Last month I toured the Neon Museum boneyard in Las Vegas. This image, made with You Gotta See This app on iPhone, is of the Moulin Rouge signage - the first integrated casino in Las Vegas.

I laughed at how similar the image is to this one at Los Angeles Times Travel post Las Vegas: Remembering the Moulin Rouge, champion of integration.

The event on May 23, 2013, and if you're in Vegas, it would be worth a visit.

Photographers love the museum's boneyard - and love to linger. But all visitation is by escorted tour. The one hour tour is marked by the guide having to continually round up shutter bugs - including me - and move the group along.

But, since I have a deep interest in history, it became easy to stay within ear shot of our tour guide. The stories about many of the signs is worth the visit.

Did you know Las Vegas's history falls into three main time periods. First from the 1930s through the 1960s Vegas was the single man's playground. But starting in the 1970s, many Casinos tried to counter Disneyland becoming family orientated. But families don't gamble. So in the 90s the switch to adult party town was made.

Link to my flickr set: The Neon Museum

Photos taken on April 10th and 11th, 2013, of tour of The Neon Museum in Las Vegas and restored signs on Fremont St. and Las Vegas Ave.

Today's Los Angeles Times From the Archive blog post is a look back at the photo staff of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. After the Hearst newspaper closed in 1989, the newspaper's archive was donated to the Los Angeles Public Library.

This From the Archive gallery includes about 30 images from the online LAPL Herald Examiner Photograph Collection and several more images from a March, 2013 reunion of Herald Examiner photographers – many who I have worked with over the years in the Press Photographers Association of Greater Los Angeles.

The image above is a scan of the final edition of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.

Links:

From the Archive post: Los Angeles Herald Examiner Photograph Collection.

Related story published today by Larry Harnisch: Herald Examiner photographers reflect on the good ol' days.

Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection Overview webpage.

Yesterday I went into work early and spent an hour poking around the observation deck of Los Angeles City Hall. Above is one of the images of the Los Angeles Times Building and Bunker Hill taken with iPhone Camera+ with OlloClip fisheye lens.

I am in the process of updated this 2009 Then and Now feature for the Los Angeles Times. The page still gets good traffic, so I am planning to replace the 2009 photos with 2013 ones. On the From the Archive blog, I also posted these 1943 View From the Top photos.

Sometimes I just come up with weird images. Last week for my pic of the day I ended up with the above.

Started with recent photo from Alien Jerky Shop in Baker, CA. In Photogene lightened shadows. In Glaze used blue eye 2 followed by Tangled FX blurred. In Noir removed most color with sepia setting of 51, 70, 0.

My 2013 April/May/June pic a day flickr set.

B-52 on display at Joe Davies Heritage Airpark in Palmdale.

Here is another flickr set from recent vacation. On April 8-9, I visited several aviation displays in the Mojave area.

There are many retired aircraft and even rockets on display around Mojave and nearby communities. I was able to visit Legacy Park at Mojave Airport, the Airpark at Plant 42 Palmdale and Saxon Air Museum in Boron.

First on the way to Mojave, the Joe Davies Heritage Airpark at Plant 42 in Palmdale has 17 retired military aircraft on display. Right next door is the Blackbird Airpark with both a SR71A and its predecessor, an A12 on display. Both these museums are only open Friday through Sunday 10:00 a.m. till 5:00 p.m., but closed on my Monday visit. Since they are right along the highway, so I was able to shoot several images through the chain link fence - including the fence in some images.

I didn't want to stop shooting, but the 30mph winds started kicking up too much dust. So it was off to Mojave. There I was greeted with 45mph winds - too strong to go out and take photos. So I drove up to Tehachapi where no wind, just rain.

On Tuesday morning, no wind, so off around Mojave. At the entrance to Mojave Airport is a rare Convair 990 jetliner and an F-4 Phantom. Over at Legacy Park, next to the Mojave Airport terminal is the very unusual Rotary Rocket and a replica of Space Ship One. The original is at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.

Wind Turbines are in abundance north and west of Mojave. Since they are aviation related, I included a couple images to this flickr set.

Last stop on this trip was the Saxon Aerospace Museum in Boron - great history of Edwards Air Force Base with a F-4 Phantom out front.

Flickr set: Aviation near Mojave

We have one rose bush in the backyard that goes crazy with yellow-red flowers. I was trimming dead buds - and dodging bees - so decided to take some pics. The bees were going crazy for the almost dead roses making it easy to capture this image with Camera+ on the iPhone.

I added it to my flickr set: 2013 April/May/June pic a day

Apr. 10, 2013: Photo of Fremont Street Experience taken with Quad Camera on iPhone.

Visual overload. In 1995 the Fremont Street Experience opened with the 1500 foot long, canopy. Originally 2.1 million light bulbs were used. In 2004, the bulbs were replaced with a 12.5-million LED display. Each hour, after dark, a different show plays on the canopy. This ain't my old high school light show.

For this flickr set, I concentrated on a few tight portraits of entertainers and celebrity impersonators, mixed in with the overwhelming visuals. Many images were taken using You Gotta See This and Quad Camera apps on the iPhone. The Quad Camera images are my favorites.

My Flickr Fremont Street Experience set.

The Fremont Street Experience has been a big success, but personally, I would have loved to see this 1992 Fremont Street proposal: A full scale size replica of the starship USS Enterprise.

Links to the artist renders:

Collider.com Enterprise

The Goddard Group.com Enterprise post

Sign for closed liquor store in Boron.

Boron is a town of about 2500. The biggest employer is the US Borax Mine, now called Rio Tinto Boron Mine. The mine has a good visitors center, which I skipped on this trip.

The Saxon Aerospace Museum is a small but great look back at the history of Edwards Air Force Base. The only aircraft is the F-4 Phantom out front. They have a large collection of photos, aircraft parts and other historical items. I ended up spending an hour going through.

The full name is Colonel Vernon P. Saxon, Jr. Aerospace Museum.

Next door is the restored Boron train station. It was closed but I was able to get a couple good images through the windows of the station — pics of an old phone and teletype.

Next door to the train station is the Twenty Mule Team museum, but it was closed the day I drove through town.

Stopped at the Barrel restaurant for a hot dog. Its shaped like a Barrel. While there chatting with a couple local residents, there was a sonic boom, I jumped — but the locals didn't. It was just another test flight at Edwards AFB.

Next door was a closed Antique Store - got a couple good images there. Across the street was a closed liquor store with a great faded sign.

A few miles east of Boron, at the interaction of Highways 58 and 395 is Kramer Junction with long traffic lights stopping many a trucks. Besides the gas stations is the Kramer Junction Antiques store. Its big — like shopping in a museum. Also there are many great HDR photos by Linda Berman Photography - some of the photos are in this gallery at her website:

Photos from my couple hours stop are in this Boron flickr set.

Today's From the Archive post looks back at the 22,000 seat Wrigley Field - home of the Pacific Coast League Los Angeles Angels. Built in 1925, Wrigley Field was the center of Los Angeles baseball before the 1958 arrival of the Dodgers.

Enjoy

Ten photo gallery: Wrigley Field

For this special holiday, I posted an 18 photo gallery Celebrating Easter on the Los Angeles Times From the Archive blog. The images are from 1920s through 1991. This time-span makes for interesting look at photographer's styles as they changed over the years.

Happy Easter

Scott