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.

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

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.

Image from Carhenge near Alliance, Nebraska, shot with a Lomo Supersampler 35 mm film camera.

Today I finally got some 430 images posted on Flickr from my recent vacation. I went from Los Angeles to Hay Springs, Nebraska, for a large three-day family reunion. Then I drove to Bend, Oregon, to visit other family members. Finally I was back in Los Angeles 15 days after leaving. I drove some 3400 miles, with many stops to take photos.

In addition to my digital cameras, I took two 35 mm cameras: a new Lomo Supersaver and the old Lomo Oktomat. And yes, I also used my iPhone camera. But to keep life simple, I only used the Hipstamatic photo application.

My planning was based around using http://www.roadsideamerica.com/ and its companion iPhone app. Roadside America advertises itself as "Your Online Guide to Offbeat Tourist Attractions." I skipped many "A" list attractions like the Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore to free up time for my "offbeat" agenda.

After uploading all 400 plus images, I broke out smaller duplicate sets to make viewing easier.

Enjoy,

Scott

Well, here is a list of my flickr sets:

2010 West Tour - the full 400 plus images

Hipstamatic images

Carhenge Alliance Nebraska

Sunset Chadron Nebraska

Lomo Cameras

Route 66 Arizona, New Mexico

Nuclear Museum Albuquerque, New Mexico

Eccles Dinosaur Park Odgen, Utah

Petersen Rock Garden, Redmond, Oregon

Collier Logging Museum, Highway 97, Oregon

The Leftovers - Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon

Once you go to each link, click on the Slideshow icon to start a flash slideshow gallery. This is the easiest way to view images on flickr.

Dove released during 2008 Memorial Day ceremonies in Westlake Village.

No, I am not moving, just taking better advantage of my flickr pro account. Over the weekend I moved all my galleries over to flickr.

With flash not supported on the Apple iPhone and iPad, I needed to have the option of both flash and non-flash galleries. For now, the quickest workflow is to post images directly from Lightroom to a new flickr set. Then post a link to the flickr set and then add a second link to the corresponding slideshow. The slideshow feature automatically turns the flickr set into a flash slideshow gallery.

I was able to post a good list of links in one session. Gallery page.

On Monday I went back and finished uploading images from a visit early this month to Calico Ghost Town.

Flickr Set


Calico is about 10 miles outside of Barstow and is owned by San Bernardino County. I last visited the ghost town in 1972 and shot photos long ago lost. Back then, my brother-in-law worked for San Bernardino County and he had me shooting photos of some kind of Pony Express race to Calico. So I believe my pics are buried in some box in the county archives.

These new photos were processed through Topaz Detail. Calico is a great location for a photo walk. Enjoy the pics.

I am now a Pro - according to Flickr. All I had to do was upload 200 images into my account and pay 24.95 per year.

My promotion to the professional ranks came last weekend. As I uploaded a few photos up popped a message that I needed a pro account - or else. The "or else" was that after 200 images, additional photos would bump out others. Only 200 images could be viewed at a time - unless I joined the pro ranks.

Gee, after 33 years of working full-time in newspaper photo departments I thought I was already a pro. But hey, for less than twenty-five bucks I could could get Flickr to say I was a pro. So I signed up. Cheap recognition.

So now I am officially a Flickr pro.

Do I get an official Flickr Pro certificate to frame and hang on my wall?

My photostream link

A couple recent downtown Los Angeles images.