vegas: “the not so pretty” | blairsville, pa photographer | travel

I mentioned in yesterday’s post about taking the bus—and to say the least it was quite the experience! There is no way I could possibly post all of the photos I collected during the day but I pulled out quite a few to show you the “not so pretty part of Vegas”-the part you won’t see in your brochure or website when planning a trip. As with any other large city in the country there are run down parts of town, scantily clad women (and men), dirty streets and undeveloped sections…and of course, the homeless.

I wanted so badly to bring back all “pretty” photos and say that everything we saw was SOOO wonderful….but….the truth is, it wasn’t! Having a background as a photo-journalist from the newspaper where I believed I honed my skills as a photographer, I couldn’t help but to document our little adventure: the good, the bad and the ugly. We met some pretty interesting people along the way-each having their own stories to tell. Aric says, “You’re too nice” and perhaps at times that’s a bad thing, but most times I learn so much about someone by simply saying hi.

After we journeyed around the side streets we ventured back to Las Vegas Boulevard. It’s there where you are bombarded with cards of half naked women being handed out by several men and women to all the passerbyers. The very first time we visited Las Vegas, we were warned by the locals of the “card clickers”. We soon found out what they meant. They will “click” the cards on each street corner handing them out to the crowd. We learned that they can not go home for the evening until all of their cards have been handed out. AND eventually, we learned, if you can’t beat’em-join’em. Greg began collecting cards at each street corner and by the time we got back to our room, we had a huge stack…and I had some pretty hilarious photos. And it continued to be an inside joke for the remainder of the trip! We joked that we would find all the matches and play Go Fish! That never happened…but it made for some entertaining conversation!! lol

Although, I can’t show you EVERYTHING I shot, here are a few of the “not so pretty” images from Vegas. ………..

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