The northern half of the Las Vegas strip doesn't look like this anymore. The Stardust (purple and violet building in the right foreground) is gone, and Wynn built a second tower (called Encore at Wynn) directly north of their main tower, obstructing its view. The view shown above existed from early 2005 (Wynn opened for business in April 2005, but as you can see in the photo below, exterior construction appears to have been completed by March 2005 or earlier) until about March 2007 (when Stardust was imploded.) We don't recall exactly when the Sky Condos were built. Sky is over to the right, as in this photo of the Las Vegas Strip we shot on August 13, 2007.

This is similar to the above photo but moved over towards the east a bit. It shows the entire south end of the strip along with the eastern side of the north strip between Wynn and Riviera. The sun was setting, which offers a different background than the pure black of night.

This photo was taken from the same spot (the top of the Stratosphere) as the previous two Las Vegas strip pictures. The Stratosphere does not allow people to bring tripods up to their observation deck; and the Stratosphere tower itself is so tall and narrow that it sways if there is any wind at all. The south strip area is 4 miles away as well. Which means it's a difficult shot to get.

This image looks particularly nice on tee shirts with the background removed. We shot this photo on Christmas Eve 2006. The sign is so bright that it isn't difficult to get good shots of it at night. The difficult part is waiting for all the other photographers to get out of the way if you're looking for a specific angle or composition.

Caesars Palace is one of many Las Vegas structures that seem to have been built specifically to look impressive in photographs. Looking at this picture, you can't really tell if it was shot in 1972 or 1985 or 2007 unless you know when the new room towers were built.

And Caesars looks even more impressive with the sun setting behind it. We shot this picture on December 25, 2006. The time frame is more identifiable since you can see ads for the Pure nightclub and Jerry Seinfeld on the marquee.

This is Wynn's second room tower as seen at sunset on June 8, 2009. While Encore is part of the Wynn resort, it's marketed as a separate property called "Encore at Wynn" in the same way Mandalay Bay markets THEhotel and Venetian markets Palazzo as separate properties. We stayed at Encore in June 2009 and it is the most fantastic Las Vegas resort we've ever seen (so far, after 18 trips to Las Vegas.)

This is one of the last photos we shot of the Stardust, on December 25, 2006. The Stardust was imploded March 2007. Shortly thereafter, Westward Ho and New Frontier were demolished. This was probably the first time in Las Vegas history that three casinos next to each other disappeared in the same year.

Steve Wynn (owner of Wynn) and Sheldon Adelson (owner of Venetian) seem to be competing with each other... at the same time Wynn was finishing its new "Encore at Wynn" tower, Venetian was also finishing a new tower, Palazzo. We'd never seen so many projects under construction on the Las Vegas strip simultaneously before. Palazzo and Encore being built almost next to each other; the Echelon site being prepared after the Stardust implosion; a condo tower going up at the old Wet-N-Wild site next to the Sahara; the Cosmopolitan being built in between the Monte Carlo and Jockey Club; and Project City Center in that same vicinity, where Boardwalk used to be. A new Trump tower was also going up about half a mile west of the strip.