The Best Photography Locations in Las Vegas
By Serge Ramelli - Official Photographer of the City of Las Vegas
Hello fellow lovers of neon, light and the desert at night!
I have a special connection to this city: I am the official photographer of the City of Las Vegas. After a year-long casting, I was chosen out of more than 70 photographers for the role — and I have since shot well over 3,000 photos of Vegas. Here are some of my favourites.
The job comes with full drone authorization and helicopter access, which is how I captured many of the aerial views below (each one is marked). You cannot legally fly a drone over the Strip yourself — but every other spot here can be shot from the ground, and I have dropped the exact GPS into a single Google Map for you.
One quick tip: Vegas is a night city. Save the Strip and downtown for blue hour and full dark, shoot the Welcome sign off-hours to skip the queue, and duck into the casinos when the midday sun gets too harsh. For the big elevated view of the Bellagio fountains without a drone, head up to the Cosmopolitan.
1. The Strip from the Cosmopolitan (the Bellagio Fountains)
📍 The Cosmopolitan (36.1097, -115.1741)
The definitive Las Vegas view. From the Cosmopolitan's Strip-facing terraces you look straight down on the Bellagio fountains and lake, with the whole neon valley stretching to the mountains. Catch it as the sky turns at sunset, then again once full night sets the Strip on fire. This is the one elevated Strip view you can get without a drone — book a Strip-view room or head to the resort's terrace.
Best time: Sunset into blue hour, then full night — from the Cosmopolitan's Strip-view terraces or a fountain-view room.
📷 Sony A7R V · 29mm · f/16 · 0.5s · ISO 160
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-01
📷 Sony A7R V · 24mm · f/3.2 · 1/40s · ISO 250
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-02
📷 Sony A7R V · 24mm · f/8 · 1s · ISO 100
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-03
2. Paris Las Vegas & the Eiffel Tower
📍 Paris Las Vegas (36.1126, -115.1709)
The half-scale Eiffel Tower glitters across the Bellagio lake. Shoot from the lakeside promenade at night with the tower, the balloon sign and the casino lights all mirrored in the water.
Best time: Night, from the Bellagio side of the lake for the reflection.
📷 Sony A7R V · 15mm · f/4.5 · 1/8s · ISO 160
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-04
3. New York-New York & the South Strip
📍 New York-New York (36.1023, -115.1745)
The mini-Manhattan skyline of New York-New York, complete with a Statue of Liberty and a roller coaster, makes a great anchor for a Strip light-trail shot. Set up on the corner by the MGM and use a long exposure to streak the traffic down the Boulevard.
Best time: Night, long exposure for the traffic light trails.
📷 Sony A7R V · 15mm · f/13 · 10s · ISO 100 (tripod)
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-05
4. The Luxor
The black-glass pyramid and its sky-piercing beam of light are pure Vegas. From the air the pyramid's geometry and the beam read against the whole Strip; at dusk the last light catches the hard edges.
✈️ Shot from my drone under my official City of Las Vegas authorization — a view you can't legally reproduce from the ground.
Best time: Dusk into night, when the Luxor beam fires up.
📷 DJI (L2D-20c) · 12mm · f/2.8 · 3.2s · ISO 400
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-06
📷 Sony A7R V · 24mm · f/4.5 · 1/250s · ISO 2000
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-07
5. Mandalay Bay & the South Strip
📍 Mandalay Bay (36.0917, -115.176)
From above the south end, the golden glass of Mandalay Bay anchors a view straight up the glittering length of the Strip — a sea of light running north into the desert night.
✈️ Shot from my drone under my official City of Las Vegas authorization — a view you can't legally reproduce from the ground.
Best time: Night, from the air over the south Strip.
📷 Sony A7S III · 32mm · f/2.8 · 1/100s · ISO 3200
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-08
6. The Sphere
📍 The Sphere (36.1213, -115.162)
The newest icon of Las Vegas — the giant LED Sphere. From the air at a fiery sunset it glows beside the Venetian and Palazzo with the manicured golf course below; at dusk it sits among the towers of the new north Strip. This is my favourite of the new Vegas.
✈️ Shot from my drone under my official City of Las Vegas authorization — a view you can't legally reproduce from the ground.
Best time: Sunset for the fiery sky, into dusk when the Sphere's LED skin lights up.
📷 DJI (L2D-20c) · 12mm · f/4.5 · 1/160s · ISO 100
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-09
📷 Sony A7R V · 24mm · f/2.8 · 1/160s · ISO 1250
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-10
7. Fontainebleau & the North Strip
📍 Fontainebleau (36.1357, -115.1646)
The blue glass tower of Fontainebleau against a blazing desert sunset, with a red sports car waiting at the empty intersection below — a perfectly Vegas street scene at the quieter north end of the Strip, all from ground level.
Best time: Sunset, from street level at the north Strip.
📷 Leica Q3 · 28mm · f/1.7 · 1/500s · ISO 100
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-11
8. Downtown & the Fremont Street Experience
📍 Fremont Street Experience (36.1699, -115.143)
Old Vegas is the most photogenic Vegas. The opening shot here is one of my aerial drone views of downtown and the Circa resort — but everything else on Fremont Street you can shoot from the ground: the vintage neon under the giant Viva Vision screen canopy, the Golden Gate, and the classic California and Plaza hotels. Wander it at night and shoot the signs and the empty cross-streets.
Best time: Night, when the neon and the canopy screen are at full blast.
📷 Sony A7R V · 24mm · f/4.5 · 1/80s · ISO 1000
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-12
📷 Leica Q3 · 28mm · f/2.2 · 1/40s · ISO 200
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-13
📷 Leica Q3 · 28mm · f/1.7 · 1/50s · ISO 500
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-14
📷 Leica Q3 · 28mm · f/1.7 · 1/50s · ISO 200
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-15
9. Allegiant Stadium
📍 Allegiant Stadium (36.0909, -115.183)
The sleek black dome of Allegiant Stadium — home of the Raiders — looks spectacular from the air under a fiery desert sunrise, with the mountains glowing behind and the city waking up around it.
✈️ Shot from my drone under my official City of Las Vegas authorization — a view you can't legally reproduce from the ground.
Best time: Sunrise, for dramatic colour over the mountains.
📷 DJI (L2D-20c) · 12mm · f/11 · 1/3s · ISO 100
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-16
10. The Welcome to Las Vegas Sign
📍 Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign (36.082, -115.1729)
The most famous sign in America. Shoot the classic 'Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas' sign framed by its palm trees at night — get there off-hours to avoid the queue of selfie-takers.
Best time: Night (or very early morning) to beat the crowds.
📷 Sony A7R V · 13mm · f/4 · 1/3s · ISO 100
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-17
11. Inside the Casinos
📍 The Bellagio (and Strip interiors) (36.1126, -115.1767)
When the desert sun is too harsh, shoot indoors. The Bellagio's lobby ceiling — Chihuly's 'Fiori di Como' glass flowers — is a riot of colour, and the Strip's modern casinos are full of moody, backlit corridors made for graphic, abstract frames.
Best time: Any time — these are interiors. Shoot handheld with a fast lens.
📷 Leica Q3 · 28mm · f/1.7 · 1/50s · ISO 200
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-18
📷 Leica Q3 · 28mm · f/1.7 · 1/50s · ISO 500
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-19
12. The Blur Series (One Sharp Element)
📍 Along the Strip & downtown (36.1126, -115.174)
Here is a fun one. The Mayor of Las Vegas asked me to create a series of 'blur' images — one element razor-sharp and everything else melted into soft colour and bokeh. I shot this set on this trip; the city loved them and now uses them. It is a wonderful creative exercise: find a strong sharp anchor — a tree, a hedge, a neon sign — wide open at f/1.7, and let the famous Vegas lights dissolve into pure abstraction behind it.
Best time: Night, wide open (f/1.7), with one element in crisp focus and everything else thrown soft.
📷 Leica Q3 · 28mm · f/1.7 · 1/5s · ISO 100
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-20
📷 Leica Q3 · 28mm · f/1.7 · 1/6s · ISO 100
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-21
📷 Leica Q3 · 28mm · f/1.7 · 1/100s · ISO 100
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-22
📷 Leica Q3 · 28mm · f/1.7 · 1/15s · ISO 100
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-23
📷 Leica Q3 · 28mm · f/1.7 · 1/5s · ISO 100
🔖 License this image — ref. VEG-24
Happy shooting! — Serge
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Serge — Photoserge | Coaching photographers who are serious about getting to the next level.
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