The Riviera Hotel and Casino, which opened in 1955 and remains one of the few standing true "legacy" Rat-Pack area casinos, is scheduled to close on May 4 of this year, 2015. What we know as the Riviera is destined to become a new "West Hall" expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Unless the stars truly align in an unusual way next month, I'll be unable to attend. However, last Friday I was able to pay one last visit to the "Riv" and to take a few shots for the memories. I did not have the time to linger and shoot as much as I wanted to, but I was able to spend 1/2 hour or so.
Photographing inside a Las Vegas casino is touchy at best. Many casinos forbid it entirely and those that do allow it often have significant restrictions. I though it would be best to play safe and play by the rules (I sure don't want to get "backroomed") so I stopped at the security desk, explained what I wanted to do, and asked if it was OK to do so. The officer on duty said that it was OK as long as I avoided shooting the casino cage (main cashier area) and any players actively playing table games. I can live with that. :)
Rather than ramble on, here are the photos I took that evening, with very few words. Enjoy!
Some of the stars who have graced the stages of the Riv over the decades ...
Elvis and Engelbert ...
Jack Benny and George Burns ...
The very nice security officer who told me to go shoot away! :)
These photos were taken using available light only, using a Canon GIII rangefinder camera, with a 40mm f1.7 lens. CineStill 800T color negative film was used, which is actually a repackaged and respooled Eastman 5289 motion picture film.
I picked up a couple of rolls of this film a while back and figured this would be a good opportunity to try it out. It's balanced for studio floods (3200K) which is approximately that of common indoor incandescent light. Autoexposure was used. It's rated at ISO 800, but had I the opportunity to do it over, I probably would have exposed it at 640, since some of the shadows in some of the above shots are a bit underexposed. Anyway, it was a learning experience and a memorable visit. Oh yes, I took the time to play a bit in the casino. :)
