Covering a city that’s changed right before his lens

IN 1994, 24-year-old Ethan Miller put his belongings in a Chevy Blazer to drive to Las Vegas, a city he had never visited, to take a job as a photographer at the Las Vegas Sun. More than a decade later, he is among the city’s premier chroniclers. Miller’s images routinely illustrate stories in magazines, newspapers and websites. His photos have appeared in USA Today, Rolling Stone, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and many other publications.

Last year Miller became the first Las Vegas-based staff photographer hired by the massive wire service Getty Images. Like almost all its competitors still do, Getty, before hiring Miller, used to have to fly in stringers from L.A. to cover boxing, awards shows or any other Vegas events. But as Vegas grew, that model became impractical. So while other Getty photographers across the country specialize in sports, entertainment or news, Miller is unique in that he covers all three and anything else that happens in Las Vegas.

Miller has watched the city grow ever glitzier. Red carpet arrivals at nightclubs used to be a rarity. Now, rolling out red carpets for celebrity birthdays alone is a regular occurrence. “Gene Simmons’ birthday at Palms was August 2005 -- earliest one I remember for Getty.” Among the other birthdays Miller has shot in the last year or so: Ashanti, Paris Hilton, Lisa Gastineau, Fergie, Roy Horn, Dennis Hopper, and Kelly Osbourne.

A recent Friday found him maneuvering like a taxi driver across and up Las Vegas Boulevard to rush between a weigh-in for a championship boxing fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Carlos Baldomir at Mandalay Bay to O’Sheas Casino to shoot Vince Neil getting a tattoo at the opening of the Strip’s first tattoo parlor. “When you have two events to shoot on the Strip in the same day, the way traffic works, any delay can be a complete disaster and you miss an event. You have to know back ways in and out of casinos.”

So Miller, who has black hair that he keeps in a ponytail, had arrived almost two hours early at Mandalay Bay to set up his laptop in the press room, pre-write photo captions and be set to instantly edit and transmit the shots while leaving time to get a good position for the weigh-in. “Whatever I shoot has to have some national or worldwide interest. I look for something I can see getting into Time or People. A lot of what I shoot is figuring out what is going on and covering it,” Miller says.

During the five minutes it took for the two boxers to get on the scale and pose a little, Miller shot 194 pictures. Quickly, he went through them back in the pressroom, editing and selecting 10 images to send to Getty in New York and London. He then hoisted his two Canon 1D mark II cameras, a sack full of lenses, a tripod and the laptop to begin a jog to his car to get to O’Sheas, a tiny Harrah’s property on the Strip.

Taking the back roads, Miller parks in the Flamingo parking garage. He then jogs down the Strip, his equipment jangling at his side, maneuvering past bewildered tourists.

“I’ve seen the transformation of this place from a city thought of nationally as just ‘a gambling place’ to a hip destination,” he says. “I can drive around town and mark the time by the implosions and openings I’ve shot: I’ve been at the implosions of the Landmark, Hacienda, Aladdin, Sands and Desert Inn, and the openings of the Stratosphere, Palms, Monte Carlo, New York New York, Bellagio, Wynn, Red Rock Casino and yes, even a Hooters Casino Hotel.”

Even though, as Miller notes, resorts stage most events he covers, he is still at the mercy of Las Vegas’ peculiar quirks.

“Shooting in Las Vegas at clubs often means long nights for press because celebrities almost never show up when they are scheduled. In other cities, there is a ‘last call,’ but this is Las Vegas -- you never hear those words here. It’s not as if the bar is going to close down if people get to a club really late.”

As for the subjects, they can get repetitous. One week Miller shot Paris Hilton at three events. But the way Miller really gets a home field advantage over the L.A.-based photographers that primarily are his competitors is that most everyone on the Strip trusts Miller.

At O’Sheas, for example, the sidewalk is crammed with a crowd gathered to see the Motley Crue singer being tattooed in a display window. Though other photographers are held up by security, Miller is instantly recognized by the publicist and walked back to Neil. Neil, a local, also recognizes Miller.

Dave Kirvin, the head of the powerhouse local PR firm Kirvin Doak (which recently handled the openings for Phantom” at the Venetian and “Love” at the Mirage), has watched Miller for years and confirms his special status. “Ethan is unique to Vegas photographers. Outside his talent he is a total professional and trustworthy. He is always calm, focused, and I know with Getty his shots are going to get all around the world.”

More than most places, for a photographer, a good working relationship with Vegas publicists is essential, Miller says. “You cannot just walk into a casino and start taking pictures with a professional camera even in their parking lot,” he explains. “You can’t just run down to a casino and get a shot of a slot machine.”

Though if push came to shove, after more than a decade here, Miller admits he is the one photographer who probably could arrange to get a last-minute shot of a slot machine. “It wouldn’t be easy. In some ways,” he says, laughing, “that could be the hardest shot to get in Vegas.”

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For more on what’s happening on and off the Strip, see latimes.com/movablebuffet.