Travel photography in Las Vegas

Travel photography in Las Vegas, is little tricky. The lighting condition changes so abruptly, it is hard to keep up with lighting. If photography is the sole purpose of the Las Vegas trip then I guess it is not all that difficult, but if you are are a travel photographer like me, lighting can be very challenging. Each place has its own different lighting situation. Sometimes the light seems superfluous, sometimes it feels like creepy. Here are some things I learned in my last Las Vegas trip:

Keep a small bounce flash. Bounce flash is very useful is Vegas. Chances are high that you are taking indoor photographs, in that case bounce flash is really useful. You can definitely carry a large flash but if you want to travel light, bounce flash works just fine. I used SB-400 in my last trip and it served well.

Keep a careful eye on ISO. ISO is really important in Vegas. Each lighting situation deserves different ISO setting. The other two things of the triangle is pretty important as well. Carrying a monopod could be useful, but I used available camera supports (nearest wall or glass) for my pictures. But I definitely recommend something light, like monopod.

If you can keep up with white balance well, then no problem; otherwise I strongly recommend shooting raw. So that you don't have to worry about white balance. Otherwise white balance is another thing to worry about. Each place has its very different light, some are warm some are cool. Fixing white balance on-the-fly requires significant skill. You may ruin your trip messing with your camera settings. Hence, my recommendation is: shoot raw and fix the white balance later.

Play with frame ratio. Square frame or full frame could be very interesting as well. The good thing about Vegas, you can find all kinds of pictures for all sorts of frame ratio. Composition is the most important part of travel photography, at least to me. Frame size plays key role in composition. Don't get scared of experimenting with frame ratio. Experimenting with frame ratio could be very rewarding.

Finally and most importantly, don't ruin your trip in photography. There are other ways of enjoying Vegas, not just taking stunning pictures. Most importantly have fun in Vegas, don't ruin your entire trip on just the photography.