Holiday Cocktail Mania

I love, love, love to shoot cocktails! And holiday cocktails are extra fancy and therefore extra fun to shoot. The Chandelier Bar at Cosmopolitan is a great backdrop for shooting because the ambiance is beautiful and there are varied backdrops and nice tabletops to choose from. Also, everything looks sparkly, twinkly and holiday-ish because of all the chandelier glitter. Here are four holiday cocktails you can get there if you want to get drunk in style. See Las Vegas Weekly's reviews of more holiday cocktails here.

Sausages and Accordions

Just a few reasons why I love the San Gennaro Feast: Sausages, lasagna and aggressive accordion players.
See more feast fest love here.

Food and Family Fun

My favorite photo from the San Gennaro Feast this year is the top one in this blog post. This is "Fat" Sonny Marks, 8, the proud owner of Fat Sonny's food booth, one of the many featured at the semi-annual Italian eat-your-face-off festival and carnival. This eight-year-old was the actual owner of the booth, his grandmother bought it for him when he was just two years old. They make a mean meatball.

Year of Nosh

Part Four: Edibles of the Year

Regularly photographing food with lights and high expectations was a new challenge for me this year. Casino buffets, farmer's markets, fine dining and everything in between; here are the food shots I am most proud of from my inaugural year of nosh.

The Delicious Bounty

   And yes, all of this beautiful produce was actually grown in Nevada.

More Stripper Extremities

While spending time backstage at Badda Bing Men's Club for a story about their strip club house mom, I became a little obsessed with shooting the hands/feet of strippers (see previous blog post). It's just comforting to know that strippers also eat Doritos and cut their toenails.

Food Shooting

I recently started shooting food. Not just shooting food, but shooting food for people that actually gave a shit about how the photos turned out. With the pressure on, I called my friend, the amazing food and "stuff" photographer Levi Brown to find out how the hell to make food look edible. He gave me some sage advice. It was something too simple to think of myself, though I employ the exact same technique for everything else I photograph whenever possible. He told me to find a window and put the food near it. That's it. The big secret is out. Obviously, food photography is a lot more nuanced than that. But, I've found, window light is the best ever. As usual, Levi was right. I hope he's proud of my fledgling food photography.