Picture taking in Las Vegas

Where to take pictures of the Las Vegas Skyline at night.
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A quick Guide to Las Vegas the "Sin City" of the USA
1st off get rid of the idea of sin in Las Vegas, prostitution is illegal in the county. You would as the natives say have to "go over the hump to Pahrump" to visit a legal house. That is not to say that ALL kinds of illegal activity can be found in the city. Which of course is a shame.
Now Las Vegas does offer Strippers, male and female. Lap-dances are also offered as are private strippers and massage folks to your hotel room. A good starting point would be the Olympic Gardens North of Sahara and South of Charleston. Oh yes, speaking of Charleston stay off it, if it it raining. The road floods under the railroad bridge. Please be advised that in a light rain the good citizens of Las Vegas have NO CLUE how to drive. It simply becomes a game of slip and slide. In 2 ton auto's that can be a dangerous and expensive game.
Start off by going to http://earth.google.com and downloading the Google earth program. Once the program is installed start it up. In the fly to box enter Las Vegas, NV. and press the enter key. The strip has a lot of little blue dots. Play with the resulting maps until you get a good idea of the locations you would like to see.
If you like pictures there are many areas around Las Vegas that offer wonderful views of the strip. If you are lucky you can get moonrise behind the scene. And sometimes even catch a moon set if you happen to be in just the right place at the right time. There are programs that you can input the location and then get visuals of moonrise/set times.
Start off on Las Vegas Blvd South. Coming over the hill from Sloan. There are side roads made of gravel that you can follow until you get just the picture you are looking for. These pictures are from about 10 miles out. So you will need a clear dark night for the pictures.

After that you can turn right on Saint Rose Parkway and right again on Veterans. Follow the road up the hill and check the rear view mirror. Or stay on Saint Rose until you come to Eastern. There is a big St. Rose Hospital on the right. Try different streets in that area. Some of the side roads are dark enough and have parking structures where you can park on the roof for an excellent photo op.
Another good area as you are driving into Las Vegas is to take the 215 exit WEST. Then exit on Durango. Turn right. Follow it several miles and near Desert Inn or Spring Mountain you will find a great picture taking area. You can go down Spring Mountain until just before Decatur you will find a Chinese Mall called " " Pull in and go up to the roof at the back.
Go back up Spring Mountain and continue on Durango until you reach Cheyenne turn right again. Near the airport you will see other area's for taking pictures. These will be off road in dirt lots or behind building. Blowing dust can and will have a very negative effect not only on your pictures but your gear.
Now follow Cheyenne to I15 SOUTH the take the 95 downtown exit. Stay on the 95 until you reach the HORIZON RIDGE exit in Henderson. Turn right and turn right again. This road offers MANY different viewing/picture taking areas. If you continue to follow Horizon Ridge you will once again run into eastern where you can turn right to go into town.
I spend a great deal of time planning my routes using Google. You can also get road updates using local TV channels and Yahoo maps. I use these tools before road trips to Arizona and California. Taking pictures can be a blast. Use the best camera you can afford. Make sure you have plenty of batteries and a good tripod.
Now if you want pictures of specific casinos and sites in the Las Vegas Area then do like I do. Use Google Earth. With a building view. That way you can take a virtual cruise up and down the strip. Sit on top of different parking structures and get a general idea of where the best location is for taking pictures. I used to sit on the Boardwalk parking garage and take pictures of the snow on Mt. Charleston.
There is a street called St. Louis it is near the Olympic Garden. If you go East on St. Louis from the Strip you will find a GREAT view of the Stratosphere tower. Park safely and remember these are neighborhood streets. Try not to disturb the residents.
The Las Vegas strip is changing all the time. New construction is always going on. At this time several of the older roads have been renamed to reflect entertainers that made Las Vegas famous. For example industrial rd is now Dean Marten Drive. We also have Frank Sinatra drive running directly behind some of the big name casinos.
Something most folks find very unusual is walking into a 7/11 or other store and seeing gambling going on. Yes almost every small convenience store as well as grocery stores offer gambling. You used to be able to sit in the store. Smoke and gamble they were very busy. Business has dropped off a lot since smoking is now banned. Every bar in town also offers gambling. Some bars are for smokers so no eating is allowed. Some of the bars made partitioned eating areas. Some bars are considered "locals" for example PT's. Some of the local bars do not like tourists, others feel that if your money is good then you must be good.
One thing a lot of people are forgetting these days is tipping. And tipping guides can be found in many places. In general you tip everybody. Especially the person that BRINGS the money to pay your jackpot. One thing route techs hate is someone saying how much they had to put in to get a win. Who cares. Momma raised me to tip. YOU need to tip. How would you like to be the one driving all over town carrying lots of money - you risk being stabbed, shot, hit, all so some joker can run off with the company money. TIP
Shopping Las Vegas offers some world class shopping. Both in the casino's and in the "Outlet Malls" even Primm which boarders California, Nevada on the I15 South of Nevada has some really fine deals. For those with a shopping mentality it is an easy matter to spend an entire day shopping.
The Great Outdoors: Las Vegas is close to Lake Mead and Hoover damn. You can get bus tours from most of the casino hotels to Lake Mead, Hoover Damn and even day trips to the Grand Canyon. There is even a paddle wheel boat on lake mead. I believe it's called Lake Mead tours. On Thursday afternoon they have a Pizza and Wings Cruise for the late lunch crowd.. It's great. When my mate and I went we had the entire boat to ourselves. Free beer, all the wings and pizza we could eat. I even got to pilot the boat.. IT was great. We got to meet the captain. Talk to the bartender and food server and the deck hands. The crew also took pictures of the two of us which is unusual to have the couple in the picture. I loved it. . I do not think we could be that lucky again if we tried. But maybe next summer when out daughter is here with the grand kids for vacation we will take them on the cruise.