I tell you this all the time, but I truly believe that you’re one of the best photographers in Las Vegas and I hate to see you go – not only that, but I’m honestly going to miss you as a friend.

This workshop meant everything to me – lighting empowers a photographer and not only that, it sparks renewed inspiration and interest in the art of photography.

Shooting in Las Vegas means lots of requests for places like the strip and for years we’ve told potential clients “it’s not the background that matters, it’s the foreground”. Shoots like this, some of my favorite all time shoots, are done in mundane and even outright ugly locations like our parking lot and look how great they look!

Juxtaposed, the same shoot at Bellagio would look like a hot mess with 50,000 tourists in the background all staring and jeering, interrupting the shoot and breaking everyone’s focus. Lighting would have been a non issue, as we’d have been terrified to set up lighting for fear of them being stolen and the colors and contrast would have suffered as a result.

Finding inspiration for a shoot – any kind of shoot – isn’t about going where everyone else goes and showing the same lame tourist shots that one could just as easily take with their iphone, but spending time seeing the world as an artist sees it.

Everything and everyONE is beautiful and sometimes even in a fast town like Las Vegas, you have to slow down for a moment and take it all in.

If that doesn’t explain our philosophy behind our photography, I don’t know what else does.

Jason my friend, I am a man with many words, but rarely do I speak. Between you and my other friends in the photography community, I am empowered by our friendship and mutual goals to not only speak, but to shout, to laugh and to cry as an artist, as a friend and as a colleague. I wish you and your family the absolute best and while I *know* Houston will be a better place for you, at the same time, I wish I could have come up with a valid argument to keep you here lol

Your friend,

Deacon Magnus Tyler