Can’t say I hit the ground running today, but I am definitely inspired. It’s barely lunchtime and today I’ve hailed a cab in Paris, seen the New York City skyline and flew over the Nevada desert in the middle of the night. Making the mistake of taking an evening flight in winter (father Winter has finally decided to go to work), my 8:30 p.m. flight out of D.C. was delayed due to the one to three inches of snow blanketing the area. The delay ended up being much longer with some strange, rather noisy maintenance thing being done on the aircraft before we took off (was this de-icing, I wondered?). But I grew to feel comfortable in my airbus capsule in the sky. I must say, America West made up for the delays with extras like treats and a free movie. I got to see the film, Casino Royale, for free and the latest charming 007, played by Daniel Craig, allowed me to drift off in a trance-like dreamy state, taking breaks to drink my ginger ale and to give my bags of free pretzels to my snoring neighbor, since I’m allergic to wheat. Like the sweet sound of a mother’s whisper, I awoke to the words of the captain saying we were soon to touchdown in Vegas.

Now I have never been to Vegas, day or night, but I can’t imagine anything as stunning as what I saw. Flying over the area in the pitch black of night reminded me that there are miracles. We flew over the vast expanse of black nothingness. Right in the middle of the void, with not a twinkle of light in sight, sat, rather majestically, this glowing planet-called Las Vegas. Gold, glittery, twinkling (everything it represents on earth) placed in the middle of nowhere. This was one of the most amazing sites of my entire life. As we approached the landing strip, the pilot almost clipped mountains before the shining scene was truly revealed in all its glory. I’ve heard that Vegas is one of the few places that you can see from outer space and that’s probably true. How did they get all that stuff out in the middle of the desert though? This absolutely fascinates me. Are there even roads in the dusty dark? I plan to head out to the desert myself before I leave here.

In the air, I asked myself, why all of us who love photography travelled out to the middle of the desert to attend this show. Sure, some may be thinking ‘well, the casinos silly’, others may think it makes sense economically. I think the real reason is our industry is as exciting as the place itself. A captivating photo has the power to truly light up the desert in the middle of the night. Later today: a recap of events and news.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 8th, 2007 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Alysha Sideman. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.