My Silver Jubilee

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

I can’t believe it, but I’m wrapping up my 25th year in business this coming Tuesday! I’ve said this before, but it seems like it was just yesterday that I started out on my own back in April of 1990. I guess time does fly when you’re having fun and we’ve sure had a lot of fun all these years! I’ve been incredibly fortunate and blessed that clients have been hiring me and supporting me all these many years. I know that we’ve created a lot of great work over the years and I know that we still have the desire and drive to keep pushing forward these next few years!

I have to laugh a little bit, we’ve featured photos for Unity Point Hospital two of the past three weeks and now we’ve got one more photo to share with you. We are starting to get into that season of shooting architectural photography for clients with things starting to green up and when we’ve got good weather we have to take advantage of it. This past Saturday the weather was perfect, so Jan and I were out most of the day into the evening shooting outdoor photography for a number of clients. Our last shoot of the evening was a night shot of Unity Point’s Methodist Hospital. We got set up with the camera and then waited for the perfect time to get the shot. Things were starting to get good, so we started shooting and at some point about 45 minutes later we knew that the shot was going to be the money shot.

Here’s our photo from Saturday night of Unity Point Methodist Hospital.

Year 26 starts on Wednesday, so we’re going to get rocking!!! Thanks as always for checking out our work and we hope that you have a great week!!!!

Kev and Jan

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Working with kids

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

After my 25 years of shooting photography, when it comes to shooting photos of kids, you just never know how it’s going to work out! Now I could tell stories for hours and hours about shoots that didn’t happen or were a complete train wreck because we were working with young kids. Now it’s not that the kids were all bad or a problem, but depending on the age of the child, you usually have a very limited time to work with them. Most kids have a very limited attention span and the younger they are, the shorter their attention span can be! What I usually try to do when I know that I’m going to be working with children is to have everything set up (camera, lighting, etc.) so we can start shooting as soon as the child arrives on the set. I will always figure that I maybe have five minutes to work to get the shots I need and anything beyond that is a bonus!

Last week we had a shoot at the Morton Unity Point Clinic and we were going to be shooting some photos of a young child with a pediatric doctor. Well we couldn’t have gotten more lucky, we had Dr. May Sun as our pediatrician and little Addison as our young patient. Dr. Sun was great with Addy and I can see why she is so highly regarded with the kids! Remember that five minute rule that I have when working with kids, heck I think we got a half hour or more out of Addison and that was great as well. Like I said, you just never know how much time you’re going to get, so you really have to work fast!

Here’s a few of our snaps with Dr. Sun and Addison!

Thanks as always for checking out our work and we hope that you have a great week to come!!!

Kev and Jan

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A video postcard from Utah

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

It’s Easter week, so there’s a lot of people that are taking the week off for vacations with their families. Hopefully if you’re traveling this week you’ll have a safe trip and a little bit of fun as well! I can remember as a kid we would travel down to Biloxi, Mississippi and Ft. Walton Beach, Florida for the Easter break from school. It was always nice because the weather was a heck of a lot nicer along the Gulf coast then it was back in Rockford, Illinois at this time of the year.

On to our video postcard from Utah. While Jan and I were out West back in February, we spent a number of days shooting nature photography in the Moab, Utah area. We spent time shooting photos at a number of areas including Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and Dead Horse State Park. Along with shooting lots of still photography, we also ended up shooting some video as well! There’s a lot more that goes into shooting video versus stills and when you’re out in nature hiking, this brings some new challenges as well! In the past, for shooting still photography, we’ve got backpacks for the cameras and tripods, so not too much to haul around. Well for shooting video, there’s a lot more stuff gear wise that you’ve got to take with, so hiking is a bit more of a workout! All and all, it was a great experience and I’m glad that we did it! We’ll be doing more of this on future trips and are looking forward to what we can create!

Well here you go, here’s our video postcard from Utah and be sure to watch it in High Definition as well!

If you’re on Easter vacation this week, make it a good one! Thanks as always for checking out our work as well!!!

Kev and Jan

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Nighttime is the right time!

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Monday morning Des Moines greetings to one and all!

We are headed back from a quick trip to Colorado for some advanced video training. It was a real banzai run these past few days. We got in the Explorer late Thursday afternoon arriving in Colorado on Friday afternoon. Saturday was spent getting more advanced techniques with the video camera and also some computer software lessons! Sunday morning we started back home and made it as far as Des Moines, Iowa and we’ll be back to P-Town ready to rock once again this afternoon! All and all, it was a great trip out West even if it was so incredibly brief, but lots of great information that will really help on future video projects!!!

This past week we got rocking and rolling for 2015 with the first architecture shoot of the year. In Peoria with the snow and the lack of vegetation in the winter months, it makes no sense to be out there shooting photos of buildings when you can see things that you don’t want to see. When it comes to daytime photography of architecture in Central Illinois, we are still a good month or so away before things start to green up enough to make good photos. In the case of a night time shot in Peoria, we have hit the time of year when we can get started. Our friends at Unity Point Hospital in Peoria were needing some nighttime shots of both hospitals (Methodist and Proctor) and we had some perfect weather last Monday to be out shooting at night! Everything came together and we had a great sunset that topped off the shot!

Here’s our photo of Unity Point Proctor Hospital at night!

Well it’s time to get to work, so we hope that you both have a very wonderful week!!!

Kev and Jan

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kmcup22mar15

Shark Tank and Echo Valley Meats

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

Well there was big fun in Peoria this past Friday night! Dave Alwan from Echo Valley Meats was on the ABC television show Shark Tank for the second time in the past couple of years. The first time that Dave presented his idea to the Sharks they rejected it, but the response for Echo Valley Meats was huge. The phones and internet started ringing with orders and this caught the attention of the producers of the show. They asked Dave to come back and pitch his idea one more time. Dave had all of his ducks in a row this time and had three of the sharks making him an offer and he chose the offer from Mark Cuban (NBA Dallas Mavericks owner) and now they are partners and that’s great!

On Friday night when the show was going to air on tv, Echo Valley Meats had a big viewing party with over 100 guests. When the show came on, they projected the video on the wall for everyone to see. Dave came in and made his pitch to the sharks and when he announced on the show that he was teaming up with Mark Cuban, the whole room erupted with cheers and applause!!! Smiles and congratulations were in order and the party was on! The other thing that I thought was really cool is they had set up a computer and a big screen that was showing all the analytics on the Echo Valley Meats web site and the traffic that it was getting during and after the show! The amazing thing is that with-in 13 hours of the show airing on Friday night, the EVM web site had an additional one million hits to the site! It really shows you the power of a hit TV show like Shark Tank!

Here’s a few of the images from a great evening with Echo Valley Meats and their big news!!!

We hope that you have a great week as always and thanks for checking out our work!

Kev and Jan

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Postcards from Canada

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

Wow, we actually had the temperature in Peoria getting over 32 degrees this weekend and that sure was nice!!! It seems like it’s been about a month of below average temperatures for us and to have that at the end of the winter season makes things a little tougher!!! The good thing is that they are calling for the temps to be in the 50’s this week and that’s going to seem like a heatwave!!!!

When I was in Canada a week ago on my shoot, I was fortunate to have an off day on Saturday before flying back home last Sunday. I was also very fortunate that even though the temperatures were cold, there was plenty of abundant sunshine and that always makes me happy! Having lots of sunshine also makes for great photos too!!! 🙂

I was in Fredericton, New Brunswick and wanted to drive over to the coast to St. John, New Brunswick and check that out and shoot some photos. It was about a 70 mile drive to St. John and it was super easy to get there. I did snap a few photos in St. John, but didn’t see too much at this time of the year with all of the snow. I was about to head back to Fredericton and I saw a sign for a lighthouse up the road about 20 miles in St. Martins and thought that might be good. When I got there, the lighthouse was pretty much buried in snow and it wasn’t going to make for a lot of good photography, but I did find a number of other things to shoot in the area, so my drive was rewarded!!!!

Here’s a few of my snaps from an off day driving around and doing a little sightseeing in Fredericton, St. John and St. Martins!

Well here’s to a much warmer week in Central Illinois and I hope that your week is a good one!!! Thanks as always for checking out the work!!!! 🙂

Kev and Jan

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kmccanada1mar15

The Great White North

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

I just got back last night from a gig up in Canada and we had a great shoot! We were up there shooting pictures of a Cat motor-grader that was clearing snow from the roads and it couldn’t have been more perfect of a shoot. Oh sure, it could have been a heck of a lot warmer, but other than that, we had perfect shooting conditions! As most of you know, I love having blue sky days when I’m shooting over a cloudy or overcast day. There are photographers that prefer those overcast days, but not this guy! Of course the trade off for those perfect shooting days is a lot of cold temperatures and you just have to bite the bullet with conditions like that! The sun was great in terms of warmth and making things a lot nicer, but every once and awhile that wind would kick up and things were down right cold! The first thing right out of the box I was having to get some of my photo gear together and I had to take my gloves off for a couple of minutes. The next thing I know, my fingers were starting to get numb from the extreme cold. Once I got my gloves back on and the sun hit them, it warmed things up and I was fine, no frostbite for this kid! The other big challenge of this shoot was trying to get to spots off the road and in those spots the snow was four feet deep! We even had a snowmobile to get us to some more spots off the road and that worked great until I had to get off the snowmobile and I’d drop down to my waist in the snow! We even had a minor crash with the snowmobile (at a very low speed) and I was ejected into the snow and we got the sled stuck and it was a bear to get it turned back on its side so we could use it again! All and all it ended up being a great shoot!!!!

Here’s a couple of my snaps from last week in Canada! Our motor-grader operator John Beauliue couldn’t have been nicer and also was incredibly skilled with what we asked him to do! Here’s a couple of shots of John and him in action with the Cat Motor-grader!

Thanks as always for checking out the work and it’s all very much appreciated!!!

Kev and Jan

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kmccat2mar15

A historic day in Peoria

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!!!

Well this past Friday all the anxiety and fears about Caterpillar staying in Peoria or moving somewhere else were answered in a historic press conference at the Caterpillar Visitors Center. Cat is going to stay in Peoria and they are also building a brand new world headquarters here as well! A couple of years ago Cat announced that they would be doing a study to determine what their options would be in terms of a new facility or a renovation or that they could leave all together. The state of Illinois hasn’t had a pro-business climate for a number of years now and there are a lot of states that are much more pro-business. I’m sure that the offers that Cat received from other states and even countries to have the world headquarters would have been numerous and I’m sure that they had to really think about what would be best for the company. We are very fortunate that they are not only staying, but also going to completely change the face of the city and the skyline of Peoria!

I can only begin to imagine the shot in the arm that this project will have on our local economy. To think of what Cat will be doing, but then also what other businesses will do now knowing what Cat’s plans are for the area. We are going to see new construction and business coming into the downtown area because of this headquarters that will be right downtown. I can also see more retail stores along with restaurants and bars as well. I have a feeling that in ten years when this project is all done, it will be hard to remember what our city looked like, but everyone will be so proud of what it will become! This will be a jewel no doubt about it!!!

Alright, here’s a bunch of snaps from the historic press conference at the Caterpillar Visitors Center this past Friday. You’ll see photos of our new Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner along with some of our local politicians and a few of our friends from Caterpillar as well!

For those of you not in Central Illinois, he’s a great link with a computer generated look at what the new world headquarters will look like and also how it’s going to transform the city of Peoria! http://youtu.be/JV3FfmAnNnI

Alright, it’s time to get busy and the city of Peoria is moving forward with a little more pep in our step this week! We hope that you have a very wonderful week as always and thanks for checking out these photos!!!

Kev and Jan

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kmccat22feb15

Western Sunsets

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kmcanp16feb15

Wasted on the Young

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Monday morning greetings from Genesse, Colorado!

Well it’s been a great week out West and it’s time to be heading back home to Peoria today! After spending most of last week in Moab, Ut. shooting nature photography at some of the different locations in the area, we headed to Boulder, Co. for a photo shoot on Saturday with our friends from Modern Quilts Unlimited magazine. I have known for a long time that being able to get out and shoot nature photography is the way that I can recharge my creative batteries. It’s something that takes me back to photography as a hobby and to be out shooting personal photography like that really gets me excited about doing my photography for clients!!!

On Saturday after shooting for MQU magazine, we were able to get out for a little more personal photography. “Wasted on the Young” is a Denver based band that has been rocking for a number of years. It’s a group of musicians that are of that age when music was music and I have to say that Jan and I are in that age group as well! We are talking about the over 50 crowd and what we now call “Classic” music was the music that we grew up with. I like to think that the music isn’t limited to Rock and Roll, but all the other genres of music from that time. We are talking about the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and beyond! “Wasted on the Young” is one of those bands that is still kicking out the jams. It’s a group of musicians that are playing for the joy of the music and not for the money. In some ways it’s how I feel about my photography and the joy that I get from doing my personal photography.

Here are a few of Jan and my photos of the members of “Wasted on the Young” and the fun that we shared with them this past Saturday night.

Here’s a link for the band’s Reverbnation page and you can see what they are up to as well! http://www.reverbnation.com/wastedontheyoung

We hope that you have a wonderful week as always and thanks for checking out our work!!!

Kev and Jan

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