas
When I first moved to Vegas, (1989ish), downtown was pretty scary. Not really a safe place to walk day or night. Though, I admit, I did risk my life often for the Binion's $1.99 steak and baked potato. I mean, really, It was worth it.
Downtown is where it all started for Las Vegas. Where many of the original casinos that put Las Vegas on the map still stand. But at some point along the way, the giant casinos on the Las Vegas strip were built, one-by-one leaving the downtown area behind. Honestly, it wasn't a place I would consider safe to walk around day or night.
Over the last 25 or so years, that has changed. Not going to say it's especially safe, but there have been many revitalization projects to the downtown area making it more appealing and even trendy. Can't say I'm a fan of all the 'improvements,' some are pretty shocking and tacky, but I do admit it has come a long way. Two of my favorite downtown improvements are Zappos and Life is Beautiful.
Zappos
Tony Hseih moved the Zappos headquarters into the downtown building where the old city court was located (That's totally based on memory, so don't quote me in being the city courthouse) later contributed about 350 million of his own money to create the Downtown Project (DTP). How exciting is that? An amazing company, known for taking care of their employees and doing good for the community in downtown Las Vegas! Finally, we have something positive and good to be known for!
Life is Beautiful
One of the many highlights of the DTP was hosting the Life is Beautiful Music & Art Festival, a huge 3-day music festival with tons of bands and people enjoying themselves. So much awesomeness! Along with this festival, the downtown area received a makeover with some really cool murals that popped up everywhere and occasionally change. Some of these are pretty amazing in size and creativity.
Dog portraits in front of murals
With all the cool murals, I was pretty excited when a client requested a downtown mural session. I was a little concerned about a Saturday afternoon session being too crazy for the dogs, but I scouted it out the Saturday before and found a couple of spots that weren't too crowded and were safe for a session. Honestly, I think there are quite a few more spots that I would like to investigate.
This blog post is part of a blog circle for pet photographers, with the theme of "Color" for this week.
11 Comments
Apr 27, 2021, 10:19:45 AM
Tracy Allard - Ohhhh, dog portraits on murals (and sometimes graffiti) are some of my favorite images and I LOVE the colors in these images!
Apr 21, 2021, 5:10:46 PM
Nicole Hrustyk - Thank you!
Apr 21, 2021, 5:10:30 PM
Nicole Hrustyk - Thank you so much!
Apr 21, 2021, 1:27:27 PM
Tammy Snyder - The graffiti adds to much pop of color to these beautiful and fun pictures!
Apr 20, 2021, 8:30:31 PM
Jo Lyons - These are absolutely stunning images Nicole! Those eyes and ears are adorable. The murals make a great backdrop and I love your variations with the distance between them and the dogs.
Apr 19, 2021, 5:06:14 PM
Nicole Hrustyk - Thank you, Darlene!
Apr 18, 2021, 6:24:12 AM
Darlene Woodward - LOVE the murals! These images are gorgeous! When I worked for the airlines I did months of Boston-Vegas flights with long layovers... ahhh the food options lol! I don't remember these murals, though! That first image is epic!!!
Apr 17, 2021, 11:28:03 PM
Nicole Hrustyk - Thank you!
Apr 17, 2021, 11:27:43 PM
Nicole Hrustyk - Thank you!
Apr 16, 2021, 2:49:46 PM
Kim Hollis - These images are all gorgeous. I'd be soooo happy if I were your client!
Apr 16, 2021, 2:30:05 PM
Angela Schneider - Oh Nicole, these are just beautiful! Those murals are the perfect backdrop for dog portraits in Las Vegas. Gorgeous!