Monthly Archives: October 2014

Back on the farm

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Monday morning greetings from somewhere in Texas!

Depending on when you read this, I’m on my way back from a weekend shoot in Houston, Tx. I drove down on Thursday and Friday, did the gig on Saturday and Sunday and will be back to Peoria on Monday night! I was shooting at the 40th annual International Quilt Festival and it was impressive to say the least! The other really fun thing is that I ran into a number of former PJS Publications (Peoria based national magazines) people that I haven’t seen for a number of years! In some ways, it was like old home week and that was very fun!!!!

One of the other fun gigs that I did a week ago was being able to get back to shooting some photos down on the farm with my friends from Case-IH. We ended up shooting some of their smaller utility tractors that are great for doing work around a farm or a country house. We had a two day shoot and for most of the first day, the weather was less then favorable! It was super foggy and misty and in my world that doesn’t make for great photography (at least how I view the world). We did have one shot though that first morning that I really ended up loving and this was the shot! We had a bunch of the golden fall leaves on the ground and there was a light mist in the air, so it really gave this shot a lot of mood!

Here’s my “not normal Kevin May” photo and I hope that you like it as much as I do!

Have a great week as always and thanks again for checking out my work!!!!

Kev

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Rebuilding Hope After a Natural Disaster

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

One of the things that I’ve taken great pride is helping out those that need help here in Central Illinois! We have so many great charities that are doing a lot of incredible work and it’s been my pleasure to help them out when I can!

I got a call from Mark Burdess and Barb Massey at Burdess and Associates back in July and they were working on a project for the Heart of Illinois United Way on a book to help people dealing with the aftermath of a natural disaster. The project came from the tornado that hit Central Illinois last November and was a way to try and help people effected both physically and emotionally from that disaster. Our goal as the creative team was to try and come up with photos that would convey each section of the book and help tell the different stories. Barb, Mark and I had a number of meetings to talk about what we were going to do and kicked around a number of ideas to help tell the story. The great thing about doing Pro Bono work like this is that for the most part you have unlimited creative freedom and also time to really work on a photograph and make it the best that it can be! Because of this, we were able to come away with better photos then if we had only spent a fraction of the time that we did! We really worked hard on this project and there was a tremendous amount of time making everything come together. I think that you’ll see all the effort that went into this book!!!

Here’s a great electronic version of the book, “Rebuilding Hope After a Natural Disaster”

Here’s my ten photos that were used in the book and I’m very proud of what we created!

Thanks for checking out my work as always and have a great week to come!!!!!

Kev

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Salt

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

It was another rocking week of work for me with shoots in Peoria and Chicago! It’s such a nice feeling to have the phone ringing with clients calling and needing some photography and I’m doing everything that I can to get them taken care of! There’s no sign of things slowing down till Thanksgiving, so I’ll keep rocking and rolling for the next month and a half! 🙂

One of the shoots that I had last week was my on going project for the Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. We have a number of things and places that we are trying to get taken care of before the end of the year. The photos will be part of the the new visitors guide for 2015 and will also be used through out the year to promote tourism in the Central Illinois area.

We had a number of stops last week and one of those being the Peoria Heights restaurant “Salt“. We stopped in during the lunch hour and were able to shoot a number of things and people. The other really good part of this shoot is that we also got to have lunch there at Salt and was a very nice treat! Everything about our experience was outstanding from the service to the food, so it’s one of those places that if you haven’t visited yet, you should!

Here’s a few of my snaps from Salt and you’ll see why I liked it so much!

I hope that you’re going to have a wonderful week and thanks for taking the time to check out my photos!!!!

Thanks again!!!!

Kev

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Pushing dirt!

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!!!

Well it was another rocking week for me with work and there is just so much going on right now, I don’t know if I’m coming or going! Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take this over the first half of the year when there wasn’t too much going on work wise! I have always liken business to a roller coster ride and at times like the first half of the year, the coster was going down hill with nothing going on. The past three months the coster has been climbing and for the foreseeable future it’s continuing to climb and that makes me very happy!

This past week I was out shooting photos of bulldozers pushing dirt and something that I’ve always enjoyed shooting. No see these machines doing what they do has always been a source of great joy for me. I’ve also always been fascinated by watching the farmers out working with their tractors in the fields or at this time of year with the combines harvesting the crops that they planted. I guess that maybe it’s the kid in me that just loves watch these machines out there doing their thing!

Here’s one of my shots of three Caterpillar bulldozers out pushing dirt in Central Illinois this past week!

It’s time for me to get rocking because it’s going to be another busy week and there’s lots of gigs for me to shoot! Have a great week as always and thanks for taking the time to check out my work!!!!!!!

Kev

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