Monday morning greetings from Austin Texas!

Back on the road again this week and that’s always a good thing. We have been taking advantage of all the good weather in Central Illinois the past couple of weeks to be outside shooting a bunch of architectural photography for a client and that’s worked out very nicely. Last week we made a quick trip down to Quincy, Il. and then a few days later down to St. Louis for another shoot. This week we’re in Austin and it’s going to be a little toasty weather wise being outside, but that’s the nature of the business.

People are always amazed when we drive so much to these shoots and there’s a myriad of reasons why we choose to drive instead of flying. No, we aren’t afraid to fly! 🙂 There can be delays in flights, camera gear doesn’t show up on time, excess baggage fees by the airlines have become outrageous, etc., etc., etc. Well one of the things that driving allows us to do is to stop along the way and shoot photos and that’s probably the best reason that we like to drive. Mind you, we don’t always stop and shoot photos, but the opportunity is there and when we see something good, we stop and shoot!

I arrived in Austin yesterday afternoon and had a few hours to swing by the Zilker Botanical Gardens and walk around and take a few snaps. Even though it was hot and humid, it’s still always a very good thing to be outside shooting photos! The gardens are right across the river from downtown Austin, so it’s very convenient to stop by for a visit.

Here’s a few of my snaps from an hour spent at the Zilker Botanical Gardens.

It’s time to get to work, so we hope that you’re going to have a great week to come and thanks as always for checking out our work!

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

It looks like we might actually be seeing the weather turn just a bit here in Central Illinois and it sure is a welcome thing. After having a week of hot and humid to rainy and humid, yesterday the weather turned with the humidity dropping and the temperatures at a comfortable 75 degrees and abundant sunshine. After a long hot dry summer it’s a very welcome change and one that I really look forward too!

With the change of seasons here in the Midwest, we also know that it’s about time for harvesting season. The corn and soybeans are looking good and pretty soon we’ll start to see the combines working in the fields. I always enjoy seeing them out working and knowing that they have a short time to get the crops harvested before the weather turns to winter. It’s also at this time of the year that we get the “harvest moon” and some of the best and most colorful sunsets around. We’re going to be on the road a bunch coming up, so hopefully we’ll be in town for a bit to be able to get some of those wonderful images!

Here’s one of my snaps of the corn fields and they are almost ready to be harvested.

Well it’s time to get busy because we’ve got a busy week!

Thanks as always for taking the time to check out our work and we hope that you’re going to have a great week to come!

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

Well the kids have been going back to school this past week and better them then me! 🙂 I do remember when I was a lot younger and I would be all excited for the first day of school and then about halfway through that first day it would hit me why we were in school and it wasn’t going to be fun and games! The excitement lasted for about two hours and then you knew that it was going to be nine months before summer vacation would happen again and you’d be free for the summer! I’m sure that a few of you felt the same way when you were younger too!

This past week was a good one and along with a couple of shoots that happened early in the week, I had a ton of video editing work going on as well. The good thing is that in the coming weeks, I’ll be able to share some of these video projects that we have been working on this summer. It’s always fun for me to have a project that’s got a beginning and then an end and something that doesn’t drag on too long. These last few projects have been that way, so it’s very nice to get started on them and then finish them up and move on to the next project!

I’ve got a couple of photos from my trip down to Southern New Mexico a few weeks ago. They’ve had some rain in the last month and the barrel cactus flowers are blooming and the colors are outstanding! When you’ve got a desert landscape that doesn’t always have a lot of color, to see these cactus blooming is really a special treat, so I’m glad that I was able to witness it!

Here’s a couple of my snaps from New Mexico!

It’s time to get busy and there’s more video editing to work on this morning!

We hope that you’re going to have a great week to come and thanks as always for taking the time to check out our work!

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning peoria greetings to one and all!

I’m back home this week from a trip out West and as always it’s great to be West of the Mississippi River on a road trip!

I’ve driven by Tucumcari, New Mexico a hundred times in my life, but never gotten off Interstate 40 to take a drive down old Rt. 66. My rule of thumb is if you’re on any interstate highway, you’re just trying to get from point A to point B in the shortest amount of time and not out to do any sightseeing. Time is critical, so we get in the car and run down the road and get where we are going as quickly as we can.

On this trip I was able to take a little bit of time to get off I-40 and onto Rt. 66 running through Tucumcari and take a few snaps. One of the things that I really enjoyed is that there are a bunch of old signs along the way, some still are working and others that aren’t, but that’s part of the fun of seeing what’s out there. I learned a long time ago that if you see something like an old sign and you want to take a photo of it that you better do it because it might not be there the next time that you come by. About ten years ago I was driving through Snyder, Texas and I came across this old abandoned gas station. I took about 20 minutes to get some shots of it and I was glad I did because when I went through Snyder just a couple of years ago, the old gas station was gone! Here’s that photo and I’m glad that I got it when I did and while the building was still there! Snyder, Tx. Gas Station Photo

Here’s a couple of my snaps from a drive down old Rt. 66 in Tucumcari, New Mexico.

It’s time to get back to work this morning because I have a ton of video editing to get done and it won’t happen until I get on the computer!

Thanks as always for taking the time to check out our work and we hope that you’ll have a great rest of the week!!!

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

Welcome to the middle of summer and as time seems to do, it keeps motoring along and at such a fast pace anymore. Time seems to fly at other points in the year as well, but I guess that I just notice it more during the summer because of the bookend holidays of Memorial Day and Labor Day. When you throw the 4th of July into the mix of those two major holidays as well, you’ve got a holiday weekend just about every month or so it seems during the summer. That’s one of the things that I do like, but I always wish that summer could last just a little bit longer then it does!

I’ve got one more promo to share from our time spent in Tucson, Az over the 4th of July holiday week. Even though we’ve been to the San Xavier del Bac Mission in Tucson a large number of times over the years, I never get tired of going there and shooting some photos. There’s always something different to see that we’ve missed in previous visits to the mission. For those that haven’t been to Tucson, San Xavier del Bac is located about 10 miles south of downtown Tucson. It’s also known as “The white dove of the desert” because it’s the tallest building for miles and it stands out in the flat land of the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation. The fun part of being there is that you can walk all around the inside and outside of the mission and take photos. Of course if mass is going on at the time of your visit, you can’t go inside during the service.

Here’s a couple of our snaps from the San Xavier del Bac Mission.

Thank you as always for taking the time to check out our photos. We really do love shooting them and sharing them with you!

Kev and Jan

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Tuesday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!!!!

Jan and I got back from spending last week out in Tucson, Az. As always, it’s great to be out there even if it is in the middle of summer and with the temperature soaring to 109 degrees a couple of days at the end of the week. Even though it was a little warm, it still makes my old body feel good!

On the drive out to Tucson, we were able to stop at one of our favorite places to shoot photos, Petrified Forest National Park. The thing that’s nice is that you have two parts of the park for the price of one. Along with Petrified Forest, you also have the Painted Desert part of the park. Petrified Forest National Park is located right off of Interstate 40 between Holbrook, Az. and Gallup, N.M.

Painted Desert has some great views of the multi colored layered ground and in the morning and afternoon the colors really pop. You can look down into the valley from the cliffs up above and the scenery is spectacular. Petrified Forest has different features from Painted Desert, but it’s just as interesting. One of our favorite parts of Petrified Forest is the area called Crystal Forest. There’s a great walking trail that’s about a quarter mile long that takes you in and around the whole Crystal Forest area and you can walk amongst the petrified trees. It’s amazing to see these trees that are now brightly colored rock. If you’re ever out that way on I-40 in Arizona, it’s a place that I can highly recommend and something that you won’t see anywhere else on Earth.

Here’s a couple of our snaps from the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.

Ok, the 4th of July week is over and it’s time to get back to work! We hope that you’re going to have a great rest of the week and thanks as always for taking the time to check out our work!

Kev and Jan

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Big Easy Monday morning greetings to one and all!!!

We are back on the road once again and I have to tell you that it feels pretty darn good! After having been home in Central Illinois for the past six weeks, we were starting to get that itch to get back on the road, so now we are getting our wish!

5000 photos and you’re asking what that’s all about. Well it’s pretty simple, I’ve been posting my various photos on flickr.com for the past 12 years and it’s been a great place for me to share what I’m shooting for myself. Sure there’s some work photos on here from different client shoots, but for the most part it’s my personal photography and shooting images of the subjects that make me happy! I’ve got a link for you with the 14 different albums of photos on Flickr. There’s a bevy of subjects, so you’ll probably find something that you like! https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmay/albums

You might even be wondering what the most viewed photo is from all of my 5000 Flickr photos. Well it would be one the the first shoots that I shot with my good buddy, Mike Rowe back in 2010 in Las Vegas. At the end of a very long day of a video shoot, they asked me if I could get a couple of photos of just Mike and I was happy to help out!

Here’s my most viewed photo!

Ok, it’s time for Jan and I to get busy and get to work! We thank you as always for taking the time to view our work and we hope that you have a great week to come!!!

Thanks again!

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

Well we sure finally had some very nice weather in Central Illinois this past week and what a welcome change it has been! The trees are finally starting to flower and the grass is getting green and growing (I cut the yard twice this past week). The other thing that has been great for me is to be back home and able to take advantage of the nicer weather and getting over to Jubilee College State Park which is practically in my backyard. From my house I can walk over to the park or ride my bike and for the most part durning the week things are pretty calm with not a lot of people out at the park, so I get the place to myself. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to do some video editing work done on the computer durning the morning and then get over to the park for an hour or two and get a little fresh air and exercise before heading back to the house to continue on with my editing fun. It’s so much easier to go to the park when the weather is nice and not -10 below zero!

One of the things that Jan and I like to do when we are in New Orleans is to walk and shoot photos in the Garden District of the city. In past years and trips this has always been a tradition of ours to do this on Christmas eve and it’s great to see and shoot photos of how the homes in the district are all dressed up for the holiday season. With this being the first time that we’ve walked the district outside of the Christmas season, the first thing that caught our attention was the number of people out on walking tours of the district. At Christmas time we pretty much have had the place to ourselves, so we had to work a little bit to avoid all the crowds of people. There’s quite a diverse style of homes in the district and some serious money has been spent by homeowners keeping these incredible places in tip-top shape. All and all it was a great way to spend an afternoon seeing the homes with all the vegetation in full bloom and being able to snap a few photos as well!

Here’s a couple of our snaps from the Garden District in New Orleans.

It’s time for us to get to work and we’ve got a couple of shoots and more video editing to tackle this week. We hope that you’re going to have a great week and thanks as always for taking the time to check out our work!

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

We’ve had some very wacky weather here in Central Illinois this year and things have been cooler then normal. Usually by this time of the year, I’ve cut the yard at my house multiple times and even in past years I’ve cut it as early as mid-March. Well with all the cold weather here I haven’t cut the yard once yet! Here we are at the end of April and it’s just amazing to me that I haven’t had to cut it yet. Well trust me, that will come to an end at some point this week because I’ll finally have to cut it, but to think that the first time would be in May is amazing!

While we were down in Louisiana a week ago, we made a stop over at the Houmas House in Darrow, La. Houmas House is an incredible plantation and gardens that has been fully restored back to it’s original condition from back in the 1800’s. You can tour the inside of the house and then afterwards walk the beautiful gardens. The best part for us is that we were able to shoot photos and you know that makes us both very happy.

Here’s a few of our snaps from the Houmas House.

We hope that you’re going to have a great week and thanks as always for taking the time to check out our work!

Thanks again!

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

It’s good to be back home again after being on the road down in Louisiana this past week. It was also nice to have a little warmer weather then what we’ve been having in Central Illinois here in April. We should be a little warmer then we’ve been, but it seems like a strange year for weather and I’m sure at some point summer is just around the corner.

We had a nice bonus on this trip being able to spend a few extra days in New Orleans and as always the city was great. When you’ve got a city that’s as old as New Orleans, there’s a lot of different architecture styles around town and for a couple of photographers like Jan and I, that’s a great thing. The French Quarter is one of our favorite areas to walk around and shoot photos because of the history and style of the buildings and houses. In the last few hours of any day’s sunlight in the Quarter, the colors, shapes and shadows that we find are amazing. I could probably walk that area a hundred times and still not shoot everything that’s there!

Here’s a few of our photos from an afternoon spent in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

It’s time for us to get to work, so we hope that you’re going to have a great week to come and thanks for taking the time to look at our photography!

Thanks again!

Kev and Jan

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