I'm not going to lie, I love Las Vegas. I'm not sure if it was because I went as a kid or my love for Ocean's Eleven, but I love Vegas. I have only been a handful of times, but it is a blast every time. So when I was invited to my friend's wedding in Vegas, I jumped at the opportunity. Even better, they didn't ask me to photograph the wedding! It was great to finally be able to enjoy a wedding for once.
Pico Mountain - Vermont
So let's start at the beginning, I was in Upstate New York visiting my family over Christmas. If you have ever been to New York during the holidays, it’s a magical experience. Most of the time, I was huddled up next to the fire, reading a good book drinking coffee or skiing in Vermont. While I was home, I had the opportunity to take some amazing time lapse videos. It Is my first experiment with time lapse and I think it turned out pretty well. I hope that in the future I'll get better at this skill and field experiments some more. On the last day, one of my dear friends visited as well. I know this will sound sappy, but Gabby has been one of my closest friends the past decade. She has seen me at my highs and lows. She is someone I would trust with my life. She is such a wonderful person, even though she doesn’t see it herself some times. It was great to catch up with her, after not seeing her for six months. Anyway, after Gabby’s visit, off to Las Vegas.
Southwest has a direct flight daily to Las Vegas from Albany. Flying across the country from a small airport is awesome. Not needing to connect is a huge plus for me. After a amazing five hour flight, I landed in Las Vegas. Las Vegas is a interesting town from the air. When you're flying in at night, all you see is blackness all around. The night is so dark, you can't see any lights. And then you get closer and closer to this one little speck of light in the distance. It grows and grows and you see a massive city spanning from one mountain range to another. Once I landed, I met up with my friend Will and his now wife Jessica. After a short drive down the strip and running a few errands, Will and I went to the Bellagio. Will’s family had gotten a suite at the Bellagio. I've been in some great hotels before Bellagio and I was impressed with their facilities. From the Chihuly glass flowers on the celing in the lobby to all the accent finishes throughout the hotel, the Bellagio is still up to par with some of the great hotels of Vegas.
The Strip - High Roller - Las Vegas
After taking a nap and relaxing, Will and I decided to meet up with the girls. Jessica invited two of her friends to come out to Vegas with her. I was excited for one aspect of the night of shenanigans planned. We were going to the High Roller. If you haven't been to Vegas in the last year, you most likley haven't heard the High Roller before. The High Roller is the tallest ferris wheel in the world. As an engineer by trade, I was impressed by the design of the ferris wheel itself. Will and I are both engineers and I kept commenting structural steel, mechanical components and connections. I have to admit it was pretty nerdy of to be ten times are more interested in the engineering marvel before us when we had three attractive girls right next to us. Oh well. The greatest thing about the High Roller is that there's an open bar. I think we each paid around $50 a ticket and that included a ride on the Ferris wheel for 30 minutes and a open bar. Once we got on and we all started to drink as many drinks as possible. I felt like a freshman in college all over again. Once at the top, the views were amazing. I have to admit, it's one of my favorite experiences ever. Being able to see the entire strip and all the hotels from that angle was amazing. After the Ferris wheel, our group bounced around for a bit from bar to bar and then ended night pretty early. Will's family and I had a big day tomorrow anyway.
The next day, Will and I woke up in a drunken stupor and proceeded to hang out with Will’s family. The day before, Mr. Kanewski recommended we all go to the Hoover dam. It was an interesting turn of events because the week before I watched the documentary Damnation. Damnation is a documentary about the over 6000 dams in The United States in their environmental impact. Before watching a documentary I would've said I was pro dam. The staggering economic benefits from dams is undeniable. Especially if they're creating electricity. I think the main argument of the documentary is that when the environmental impact is greater than the economic benefit, then the dam needs to be removed. I think a major impact on me was the section in the documentary about the Glen Canyon dam. For those of you who don't know, before the Glen Canyon dam was built back in the 60s. Archaeologist and scientist explored all the canyons to preserve any cultural treasures that were there. Archaeologists found hundreds of primitive paintings, dwellings, and other cultural artifacts. After the dam was built, the majority of these cultural treasures were submerged under Lake Mead. It was shocking to me that our government could just destroy hundreds of years of culture and history, just for a small economic benefit. Maybe it's because I'm from the northeast, or I grew up in a protected area, but I was a complete shock. Going to Hoover dam after watching this documentary gave me an new perspective on the Hoover dam.
Kanewske Family before the decent - Hoover Dam - Boulder City Nevada
Don't pull the cord - Hoover Dam - Bolder City Nevada
Never stop exploring - Hoover Dam - Boulder City Nevada
When I was 12 years old, I'm went to the Hoover dam with my family while visiting Las Vegas. It had been a decade since I was last there, and many things that changed in that time. The major change was the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge over the canyon. Last time I was there back in 2003, construction of this bridge has just begun. At the time, they just started to build the concrete arch over the canyon. Now, a decade later, this beautiful bridge was finally completed. The Kanewske's and I had a interesting tour of the Hoover dam. On my previous trip to the dam, my family and I explored the upper part of the dam. This time we were able to go inside the dam and see where the turbines and generators are. To give you a perspective of how large the generators are, the generator coils are about the size of a truck. I've seen smaller turbine generators before, but nothing like this. Seeing generators the size was a reminder how much work and effort had to going to such a beautiful facility. While today I might disagree with the politics behind most dams, I can appreciate the engineering marvels that they are. If only as a society we could get back to building larger infrastructure projects like this. It’s still amazing to me that in the 1930s our country was able to build amazing projects like the Hover Dam, and now we can't keep our roads and bridges maintained.
Generators - Hoover Dam - Boulder City Nevada
Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge - Hoover Dam - Boulder City Nevada
Andrew Kanewske - Hoover Dam - Boulder City Nevada
Andrew Kanewske - Hoover Dam - Boulder City Nevada
Once on the top side of the dam, Will's family and I explored a few other buildings and structures around the dam. One area was an interesting was a information building. Inside the building, there is a large model that showed all the dams of the western united states. One of the dams included in the model was the Glen Canyon dam. This is one of the controversial dams thats featured in the documentary. I took a few photos of the model for my own records. You never know when you can use a photo like that for a project. After exploring the information building, Will's family and I made our way over to the spillway. For those of you who don't know a spillway is a structure that provides relief for the water level behind a dam. Spillways are nesscary to avoid receivers overtopping a dam. Overtopping a dam can cause severe structural issues. For the Hoover dam, the spillway is only been used once. There's a large concrete lined channel that directs the water towards a large tunnel. The tunnel reminded me of a blackhole. This large looming hole that you could dive a large truck through. When looking at the structure, I couldn't even imagine the amount of water that can go through it. Was Powerful sight to see say the least. After exploring the spillway and a few other structures on the site, Will's family and I headed to the bridge.
Glen Canyon Dam - Hoover Dam - Boulder City Nevada
Kanewske Family - Hoover Dam - Boulder City Nevada
Always look forward - Hoover Dam - Boulder City Nevada
The view from the top was stunning. If you ever have the chance to go see the Hoover dam I would highly recommend visiting. Walking along the bridge gives you to entirely new perspective on the size of the dam. I thought it was so interesting that hundreds of people were walking along the bridge. From families to teenage couples, everyone was trying to lean over the edge to take the best photos of the dam below. It was a sea of selfie sticks. I'll talk about my opinion on selfie sticks in another blog post, I just wanted to mention that I'm seeing them more and more. I think this might be the year for the selfie stick. After exploring the bridge, we decided to head back towards Las Vegas. That night we had some big plans.
Wedding Party - Bellagio - Las Vegas
Kanewske Family - Bellagio - Las Vegas
Bill Kanewske - Bellagio - Las Vegas
Selfie City - Bellagio - Las Vegas
So after little to no sleep, exploring the Hoover dam all day, and then driving back to Las Vegas, I was pretty tired. So what did I decide to do? Go work out the gym of course! So after working out, getting some coffee, I ran up to the hotel room just in time to get ready for the reception. Will’s family decide have reception inside of the suite. The idea was to keep it small simple. Those are my favorite types of events. While hanging out with everyone, I decided take a few photos. I love doing event photography, and this is the perfect opportunity. It also helps when you have your gear with you. On trips like this, I usually end up just taking my iPhone and leaving the heavier gear back at home. After the reception I was off to bed. We had a big day the next day.
Will and Jessica's wedding was going to be at the Aria. One of the new hotels a long strip. Walking inside, this entire hotel is made of structural steel, wood, and glass. A modern looking hotel compared to many of the other hotels along the strip. After exploring some of the other hotels in the area and trying to avoid Jessica and her family, Will and I went upstairs to explore there too for the evening. I didn't have my DSLR with me, but I did have my iPhone. I got this quick picture of Will talking on the phone with Jessica. I love this photo because Will is staring out in the distance, overlooking the massive landscape of the Vegas strip. What I love about this photo the most is I think it kind of represents the present and the future and not worrying about the past.
The Future - Will Kanewske - Las Vegas
Sometimes I feel like we all get stuck running on the wheel. Only concerned about the present. I think this photo is a good reminder that if you look up once and a while to see what's around you, you can become inspired again to do great things. After the wedding, Will's little brother took the photo below. If you look in the background, you can see that photographer for the wedding also jumped into the the wedding selfie. That night, we all partied it up and then I went to bed early. I had an early flight the next day to head to Montana. Next week I'll tell you my story Montana, and let you know about what is the best places I've skied my entire life.
Kanewske Wedding Selfie - Aria Hotel - Las Vegas