Behind the Lens in Las Vegas: The Life of a Glamour Photographer

Photographing beautiful women, working with exotic set designs and costumes, meeting celebrities, and gaining access to exclusive areas in Las Vegas. Sounds too good to be true, right? It’s all in a day’s work when you’re a glamour photographer. Meet Bobby Deal, a professional freelance photographer.

With a lengthy list of publications under his belt including Penthouse, American Curves, Planet Muscle, Tease and Cakes, etc., as well as the plethora of stock images, one can almost put his work in any publication out there in one manner or another. Deal sat down with Galavantier recently to clue us in on what it’s like to work as a freelance glamour and nude photographer in the city of sin.

Galavantier (GVT): How long have you been a photographer and how did you get into photography?

Bobby: I’ve been a full-time commercial photographer for 13 years now, working in studio and on location. Actually, I got into it way back in Junior High. I started out as a photographer for the school paper, and then progressed from there into having my own dark room, doing my own black and white stuff for years. It kind of stopped when I got married and had children. I picked it up at the very front edge of digital.

GVT: Why create photography in Las Vegas?

Bobby: I was in Orange County to begin with; it was a kind of a natural transition. I just decided, why not come here and do it. I opened Vegas Vision studios and took it from there.

GVT: What is the most interesting moment you’ve had in your career thus far?

Bobby: Interesting moment in Vegas? Oh wow… We’ve had strippers and midgets, and strippers, midgets and politicians all in the same room at the same time. Probably shooting Flava Flav. We were shooting for the launch of his vodka line, Le Flav, but he showed up in a white tuxedo that was four sizes to big. And like any celebrity we had like 15 minutes to shoot. Everyday is different; everyday is fun. Especially in this town, you never know what’s going to happen when the phone rings. I don’t normally shoot weddings, but I’ve got a wedding coming up where I’m shooting little people. The bride is 27” tall, the groom is 32” tall and they are all members of a sideshow community. It should be a very interesting wedding.

GVT: You also teach photography as well, how does that work?

Bobby: I love to teach, I love to see the recognition of understanding coming into someone’s eyes. Some people work better by doing, and that’s how we teach; we teach by doing. By teaching we’re also helping to preserve the industry. Even though I’m training my competition, I feel like I’m preserving my industry.

GVT: What is the community of photographers like in Las Vegas?

Bobby: The community of photographers in Las Vegas is really diverse. There’s people here that are family photographers, wedding photographers, every aspect of a photographer every imagined you can find here and every level of quality from the rank beginner to the seasoned pro exists here in Las Vegas. It’s a competitive market here.

GVT: Do you live the glamour lifestyle one would expect of a Las Vegas photographer?

Bobby: I live in a little apartment, I drive an old car; I live a very simple and humble life. Material things have never mattered to me. My camera is probably worth more than my car and more important to me in many ways. I get invited to a lot of things, if I wanted the rock ‘n’ roll type life I could, but it’s just not my personality. It’s not really that glamorous, it’s just another job. At the end of the day, it’s all the same. I can have beautiful girls in front of me, beautiful girls in front of me naked and I don’t even realize. I don’t take pictures, I create images.

Learn more about Bobby Deal at www.BobbyDeal.com. Or learn from the master photographer himself by taking a photography class at meetup.com/lensmasterslv.