Vegas Summary

January 20th, 2009, 12:29 pm PST by Greg

We’re back from Vegas. Many pictures were taken. A small amount of money was lost, more was spent. Some highlights from me:

  • We had a meal, and took many pictures at L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon. My favourite courses were probably the lobster carpaccio and the sea bass.

  • Now that I think about it, I might have been up slightly. I have photographic evidence of being up a total of $85. I only lost money when I sat at a slot machine a couple of times. The dollar slot that Kat told be was good was the worst of it. I reckon I’m up $20–40.

  • At one point, Kat wanted to play a dollar slot for a while. I said I was going to see if there was a quarter slot or something nearby. I circled a couple banks of slot machines and came back. Kat was done, having lost $40 in like two minutes. Stay away from the slot machines, kids.

  • My best gambling experience was when we found a roulette table with a $5 limit (as opposed to $10) at the MGM. I sat down and started playing pretty randomly. Every bet on the roulette table has a house edge of 2/37, so it’s not like my decisions meant much anyway.

    The dealer was nice and very helpful (since all of us cheapskates at the $5 table were amateurs). I got a free drink while sitting there, and happened to come away $43 up (actually $48, but I left $5 with the dealer). That was pretty much everything I wanted from the casino.

  • The best picture I got in the casino was right before a pit boss walked up to me and told me that “for future reference, pictures are allowed anywhere else on the property, but not in the casino.” Polite but firm. Very good.

    There are probably 27 ways to cheat at the tables using a digital camera, none of which I would be able to figure out.

  • The Neon Museum/Boneyard was really good, and a great opportunity for pictures. Definitely recommended for anybody going to Vegas.

  • My 30mm f/1.4 lens did come through very well for some night shots on the strip.

Posted in Food, General Life, Photos | 2 Comments »

2 Responses to “Vegas Summary”

  1. Nico Says:
    January 21st, 2009 at 2:07 pm

    Very cool pictures! And an impressive bottle of 2005 Pomerol as well!

    As for the 30mm f/1.4 lens, I’m curious as to why you wanted to try it out specifically for night shots? Is it because the large aperture allows you to get a lot of light in dark environments, so you can shoot with less noise (lower ISO)? Or is there something else (such as exaggerated depth-of-field) that you wanted to achieve?

  2. Greg Says:
    January 21st, 2009 at 3:32 pm

    The wines at Robuchon were the result of asking for two glasses of wine each, whatever they thought was appropriate for the tasting menu. The Pomerol (actually a 2003) was a tasting bottle the Sommelier had and cost *him* over $100. We were lucky to get two glasses at $20 each.

    My experience is that it’s almost always worth it to do an omakase-style of order.

    For the lens: mostly the wide aperture. e.g.
    http://gregbaker.ca/gallery2/2009/vegas/strip/img_8536.jpg.html

    Fast enough to freeze droplets, even at night. (1/160, f/1.4, ISO 800)