Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!!!

Well, all good things sometimes have to come to an end as our time in Hawaii did this past weekend! It was great to be there as it always is and to get away from Central Illinois when the weather isn’t all that wonderful at this time of the year makes it pretty darn nice as well. The other thing that’s also nice for Jan and I is that we are able to get out and shoot some nature photography for ourselves. When you’re shooting photos and videos for a client, your first goal is to make them happy with the content that you’re creating for them. If you’re able to please yourself in the process, then it’s a win win for everyone. When you go out to shoot photos for yourself, your only goal is to please yourself and that’s the kind of photography that can get your creative batteries recharged. By getting out and shooting nature photos like we did, we were able to enjoy some sunshine and warm temperatures and also create some great photos as well!

One of our stops on the Big Island was the Lapakahi State Historical Park on the Northwest side of the island and it’s an old fishing village that’s been partially restored as it would have been hundreds of years ago. At this time of the year just off of the coast, you’ll catch glimpses of the whales that have migrated from Alaska and we were able to see a few, but they were too far offshore to photograph.

Here’s a few of our photos from our day spent at Lapakahi State Historical Park.

It’s time for us to get busy with 2018, so we hope that you’re going to have a great rest of the week and thanks for taking the time to check out our work!!!

Kev and Jan

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Tuesday morning Kailua-Kona greetings to one and all!

2018 is here and we made it! If you’ve had some time off during the holiday season, it’s probably hard to get back into the swing of things getting back to work. Fortunately for Jan and I, we’ve got a few more days here in paradise before coming back to Peoria on Friday afternoon where I hear it’s going to be a balmy 11 degrees for the high that day! I guess I won’t be wearing my flip-flops and shorts when I get off the plane. That’s going to be a real shock on the system after having had three weeks of 80 degree days!

2017 was a very nice year for Jan and I and we were really very blessed to have so much work once again without us being so swamped that things got crazy busy. Lots of road-trips and shoots out of town around the US and out of the country and that’s always a very good thing. We’re already getting booked up into February and we’ve got road trips on the East and West coasts in the first couple of months of this year, so we’ll get regrouped from our time away at Christmas and get ready to roll once again!

One of our shooting spots this past week was Punalu’u Black Sand Beach Park. If you look at a map of the Big Island, you see Punalu’u on the Southeast side of the island. It’s a great little area with the black sand and the Green Sea Turtles and that’s always fun to see them too. The one bit of advice that I’d give if you’re ever going to visit Punalu’u is to have some sort of footwear because when the sun is out, you could fry an egg on that black sand, so it’s a little hot on the bottoms of your feet.

Here’s a few of our snaps from Punalu’u and you’ll see that Jan got a great image of a Green Sea Turtle in a shallow pool of water.

We both hope that you’re going to have a healthy and safe 2018 and thanks as always for taking the time to check out our work!!!

Kev and Jan

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Monday afternoon Kailua-Kona Christmas greetings to one and all!

For those of you not familiar with the Hawaiian language (like I’m fluent in it, lol), Mele Kalikimaka is Merry Christmas, so I hope that today on this Christmas Day you and yours are having a very Merry Christmas!!!

Jan and I are here in Kona on the Big Island and needless to say it’s a little warmer and a little less snowy then it is back home in Central Illinois! It’s great to have sunshine and warm temps in the high 70’s with the nice light trade winds blowing to keep things nice and comfortable. We’ve already put a 1000 miles on the rental car in the week that we’ve been here and have been shooting nature photography at a number of locations around the island and it’s been very fun and very relaxing as well.

One of our first stops was at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park and the K?lauea volcano. Now to answer your first question, No, we didn’t see any lava flowing! You can see the steam rising from the Halema’uma’u Crater and we’ve been told when it’s dark you can see the orange glow coming from the crater. At the moment, there’s not any lava that’s flowing into the Pacific Ocean, but there was just a couple of months ago! It’s really hit or miss that you’ll see it! Needless to say, we still had a great time hiking around the park and shooting lots of photos as we always do! We’re planning another visit over to K?lauea and the other side of the island once again to shoot more photos while we are here!

Here’s a couple of our snaps from Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park and you can see that there is color and beauty in the land of lava!

We hope that you’re having a wonderful Christmas today and holiday week to come! Thanks as always for taking the time to check out our work!!!

Aloha!

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning Kailua-Kona greetings to one and all!

It’s the week before Christmas and for a lot of people, they are starting to shut it down for the rest of the year. Hey, that’s Jan and I!  🙂  When I first started working for myself about 28 years ago, the thought of taking time off at Christmas seemed a little crazy because I thought that everyone else would be on vacation at that time and I didn’t want to go somewhere and have it be busy with a bunch of tourists. After a couple of years in business and being in Peoria at Christmas time, I quickly realized that for my business and what I do, the time between Christmas and New Years was non-existent and I started to think, what the heck am I doing in Peoria in the dead of winter when I can be someplace warm! Jan and I started taking off the week of Christmas and New Years and we’d head someplace like Destin, Fla. or New Orleans, La. for the week. I then started to see where business was shutting down even sooner than just Christmas as clients would be taking time off to try and use up any extra vacation time or they would lose it! We’ve not gotten to a point where by about the middle of December, things have pretty well shut down for the rest of the year and so Jan and I are taking full advantage of that slow time to get the heck out of town and detune from the year and all that’s gone on!

We’ve got a lot of things planned out over the coming days to get out and shoot a bunch of nature photography and do some hiking and that will be great!!! There’s something that’s very therapeutic about getting out in the sunshine and hearing the birds singing!

Here’s one of Jan’s photos from yesterday and our first day in paradise and you’ll see what we mean about tranquility!

If you’re going to be traveling this coming week and weekend for the Christmas holiday to spend time with family and friends, make it a safe one and have a wonderful time!!! I know that we’re going to do our best to do the same!!!

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

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

For Jan and I, this is our last week of work for the year and needless to say we’re quite happy about that! Now we’ll still have some Monday morning promos to finish out the year, so you’ll still hear from us in the coming weeks. It really has been a very good year once again and we are very blessed to be doing all that we have in 2017! There have been a lot of road trips and it’s a good thing that we both enjoy being on the road. Now don’t get me wrong, you can be on the road too much and when that happens it’s always good to come back home to Peoria!

We’ve got a visiting sculpture in Peoria and if you haven’t had a chance to see it yet, it’s pretty darn cool. For the next nine or so months, the sculpture titled Return Visit will be featured here in the Peoria area. Return Visit is a giant 31′ tall bronze statue that depicts Abraham Lincoln standing with a modern-day man who’s holding Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The statue is outside on the East side of the Peoria Riverfront Museum and faces the Illinois River. It’s a very impressive piece and you just don’t realize how big it is until you get up next to it! I like the fact that we are getting some of these things in the Peoria area and it’s really nice to see!

Here’s one of my photos of “Return Visit” taken with the drone.

It’s time for us to get busy, we’ve got a lot to do in the next five days to get things wrapped up for the year! We hope that you’re going to have a great week to come and thanks as always for taking time to check out our work!!!

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!!!

We’re winding things down for 2017 and we’ve got a couple more weeks here in town before we shut it down for the rest of the year. It’s amazing how fast this year has flown by with all of the different shoots and locations that we were at around the country. It’s never too upsetting to have things slowing down a bit at this time of the year and it allows us to get a bunch of year-end stuff done so that when we start 2018, we’re caught up with everything and are ready to go! It’s nice having the desk all cleaned up and all the appropriate paperwork filed and boxed up!!!

On my trip out to Southern New Mexico over the Thanksgiving week, I was able to get out and shoot photos everyday which always makes me very happy! One of my photography spots that I was able to visit on this trip was the El Paso Desert Botanical Gardens. It’s not as huge of a garden as some of the other ones that Jan and I have shot at around the country, but it’s a very nice place that’s incredibly tranquil and peaceful. There are a number of fountains in the park, so the sound of running water in the desert is a very calming presence in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Now at this time of the year, it’s a little harder to find flowering plants and trees since it’s out of season, but there still are some and that’s where the challenge is finding some things to shoot! All and all I had a great few hours walking around the gardens listening to the running water and grabbing a few snaps!

Here’s a couple of my photos from a morning spent at the El Paso Desert Botanical Gardens.

It’s time for us to get rocking on all of the last-minute year end things that we need to get done! We hope that you’re going to have a great week and thanks for taking the time to check out our work!

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

Well it sure was nice to sleep in my own bed last night! What a crazy past month it’s been with all of the road-trips and driving for these different shoots all over the US. Sometimes it’s like that and you just push through it and know that there’s light at the end of the tunnel and for the next three weeks it will be good to be here in Peoria! Yea! The final tally on all the driving was 9840 miles in the car! Yes, that’s a lot of miles in one month!!! It’s a good thing that there’s creature comforts like Sirius XM radio in the car to help keep you going when you’re out in areas where there’s not a whole lot going on! All and all I was able to slug through it and my butt’s not too sore from sitting in the driver’s seat all those many days!

This last little trip for Thanksgiving week took me out to Southern New Mexico to spend the week with my folks and it’s always so nice to see them and spend time there. The weather couldn’t have been nicer with abundant sunshine and temperatures in the mid 70’s to high 70’s all week! That’s my kind of paradise! I was able to get out everyday for a hike and to shoot some nature photography and it’s always wonderful to be able to do that! I know what I’ll be doing in retirement!!! 🙂

Here’s one of my snaps from Soledad Canyon just outside of Las Cruces, N.M.

It’s time to get busy and there are lots of loose ends on a few projects that we’ll be tackling in the next few days, so it’s time to get started! 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 and seeing what we are doing!!!

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning greetings from Oklahoma City!

Well it sure was a crazy couple of weeks of driving and the final tally on the rental car was 5718 miles for the three shoots over that two week period of time! I made it back home on Saturday evening and was able to regroup a little bit and sleep in my own bed before heading out again yesterday for a week in New Mexico with my folks for the Thanksgiving holiday. Needless to say after this week of driving it will be good to be back in Peoria for at least a little while before heading out once again!!!

Both Jan and I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving week and to me it’s always been a good time to be a little reflective about how things are going. Now I don’t think that any of us probably has the perfect life with everyday and everything being perfect all the time. We all have our moments, but that’s what life is all about and you just have to take the bad with the good. I do think that we are very blessed that we have so many wonderful clients that hire us and see the value in what we do. Jan is finishing up her third year working with me and I’m very happy that we have been able to do so much and spend so much time together having fun while we are working and traveling for our gigs! Life can be short, so enjoy everyday and be grateful for all that you have and who you are!

Here’s a quick snap from my time in Utah a couple of weeks ago when I was able to get out and shoot some nature photography for myself and this always makes me happy!

It’s time for me to get going, I’ve got about 670 miles of driving today to make it to my folks place! Jan and I both hope that if you’re going to be traveling this week to spend time with your family and friends that you make it a safe one and come back home in one piece. Thanks as always for taking the time to check out our work and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning Georgia greetings to one and all!

Well it was a crazy week this past week and the fun’s not over yet! I was out in Utah for a shoot last week and everything worked out great and we had a good shoot. As sometimes happens, shoots can come up at the spur of the moment and I had a request for a last-minute shoot this week in Southern Georgia. I had driven out to Utah because of the amount of gear that was needed, so that was 1350 from Peoria to Salt Lake City. I spent the weekend driving from SLC back over to Georgia and that was another 1880 miles. Now the fun really begins, after the gig in Georgia I’ve got to drive up to Connecticut for a gig this coming Friday and this was another last-minute gig that came up late last week. So the drive from Georgia to Connecticut will be another 930 miles. Once I finish the Connecticut gig on Friday, I’ll start heading back to Peoria and that we’ll be another 965 miles to get back home. Just when you thought that the driving would all be done for a while, it will be Thanksgiving week on the 20th and I’ll be heading out to spend the week with my folks and that’s another 2750 miles of driving round trip! ‘m going to need a vacation after all of this driving! 🙂

Here’s one of my snaps from the drive from Salt Lake City to Georgia on the back roads in Utah!

It’s time to make the doughnuts, so we hope that you’re going to have a great week and thanks for taking the time to check out our work!!!

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning greetings from Salt Lake City, Utah!

Yes, the road-trips have started again! Denver two weeks ago and then back to Peoria for last week and now this week in Salt Lake City for another photo and video shoot! The good thing is that we enjoy it because if you didn’t, it sure wouldn’t be a lot of fun!!!

We don’t always get the chance to share some of the video projects that we work on, but this week we can! This has to be the biggest video project that Jan and I have ever worked on and it wasn’t that it took weeks and weeks to shoot, but it was the time that it took to edit putting everything together that was so extensive and time consuming!

David Vaughan Investments is one of those companies in the Central Illinois area that you’ve probably never heard of, but they are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year. In this day and age when companies come and go at the drop of a hat, being in business for 40 years really says something about the company and the people who work there. To mark this anniversary, DVI worked with another one of those companies that you might not have ever heard of, Burdess and Associates to put together a video celebrating the 40 years of business. lol, the funny thing is that most people in Central Illinois have no idea who I am either, so I like to think that like DVI and Burdess, we all fly under the radar when it comes to the general public.

Unless you’ve worked on a project like this, you really don’t have an idea as to the time that it takes to make all the elements come together. It all starts with concept meetings on what the video will be about and the look that we are after. From there we interviewed the principal players at DVI and after that is when the heavy lifting really began. If you think about it, we had to whittle down two hours of interviews into a seven minute video to span the 40 years of DVI. I give a huge amount of the credit to how well this video turned out to Barb Massey and Mark Burdess from Burdess and Associates. Barb was able to craft the story from all the interviews and Mark was responsible with the look and feel of the video. Trust me, without their help on this DVI video, it never would have looked and sounded as good as it does! It takes a team of people to put something like this together and in this case we spent days and days and days together working on the editing of the video over a two month period of time! That’s a crazy amount of time, but well worth the effort when you see the finished piece!

Below is a Youtube link for the DVI video that Barb, Mark, Jan and I put together. We hope that you enjoy it as much as we do!

Alright, it’s time to get busy in Salt Lake City, so we hope that you 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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