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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

Wow, this year is off to a rocking start and with one month down and 11 to go, I can see that things are going to keep cranking along! January is in the books and Groundhog Day is Tuesday! I wonder if Punxsutawney Phil will see his shadow, but I’m hoping that he doesn’t!!! 🙂

We had a very good week this past week with a number of shoots. A couple of the gigs were still photography and a couple were videos, so that means that this week there’s going to be a lot of computer time coming up. The still images have to be processed and the videos will need editing along with some other video projects that need to be edited as well. It’s kind of funny how that all works and you’ll shoot a bunch of stuff and then you’ve got to work on it afterwards to get it finished up. It’s not too upsetting to have to be inside in a nice warm house on the computer when the weather outside in Central Illinois is less than conducive for outdoor activities. Now if it was 70 and sunny outside, I’d probably be singing a different tune, but it will be a few months before that happens. For now I’ll be happy to be inside and working on the computer! 🙂

I’ve got a couple of last shots from out West from Jan and I. Sure there’s 1000’s of images from our Western road-trip a month ago, but we don’t want to burn anyone out with them.

It’s time to get to work and the computer is waiting. We hope that you’re going to have a wonderful week as always 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!

Here in Peoria this past week, we missed all the big fun that our friends in the South and East Coast got to experience with the big snow, ice and rain storm! Everything went south of Peoria, so we lucked out and for a change didn’t have to deal with any of that mess!!! I’m sure it’s going to be a few days for everything to get back to normal for everyone out East and hopefully it will be sooner rather than later!!!

Last week Jan and I made a quick trip out to Golden, Co. for our annual MSHA (Mine Safety and Health Administration) training and it was a long way for such a quick trip! We drove out there on Sunday and we were back in Peoria on Wednesday night, so it was a couple of thousand miles for a four day trip! We did have our MSHA training on Tuesday and for something that could be a very boring day, the Colorado School of Mines made it a very interesting and fun experience. By getting our annual certification with MSHA, we can now go into mines and quarries that require that certification. I think we’re both happy to have it done for another year!!!

Besides sharing a great photo of Jan and I with our MSHA certificates, we’ve also got a few photos from our trip out West at Christmas. It’s always great to get out to the desert and shoot nature photos of some of the things that interest us! In this week’s photos we’ve got a few photos from Arizona and some of the vegetation and even a butterfly as well!

Here’s the photo of Jan and I with our MSHA certificates and our smiles! http://kevinmay.com/kmckj25Jan16.jpg

Here’s a couple of our nature photos from Arizona! http://kevinmay.com/kmcaz25Jan16.jpg

Thanks as always for checking out our work and we hope that you’re going to have a very wonderful week!!!!

Kev and Jan

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Tuesday morning greetings from Golden, Colorado!

Jan and I are out in Golden, Co. today for our annual MSHA mining training at the Colorado School of Mines! It’s one of those things that we’ve got to do so that we are legal to go in and shoot photos and videos at the various mines and quarries that we end up working at for our different gigs. This is the first time that we’ve taken our training at the Colorado School of Mines, so it should be interesting!

We’ve got a couple of photos from a few weeks ago when we were down in Bisbee in Southern Arizona and it’s one of our favorite little towns. Bisbee is an old mining town that has turned into a very eclectic little area with a ton of local artists and lots of little shops. There’s one main drag that runs from one end of town to the other and you can spend hours walking around checking everything out. We had a great time checking things out and then also snapping a few photos along the way. One of our favorite spots is the courthouse for Cochise County which was built in 1931 and the architecture is all in the Art Deco style of that era. Jan’s photo is of one of the front doors at the courthouse. Very cool indeed!

Here’s a couple of our photos from Bisbee, Az. http://kevinmay.com/kmcbis17Jan16.jpg

Ok, it’s time for us to get to class, so we’ve got to get going! We hope that you have a great week as always and thanks for checking out our work!!!

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

We got back home this past Monday from our Christmas holiday break out West and it’s great to get away for a bit of time! We didn’t have any shoots this past week, but that’s ok because there were a bunch of year end things that had to get done for the business. It happens every year and sometimes these things don’t get done until February and that’s not good. Some of the things are clerical and others are computer related, but they all need to get done before you start with a new year or things can get very disorganized and that’s not good! We’ve got another quick road trip coming up next week to get our annual certification for MSHA. That’s the certification that we need when we go to most mining operations in the US, so we’re heading out to the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Co. for our training! It should be fun!!! 🙂

I’ve got a couple of photos from our little Western adventure a few weeks ago and these were taken in the Chinle, Arizona area. We had to take a bit of a detour on the way out West because of the winter storms that hit the Midwest right after Christmas. Our little detour took us through Chinle and we never want to pass up a chance to shoot some nature photos. On our detour, we made it over to Canyon de Chelly National Monument outside of Chinle. My photo is from the road to Chinle and Jan’s photo of Spider Rock at Canyon de Chelly.

We’re going to get rocking this week and get some more stuff done before we head out of town once again! We hope that you’re going to have a great week and thanks as always for checking out our work!!!

Kev and Jan

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http://kevinmay.com/TopTen2015pdf.pdf

Tuesday morning greetings to one and all from Moab, Ut.!

Well it sounds like we escaped from Central Illinois just in time on Sunday morning. Central Illinois got rocked pretty well with winter storm Goliath and there were 60,000 people without power (including my house), that’s sure not a fun way to end 2015. We have been following what’s going on with social media and also listening to WMBD radio on the internet. It’s one of those deals where you’re glad that you’re not there, but if you were there, you’d be hunkered down waiting for the utility crews to get the power restored! God bless those men and women out there working in the cold and the rain trying to get people’s lives back to normal! You know what they say, you don’t miss something until it’s gone and in this case it’s lights and heat!!!

Iâ’ve been so busy these past couple of weeks with video editing, I haven’t had time to be out shooting photos, so this week’s promo is Jan’s photo from yesterday in Grand Junction, Colorado. It’s funny how you can get so busy with everything else and not have time to do one of the things that you truly enjoy doing! The good news is that all changes this week and there will be lots of nature photography coming up!!

Here’s Jan’s photo of the formations and the snow in Grand Junction from yesterday!!!

With New Years coming up this Friday, let’s all have fun, but be safe and responsible as well!!! We want to see you rocking and rolling in 2016!!!!

Have a great rest of the week and thanks again!!!

Kev and Jan

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

It’s hard for me to believe, but it’s Christmas week. It really has snuck up on me this year and I was thinking that we had another week, but I was wrong. It’s that time of the year when things from a business standpoint really slow down and there’s not too much going on. For the most part, clients have finished up their projects for the year and are in clean up mode. It’s a good time to get the desk cleaned up and papers filed and put away for the year. I know that I’ll have to work on that as well after the first of the year and that’s always a good feeling to start the year off on a fresh step.

I’ve got a time-lapse video to share with you today from White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. These are always fun to do, but they do require a lot of time depending on how long you would like the video to be. For this video, I spent a couple of hours and in some sense it can be a little boring because once you set up the camera and get started, you just have to be patient while the camera does its thing.

Here’s my time-lapse from White Sands National Monument. https://youtu.be/TowFZkYHA4o

We hope that you’re going to have a very Merry Christmas and Holiday season this coming week! If you’re traveling to visit family and friends, be careful and safe out there. We want you to come back in one piece! Thanks as well for checking out our work!!!

Kev and Jan

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Rainy Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

Yes, it rains in Peoria in December! Thanks to a very strong El Nino this year we are having very atypical weather here in Central Illinois. You would expect by the middle of December that we should have already had a couple of snow falls and some cold weather, but that’s not the case this year! The best part is that you don’t have to shovel rain, so I’m not complaining!!! We are supposed to have a more mild winter with warmer temperatures and less precipitation and that’s just fine with me after having been blasted with a lot of snow the past couple of years. It was just two winters ago in Peoria that we had a record snowfall for the winter! That’s quite a contrast from yesterday with the temperature in the 60’s and rain, but I’ll take it!

One of the things that has been somewhat hurt with this warm weather has been the PNC Winterfest in downtown Peoria. Right next to the Peoria City Hall and the Peoria Civic Center, they have constructed a winter wonderland with a temporary and artificial ice skating rink. Despite having these warm temperatures, they have still been able to make ice and people are out there skating and it’s great to see! I’d been meaning to get down there and shoot a few photos, but have been so busy that I just haven’t had the time. I was finally able to get there this past Friday night and on the drive there it was drizzling and I was thinking that no one would be skating and it would be a waste of time to be taking photos, but I was wrong! The rink was packed and there were a ton of people from young to old out there skating and having a great time! They also had an ice slide as well and it was fun to watch those that were younger flying down on saucers and tubes! All and all everyone had a great time and a little drizzle never hurt anyone!

Here’s a couple of snaps from the PNC Winterfest and the fun that was being had this past Friday night!

Let’s all have a great week and thanks for checking out these photos!!!

Kev and Jan

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