Fremont Street Cutouts

Having been to Las Vegas and the famous Fremont Street Experience several times before, I thought it would be cool to play around with these photos that I shot on our 2010 road trip to California.

Manipulating the cutout filter in Photoshop and boosting the color and vibrancy of some of my select images, I created stylized prints of some popular Fremont Street scenes. For my own sake, this was an easy way to separate and re-imagine a series of images that I seem to shoot over and over again each time I visit.

This evening in early September was a general blur between casinos, bars, and souvenir shops. It was the first evening of rest and celebration after two days of driving from Canada, and we both seemed anxious to kick back. Inadvertently ending up in Vegas on the long weekend, the crowds actually made the short stop seem more iconic of a classic Vegas trip. In an alcohol and neon fueled hypnosis, the hours flew by.

For more, here's a video I made from a previous visit to Fremont Street and my complete photo set of downtown Las Vegas from 2010.

Summer by Gnarly Bay Productions

Another incredible edit found thanks to Vimeo, Summer by Gnarly Bay Productions Inc. is thoughtful, patient, and captivating. The slow motion works to great effect in emphasizing the nostalgia and details of the time. It's yet another piece of inspiration in a long list of accidental finds that showcases the effectiveness of a well executed slice-of-life edit.

I'm also further inspired by the amount of skillful work that I've seen created using Canon SLRs - the 1D Mark IV used here is especially brilliant, however very expensive. I can see one of my next major purchases being a higher end SLR to experiment with. All in due time. For now enjoy this short.

Salvation Mountain

There are places that immediately distinguish themselves as one of a kind. When getting my first glance of Salvation Mountain just outside of Niland, California it was clear that we were about to experience something we wouldn't soon forget.

Created by Leonard Knight, Salvation Mountain is a shrine created from hay bails, old telephone poles, and layers upon layers of paint. Everything at the site has been decorated in such bright colors it gives the impression of a cartoon-like atmosphere. Leonard lives at the site, and despite being in his eighties now is more than happy to give you a personal tour and share his stories.


I first heard about Salvation Mountain after watching Into the Wild - a portion of the film takes place in Slab City which you can see from the site. At first I expected Leonard Knight to be overly eccentric, maybe even a little scary, but the reality is that all that apprehension disappears when meeting him face to face. He wasn't pushy about religion and he didn't seem to have any motive for making money from the visits, instead he was simply proud to share and talk about what has become his masterpiece.

I think the photographs speak volumes about the level of detail and originality that exist in this quiet site off the eastern shore of the Salton Sea. It was undoubtedly one of the biggest highlights from our 2009 cross country road trip.

You can read more about my experience and watch the original edits I made of the location by visiting my Indio Outio posts for Salvation Mountain and Leonard Knight.