Posted by Nate on April 19, 2007 at 4:13 am
So, I’ve been lucky so far, and I have not had the need to promote Black Diamond Digital much. I have this site, a box of business cards and word of mouth. So far, so good, but I’m ready for some good healthy growth!
Today I came across an ad for myVM3.com and I am curious to see how long this thing lasts. I don’t think I’ll join their network, free or otherwise. I am not seeing any advantage over craigslist.com or myspace.com, to be honest. It seems too broad – meaning – their one page ad pushes Las Vegas locals to join, but it’s also pimping their poker tournaments and their business directory services.
I guess I’ll keep an eye on it. There were two photographers and three designers listed, and none of them catered to my niches. I might eat my words, or I might be on the right track. We’ll see…
Continue Reading
Posted by Nate on April 8, 2007 at 11:44 pm
Today was the first time I’ve been a little concerned (read: scared pansy) for my safety shooting photos.
Anyway, the safety wall behind the Four Queens Parking Garage was tight, and the racers were hitting top speed about 6 inches from me, so that was the part that wigged me out a little. I was shooting for fun, not profit – so I figured I should move, because I’d have no one to blame but myself if one of those cars disintegrated in my face on Turn 8! In hindsight: WHAT A THRILL!
I didn’t attend the photographer’s meetings for the VGP, and now I know I should have. (Dude, they were at 7:15 am!) A couple photographers were cool, telling me some tips on where to shoot, and one guy, Todd, from CityLife, even clued me in on what settings he was using. (thanks, Todd) I am really pleased with the shots I took over the last 3 days, and I’m hoping to get a gallery featuring the best ones launched in the next couple days. (stay tuned) There were also the pricks. One douchebag started cussing at me because he was taking photos (probably with his camera phone) when I stood in front of him to set my monopod and switch lenses. I let him have a good look at my photo credentials and my middle finger. If he was so important, he’d have one too, I suppose.
Oh, and the traffic and parking problems – at least to me – were somewhat of a myth. I was in and out today in 3 hours, I did pay $10 to park at Main Street Station – worth it to me, anyway. Drove home after the race in 15 minutes. Leave it to Vegas Media to scare people away from their own event. I think the crowd was good – we’ll find out tonight on the news. I doubt that they hit 150K, like I heard once last week – but I’d be pleased if I was an event organizer.
Kudos to downtown for proving a lot of people wrong. Keep up the good work.
Continue Reading
Posted by Nate on April 6, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Go to the race, if you can. Now would be good.
It’s worth it. I got up at 5:45 this morning and packed my stuff for the Grand Prix, not really knowing what to expect. Parking is $10 at Main Street Station, and it’s worth it. If you walk 2 blocks you’re at the race. I have access to the Pits, which was cool – seeing the teams getting ready and all the equipment. I think the best seats are at Turn 4, behind the Golden Gate Casino – basically in front of the Greyhound Station. You really get to see what these cars – and drivers – can do. 180 mph down to basically nothing to make a turn, then right back to 180 in a matter of seconds.
The festivities on Fremont Street are pretty cool, too. Most of the casinos have an outdoor bar. There are at least two stages for live bands tonight. Oh – and the Freestyle Moto X Riders are there, too – right in front of the Plaza. I caught a few dozen shots. It’s cool when things happen that you don’t expect, and you have your camera all set for it.
I had a good time this morning, – hopefully everyone doesn’t miss out whilst bitching about the traffic.
Continue Reading
Posted by Nate on April 5, 2007 at 8:44 pm
I’m looking forward to this weekend, because I just picked up my photo credentials to shoot the Vegas Grand Prix (VGP) up close and personal… well – as close as you want to get to CART racing cars doing 185 mph through downtown Vegas.
Downtown Vegas is funny. Everyone treats Downtown like their buddy who just got out of rehab. They’re always wanting them to come back to the party – but it’s weird as hell when they do show up.
Here’s what I mean: our newly-re-elected Mayor, Oscar Goodman, along with most of the local press, is steady plugging downtown, and how cool and promising it is, how many hi-rise developments are going up, etc. However, most Downtown casinos seem totally oblivious to said development, for the most part. (Hell, it doesn’t make them any money – is the stance). Sure, they clean ‘em up with new carpet and some Lysol, but when it comes time to step up, represent themselves as a whole by hosting an event – such as the VGP, or BikeFest, NASCAR weekend, NFR, etc. – it’s just a huge, expensive hassle! “What can it do for my casino’s numbers?”
Now, granted – the city blew this one BIG TIME for local traffic. These casinos depend on local retirees who come in to play slots, have coffee, etc. In my opinion, – all things considered – it’s Easter weekend, and it would probably turn out to be a slow weekend regardless of the race. I think the important part is that Downtown has a chance to capitalize on International TV exposure, Race Teams and their families, Sponsors and their families, Die-hard Grand Prix Fans, Photographers, and such. Also, it should be said that this is the inaugural year. I’ll be down on the street tomorrow morning and again throughout the weekend. Let’s hope somebody steps up and does the race fans right.
Continue Reading
Posted by Nate on April 3, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Does anyone else think it’s funny when you get a piece of junk mail that has a fake handwriting font on the envelope? It cracks me up, like: “Hey, look! I got a handwritten letter! I’d better open it! Maybe it’s my good friend, Richie, with an exciting can’t-miss opportunity for me to buy a new Air Conditioner!”
Most of the time, these are printed on a lousy inkjet with clogged heads, which kinda gives it away, if they had anyone fooled to begin with.
To me, the small business is the fool. This is another example of a small business being afraid to invest in decent marketing. Hire a designer and a printing company next time, Richie. Compare the results.
Continue Reading
Posted by Nate on March 30, 2007 at 2:18 am
Man, I didn’t realize that it had been almost 2 weeks since I blogged. Busy, busy… Where do I start?
In the last two weeks, I’ve been inundated with the following: 2 day-long photo sessions on location, the WPPI Trade Show, a studio glamour photo session, two full casino campaign designs, managing a large website development project, building a brand for a new campground in Wyoming, designing a third casino campaign, organizing 6 new mailpiece campaigns then designing them, going to a few fun networking events courtesy of SpyOnVegas.com, managing a botched business card order, and designing the storefront for a real estate developer and a gaming publication.
Let’s just say I’m looking forward to this weekend when I can kick back and relax. Most importantly, Opening Day is April 1 for Major League Baseball. Ahhhhhh. Relief!
Continue Reading
Posted by Nate on March 17, 2007 at 8:06 pm
Most of you probably know I’m a hockey fan. So, this excited me… (from EJ Hradek, ESPN.com)
The NHL will eventually expand to Las Vegas
Fact. Within the next five years, the league will expand to two new cities, and you can bet Las Vegas will be one of them. Hollywood mogul Jerry Bruckheimer, a big-time hockey fan, is part of a group that wants to land a team in Vegas. To do so, it will have to build a suitable arena and convince local officials to agree to take the team’s games off the gambling board. The group should be successful on both fronts. The addition of Vegas and another preferably Western big-market city (Seattle?) will allow the league to realign geographically. Like it or not, get ready for the “Original 32.”
Continue Reading
Posted by Nate on March 15, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Last night I attended a Wine Tasting with my wife, put on by LocalWineEvents.com, Mix 94.1, Smooth Jazz 105.7 The Oasis, and Learn About Wine. Thanks to my friends at the Las Vegas Weekly for the invitation. Not a huge event, but enough to get us lightheaded… 60 wineries or so, mostly Reds. It’s funny when you see these types of events open to the public in Las Vegas. There are such diverse attendees – we saw a guy in a Boston Bruins Jersey (think “Happy Gilmore”) next to an affluent man swishing and gargling his tester, “hmmm. very mahogeny. hmmm. oakey. hmmm. Is this a 2004?”
Kinda left me scratching my head. Fun event, nonetheless. Looking forward to UNLVino…
Continue Reading
Posted by Nate on March 14, 2007 at 7:53 pm
I’ll keep this short:
I recently experienced an ephiphany about the primary and definitive difference between a new Mac vs. a new PC.
When you turn on your new PC, you’re told what to do. When you turn on a new Mac, you’re free to decide what do to with it.
And as long as that holds true, I’ll use Mac. I currenly am shopping for my seventh one.
Continue Reading
Posted by Nate on March 10, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Hey, I’m not sure about how it works on the Windows platform, but the SIRIUS online player sucks for Mac OSX. Don’t get me wrong – I’m glad I can listen online, but there needs to be some “sirius” improvements made…
For starters, the SIRUIS player doesn’t stream the info of the song that’s playing. This might seem silly, but it’s actually a huge pain. When you think about it, that’s kinda the reason people subscribe to SIRIUS radio – to find and enjoy fresh new music that isn’t available on their corporate local FM stations.
Things might be in progress, however… there’s one programmer on the case, Dusty Wilson, who gives us Mac users a way to play the SIRIUS player through Firefox browser – but I can’t get the damn thing to work. The firefox forums all state that his plugin doesn’t list artist or song info, yet, anyway. You can try it – who knows, maybe it’s just my system that doesn’t jive. Here’s the link to the Firefox Addon.
Here’s another bummer. I don’t always use Firefox. I like Camino better. No luck there, either. The player won’t function at all. So I tried Safari. It’s very slow and clunky in comparison, but it functions – without the streaming song/artist info, of course. I checked with SIRIUS’ website for help. They recommend using Internet Explorer for Mac. Excuse me?! IE hasn’t been updated for OSX since OSX came out! Here’s how hilarious that went: I blew off the dust and opened up IE on my Mac G5, and I ran into trouble from the start. The SIRIUS home page requires the Flash Plug-In to view. Time to go download the Flash Player. Easy enough, right? I went to Adobe’s Flash Download Page, and I got this. Yep. IE doesn’t have an OSX Flash Plugin download! What a joke! This browser has sucked for 6 years. My version says © 1995-2001. Microsoft Corporation.
So, my mission continues… Wait! Hold on! I’m listening to SIRIUS 28 Faction right now (very great station, for the record), and it sounds like “I fought the Law” is coming on! One of my favorite tunes ever! But, is it the Clash’s classic? Or is it Green Day’s cover tune? Guess we’ll all have to wait and see…
Continue Reading
