Last week I photographed the Stella Artois Draught Master competition at the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas. It was my second year in a row shooting the event and was much improved this year with the addition of a rock show by Vegas locals Big Talk to finish off the night. The band is a side project of The Killers’ drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr., who in this band takes the role as lead singer and guitarist. The show was pretty good and helped draw a nice crowd to the event. I’d never heard of the band before, but of course am at least somewhat familiar with The Killers. Brandon Flowers, The Killers’ lead singer, made a crowd-pleasing guest appearance midway through the show actually. This is a shot I like from the end of the evening. I was pretty much done shooting the action and retreated to the bar to take a break. The color of the stage lights contrasted nicely with the color of the liquor bottles lining the bar shelf. Vannucci is actually a very expressive singer and I got numerous shots of him belting out the lyrics, head up, eyes closed, mouth agape. The image lacks that moment for me, but the color combo helps make up for it.
The next day I stuck around for a portrait shoot I’d set up on the side. It gave me the opportunity to explore Vegas off the strip, which I rarely have done. Most of my visits there are results of gigs that usually take place somewhere along the strip. It was nice to see more. I’ll show the results of that day’s work soon.