Thanksgiving

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Monday morning New Mexico greetings to one and all!!!

It’s Thanksgiving week for my friends here in the USA and traditionally that can be a very slow work week for some of us! There aren’t too many big projects being started and for the most part we all just get through the first couple of days of the week and depending on what you’re doing and where you might be going, you’ll leave a day or two (or more) early! For the last number of years I come down here to Las Cruces, New Mexico to spend the Thanksgiving week with my folks and it’s always a very wonderful time. The weather is always nice and this year with the temperature in the 60’s all week and loads of sun, it should be really great! It’s always a nice break for me as well to get out and shoot some nature photography and that’s always something that I enjoy doing! I’ll get in a number of hikes this week and hopefully lots of great photos will happen too!

Thanksgiving can be a time of reflection and getting together with family and friends. I know that I’m very blessed and thankful for all the people that I have in my life and how they enrich it and make it the best that it can be!

Here’s one of my shots from today of the Organ Mountains in Las Cruces, NM. Not to shabby of a view I’d say!!!!

If you’re traveling this week for the Thanksgiving holiday, make it a safe one and enjoy the company of those that you are sharing it will!!!

Thanks as always for checking out my work and have a safe and wonderful week!!!!

Kev

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kmcom23nov14

Hard work

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!!!

Things are still crazy busy this past week and even this weekend with shoots on Saturday and Sunday as well! I guess when it does rain, it pours! That’s ok and I’ll take it!!!! I’ve got one more week of shoots before taking off next week for Thanksgiving and a visit to see my folks in New Mexico!

I was out shooting last week for Patten Cat, the Northern Illinois Caterpillar dealership. We were on a whirlwind adventure shooting photos at the four branch facilities in Illinois and Indiana and then at the main facility in Elmhurst, Il. I’m always fascinated with the manufacturing process at the factories and then to be out seeing the machinery serviced and repaired is also great! Lots and lots of hard work, but I also see a lot of pride and satisfaction in what these men and women do to keep their customers equipment running and working.

Here’s a few of my snaps with my friend from Patten Cat!

We are getting close to Thanksgiving, so let’s all keep our noses to the grindstone for a few more days!!! Have a great week and thanks for checking out my work as always!!!!!

Kev

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kmcpat17nov14

Riding the trails

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Monday morning greetings to one and all!!!!

We might have had the last nice weekend for 2014 here in Central Illinois. We’re going to get rocked with a nice Arctic blast coming out of Canada on Tuesday and it’s going to be down right nippy for the rest of the week!!!! We knew that summer and the warmer weather couldn’t last forever, so we’ll all just have to suck it up and bundle up!!!! 🙁

Here’s another one of my photos for the ongoing project for the Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau to highlight all the things to do for the visitors that come to our area! One of the fun newer things that a lot of us don’t know about is the great new trails out at Wildlife Prairie Park to do mountain biking. It’s probably something that you didn’t know about unless you’re into trail riding in our area. I think it’s been around for a couple of years now and it opens up new trails for people in Central Illinois to ride at. I love to go trail riding, but have yet to make it over to ride at Wildlife Prairie Park. I’ll have to work on that next year!!!!!

Here’s a few of my snaps from the shoot and this is the kind of photography that I really like to do. It’s showing motion in something like riding the trails instead of just freezing the action with a fast shutter speed. To me I always want to show the illusion of speed, so I use a few of my photo tricks to make that happen durning a shoot like this!

I hope that you’re going to have a wonderful week and thanks for checking out my snaps as always!!!!!

Kev

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kmc2pamba9nov14

Shopping fun!!!

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

I always love having fun when I’m shooting photos and I was able to have a lot of fun this past Friday! I have been trying to set up a shoot for The Shoppes at Grand Prairie for the past two months. This was one of those shoots that was weather dependent and involved models outside, so we needed sun and also some cooler temperatures. At the start of every week since the end of July I have been looking at the weekly weather to see if we would have both of those parameters for this shoot. We would have sun, but the temperatures would be in the high 80’s and 90s and just too humid for us to be shooting. We’ve also had a lot of rain as well and that was screwing things up too! Well this past Friday we were finally able to get get all the conditions right for us to do this shoot. The temperature was in the 70’s and the sun was out, so I knew we would be getting some great photos!!!

We had April, Andreana, Kaci and Tara for our models and the big saying that I had through out the shoot was “Big Happy”. I wanted then to have big smiles and lots of fun and I knew that it would come across in these photos! Just before we would shoot each different scene, I would shout “Big Happy” and then start snapping away!!!!

Here’s a few of our photos from The Shoppes at Grand Prairie and an afternoon of shopping!!!!

Have a great week to come and thanks for checking out my work!!!!!

Kev

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kmc1sgp21sept14

Claybird Classic 2014

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

What a beautiful weekend we had here in Central Illinois! The temperature was in the mid-60’s and the sun was out the entire weekend! It was so nice to not have all the humidity that we’ve had over the past number of weeks and finally we got some of that wonderful cooler fall weather rolling in!

This past Friday I was out in Mackinaw, Il. for the 13th annual Lyle Finch Memorial Claybird Classic to benefit the Easter Seals Endowment Fund. This year there were a record 305 shooters at the event, so a lot of money was raised for a great organization. The participants had 10 different stations from which they would shoot at the claybird discs and would work their way through all the different stations. For me it was fun to watch because there were some of the shooters that were really good shots and then there were a few that weren’t as good! All and all I think that everyone had a great time and that’s a great way to start a weekend!

Here’s one of my shots from the Lyle Finch Memorial Claybird Classic!

Thanks as always for checking out my work as always and I very much appreciate that!!!!

Kev

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kmces14sept14

A Night for Richard

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Monday evening greetings to one and all!

You’re probably thinking that you would normally get the Monday morning promo on Monday morning, but as I’ve been saying, things have been crazy busy so you’re getting it on Monday night!!!

Last night I was up way past my bed time shooting photos at the “A Night for Richard” event at the Peoria Civic Center. For those that don’t know about the project, there has been a local Peoria group that has been working on getting a statue of Richard Pryor for the city of Peoria. It’s an expensive process to make a statue and a fair amount of the money had already been raised locally. Comedian George Lopez had heard about the project and decided to put together a comedy show to try and raise the rest of the money for the statue. With the help and coordination of the Peoria Civic Center (who generously donated the arena for the evening), everything was in place for the concert last night. George Lopez asked fellow comics Cedric the Entertainer, D.L. Hughley, Eddie Griffin, Charlie Murphy and Mike Epps to join him for the event and they all agreed to help out!

My night started out with me shooting a VIP “Meet and Greet” before the concert with some of the guys and their fans. Of course I had to get a photo with the guys too after I was done with all of the guests. The concert ended up being over four hours long with George Lopez as the MC and the rest of the guys preforming for the almost 6,000 fans in attendance. After the show, they had asked me to come backstage and shoot a few group shots of everyone and the last shot that you’ll see is all the guys with Jennifer Lee Pryor (Richard’s widow). I can tell you that all of the guys couldn’t have been nicer and so easy to work with. To have everyone donating their time and talents for this wonderful cause was incredible and shows the love that these comics have for Richard!

Here’s a few of my snaps from the evening from ‘A Night for Richard”

Have a great rest of the week and thanks as always for checking out my work!!!!

Kev

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kmcanfr3nov14

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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kmccase18oct14

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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kmcuw20oct14a

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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kmcsalt12oct14

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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