Tuesday morning greetings to one and all!

Most of us had Monday off for Memorial Day and hopefully the weekend was a good one. If you were traveling or are traveling this week, be safe because so many people are out on the road. The kids are out of or about out of school for the summer and families will be out on vacation in the next few weeks and months enjoying the time off. I always remember when I was younger and in school that I was so happy to have that last school day done and then the start of summer and the fun that I knew I would be having.

One of the good things that I see more and more of is an awareness about what Memorial Day means and seeing people acknowledging it on social media. I think that sometimes it’s easy for us to forget what the day means and we get wrapped up in cook-outs and racing on tv. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of those things too, but I try to take some time to remember those that have given it all so that we can be a free country.

We’ve got a couple of our shots from Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, Ca. If you’ve not been there in person, it’s a beautiful area at the end of the Point Loma peninsula and you have an incredible view of the downtown San Diego area and also the Pacific Ocean.

Here’s those shots from the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.

It’s going to be a short week of work this week, so let’s all make it a good one!

Thanks again!

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

Well we are back on the road this week with a couple of farming shoots here in the Midwest. We always enjoy getting out and talking with the different farmers that we will be working with this week and it should be a lot of fun!

After 146 years of entertaining boys and girls of all ages, Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus gave their final performance and took their final bow last night. It was an amazing run and it’s the end of an era and to me that’s a little sad. Long before there were video games and the internet, the Ringling Circus was a big deal and if they came to your town, it was a very big deal. The circus would travel by train and they would have a parade with the animals and performers from the rail-yard to the venue that they were playing that night. I can fondly remember this from my childhood and it was a very magical time for me.

I was incredibly fortunate to shoot some photos at a stop that Ringling Bros. made here in Peoria back in September of 2003. I had taken some portraits for one of the performers in the circus at my studio and he got me a pass to shoot the circus that evening. To be down on the floor shooting all the things that went on that night was very special and a memory that I’ll never forget. I even still have the Ringling coveralls that I had to wear since I was down on the floor of the arena with all of the performers.

Here’s a few of my snaps from that night 14 years ago at the Peoria Civic Center of “The Greatest Show on Earth”.

The Explorer is loaded with gear and it’s time for us to get out and do a little photography and video with our farming friends! We hope that you have a great week and if you’re traveling this coming Memorial weekend, make a safe one!

Thanks again!

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning greetings to one and all!

Wow, the sun came out in Central Illinois and the end of this past week and what a difference it made in our attitudes! The whole weekend couldn’t have been nice with the temperatures in the high 70’s and abundant sunshine all weekend. It’s amazing how much you appreciate seeing the sunny skies and the warmer temperatures after going through a period of overcast and rainy days upon days upon days. Jan and I made the best of it and took a little road trip down South of Peoria to Jacksonville, Illinois. They are working on revitalizing their downtown area and you can see the progress that they are making and you drive around the city. Jacksonville’s got a small town square in the center of town and they have worked on rehabbing some of the older buildings and aren’t letting things deteriorate. We spent the afternoon walking around and shooting photos and it’s always so much fun for us when we get the time to do that!

Here’s a couple of our snaps from an afternoon spent in Jacksonville, Illinois.

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

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning Alabama greetings to one and all!

Well it’s that time of year when the road trip gigs are starting once again and we are ready to roll. I’ve talked about this a number of times with our traditionally busy season being the months of May, June, July and August. This year it’s already shaping up to be busy and we’ve got a number of road trips on our calendar for the next three months, so it should be interesting as it always is! If we didn’t like being out-of-town for our gigs, this would be horrible, but since Jan and I both like to travel it’s a very good thing!

We’ve got a couple more of our San Diego images to share and it’s amazing to me that it’s been two months since we were just there, it does seem like it was just last week! For those that haven’t been to San Diego, Point Loma is a peninsula West of the downtown and it provides some incredible views of the city along with the Pacific Ocean. We were very fortune to be there as the sun was going down and as luck would have it, the USS Nimitz was leaving the port and heading out to sea. It’s truly amazing to see one of these big ships in person and see it in action.

Here’s a couple of our snaps from Point Loma and the USS Nimitz.

Thanks as always for taking to 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!

In April of 1990, I started down the road to being self-employed and 27 years later here we are still rocking and rolling! It has been an amazing ride and it’s not over just yet, so we’ve got a few more years of doing photography and video for our clients and that makes us happy! We’ve come a very long way from the days of shooting film from 35mm up to 8” x 10” film for the view cameras in the studio. The transition from shooting film to digital in 2001 was a huge step and a big learning curve, but well worth the effort. The funny thing is that you couldn’t pay me to go back to shooting film after all these years shooting digitally! We’ve also made the jump just two years ago to shooting video for clients and now that video work accounts for 70% of our business. I’d also be very remiss if I didn’t mention that Jan started shooting and working with me on a full-time basis two years ago as well. A lot has happen in 27 years and there’s still more for us to do before we finally hang things up in a few years. We are so very blessed to have so many great clients that we have worked with over the years and that have supported us and what we do. I can’t ever say thank you enough for all the work all these many years! We’re not done yet, so there’s more to come!

Here’s a couple of our photos from Balboa Park in San Diego, California. What a great place to visit and to enjoy all that goes on there!

We hope that you have a very wonderful week to come and thanks for checking out our work and being part of our lives!

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

After what seemed like weeks of rain and gloom here in Central Illinois, we finally had some sun and warmer temperatures this past weekend and it sure was nice. There’s something in me that can get very depressed when I don’t see the sun enough, so I guess that rules out Seattle as a retirement city! Oh trust me, the rainy season isn’t over by a long shot, so we’ll just have to enjoy the sun when it’s out in the coming weeks!

One of the charity projects that we worked on last year was for our friends at Peoria Rescue Ministries and it’s that time of the year for homeowners and landscapers to get out and get their yards beautified for summer. PRM has an incredible program that helps rehabilitate men that need some guidance in turning their life’s around. Victory Acres is part of PRM and making the mulch is one of the great funding programs that helps keep PRM going.

We shot and edited this tv commercial for Victory Acres and it was a collaborative effort with our friends and Burdess and Associates who helped with the creative content. It’s always fun to work on a project like this because you can see that it helps those that need it and also provides a great product for our local community!

Here’s our 30 second commercial for the mulch program at Victory Acres and Peoria Rescue Ministries.

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!

It was a miracle over the weekend here in Central Illinois and we actually had the sun come out for a few hours! Amazing! Of course by Sunday we were right back into the gray and overcast weather and it looks like the rains will be moving into the area for the next number of days.

Another one of our stops on our West coast tour in Southern California was La Jolla and Seal Rock. The views of the Pacific Ocean are always incredible and it’s just so captivating to sit and watch the waves roll in. There’s also all of the wildlife from the birds to the Sea Lions that you can see as well. We were fortunate to be at Seal Rock days after a number of the female Sea Lions had given birth to a new crop of pups. Most of the Sea Lions were soaking up the sun and sleeping on the beach and the rocks, but we did see a number of them that were swimming around in the surf. All and all it was a great afternoon to be outside shooting photos and enjoying the scenery!

Here’s a couple of our snaps for our afternoon at Seal Rock in La Jolla.

Thanks as always for checking 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!!!

March has been motoring along for us and we are getting geared up for the start of our busy season! We’ve got a number of projects that are starting to come together with April and May are starting to get filled up! We’ll enjoy things being somewhat calm before the storm hits!

We’ve got more San Diego photos to share and that’s one of the things that’s so great about road trip’s like that. We are able to get out and shoot photos everyday and that makes Jan and I both very happy! One of our stops was the Japanese Friendship Gardens San Diego in Balboa Park. For those that haven’t been to San Diego and Balboa Park, it’s probably best known for being the home of the San Diego Zoo, but there’s so much more there to see. There are a number of great museums as well at the park and it’s a place that you would need multiple days if you wanted to see everything! The Japanese Friendship Gardens is one of those spots that is very calm and serene and is a great place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. We were able to spend a couple of hours there walking around and shooting photos on a very nice and relaxing day!

Here’s a few of our photos of the Japanese Friendship Gardens.

It’s time for us to get to work, so we hope that you 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!

Now if you are living in the Southwestern US this past weekend, Some Like It Hot might have described the weather over the weekend! I was watching the Nascar race from Phoenix on Sunday and it was a toasty 95 degrees there! That’s probably a little too much heat, a little too soon for even those living in the Southwest!

One of our stops to shoot in San Diego was the Hotel del Coronado on Coronado Island. It’s an iconic hotel for many reasons and when it was built back in 1888, it was the largest wooden structure in the world! It also was featured in the 1959 movie, “Some Like It Hot” with Tony Curtis, Jack Lemon and Marilyn Monroe. It’s amazing inside and out and it’s like stepping into a time machine to a by gone era. We had a great time walking around and shooting some photos while checking everything out.

Here’s a couple of our photos from Hotel del Coronado!

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!

Well for those of us in Central Illinois that thought that winter was over, mother nature brought us back to reality that winter’s not over just yet! Sometimes that happens and we can catch a late winter cold snap or snow storm in March and even into April. It looks like we got a couple of inches out here at my house, so spring will have to wait a little longer!

One of the fun things about our trip out to the West coast a few weeks ago is seeing things that we don’t have here in the Peoria area! Surfing is one of those activities that we don’t have in the Midwest, but it’s something that I could literally sit and watch for hours on end and never be bored. We saw all ages out there surfing from young kids to adults that were a little more seasoned, but still out there having a blast! Surfing is a way of life and a culture and it’s a sport that screams youth, so there’s always a lot of energy going on. As photographers it can be challenging to shoot as well because the action is all over the place and it’s always moving. It can be really hard to get good action shots, but I think that we got a few!

Here’s a couple of our surf shots from SoCal!

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

Kev and Jan

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