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What Stays in Vegas – Part I

People always ask what it’s like to live in Vegas. For most people Vegas is the place you come and live big for a hot minute and then beat feet back to where you came from.  However, for those of us staying in Vegas not just Friday-Saturday-Sunday, but Monday through Thursday too, it turns out that being a local puts you in a wildly diverse nucleus of people that are as talented as the strip is glitzy.

Case in point number one: Meet Anja.

Five nights a week, two shows a night, Anja balances on her head while swinging through the air on a washington trapeze, 30+ feet high over a pool of water. That among other acrobatics, aerially suspended feats and unicycling. No, she’s not a stripper. She’s a world class athlete, artist and performer. To see her perform is to see magic. She also speaks five languages, has great style and is interested in world news as much as art.

Extraordinary friends like Anja are part of what makes Las Vegas such an amazing place to call home. That, and the fact that my neighborhood gym is the size of Costco and the workout rooms are covered in neon. Oh, and whatever the craziest, most world record breaking event and celebrity dramas unfold just down the street.

Anja is from Switzerland, the daughter of a composer and a classical pianist and at 14-years-old she went to circus school. She has been performing as an acrobat in shows around the world ever since and has been the lead female character in Cirque Du Soleil’s “O” at the Bellagio since it opened in 1998.

Anja and my other Cirque friends inspire me to no end. We have dreamed up some fabulous photo ideas together over wine and T&Ts the last few years but have not had the chance to act on many of them, yet. One of my biggest excitements about making the transition to freelance is the ability to make time to experiment and play more creatively – in addition to working on other more structured personal projects.

I’m looking forward to sharing these photographic play sessions along the way. For now, meet Anja. If you visit Las Vegas it’s worth every cent to go see her and the incredible cast of “O” at the Bellagio.

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Welcome to the New Site!

Woo hoo. It almost seemed like this day would never come. This has been a project of much collaboration and hard work. High-fives and cold beer toasts go to designer Greg Lutze and developer Chris Molitor for creating this site with me.

Greg is responsible for my new brand, logo and web site design. He designed every detail of this site and my new look, and he was awesome to work with. Chris is responsible for bringing Greg’s beautiful site designs to life.

All three of us really wanted to create a non-Flash site that would still allow full screen and scaling images for my main portfolio. There were a few moments there we weren’t sure it was going to work, but alas, Chris made it happen. He took care of every last tiny detail that Greg and I threw at him and cranked it all out in break-neck speed.

My new portfolio is made up of work from my nearly eight years as a newspaper staff photographer, from editorial and commercial freelance work, personal projects, and from all the days in between with my family and friends. This work is a mix of images that I’ve shot for myself and those that people have paid me to make. I’ve loved all of it and I’m super excited to finally share it with you.

Maren Levinson of Redeye Reps and photo editor Mike Davis played big roles in helping me re-edit all of my work and develop the approach for this initial new portfolio as I redirect my business, now as a freelancer. They are both radical editors, and even better people. Marketing consultant Jasmine Defoore has also contributed a great deal to what you’re seeing here. Jasmine and I are now working on my 2011 self-promotion campaign to launch after the New Year.

This is all hot of the press so please get in touch and let me know what you think. I’ll be making tweeks along the way but this is the New T.Brown, Version 1.0. Thanks for checking out the new digs and I can’t wait to share everything from here forward. Please follow and like me and sign up for updates. I promise to only send you things when it’s worth it.  XO from Vegas…Tiffany