Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

Sunday the 17th started out like a normal Sunday in Central Illinois. The weather people had talked about some rain and maybe a storm or two in the morning and then a sunny afternoon. At some point around 9:00am things started to get dark outside at my house (about 25 miles west of Washington). I checked the radar on the internet and you could see some storms and rain coming, but nothing looked too ominous. At some point at my house, it started to rain pretty heavy and then a bit of hail and a lot of wind! The trees were blowing and things were rocking pretty good for about 15 minutes and as fast as it started, it was over. No damage or issues and I’m thinking it’s just another storm that we have here in the Midwest. I couldn’t have been more wrong! The storm really picked up when it got on the Eastern side of the Illinois River and it rocked the Pekin, Il. area pretty good. The storm then headed North and hit Washington, Il. and just nailed the city. By now you’ve probably seen the photos and video of the devastation and unless you’re in it, it doesn’t seem as real. I found out a couple of people that I know lost their homes in this storm and for me that’s when it really became real. You’re then putting a face with what you’re seeing on TV and the reality starts to hit home!!!!

It’s been speculated that because this happened on a Sunday morning and people were at church, more people weren’t home and hurt or killed by this storm. I don’t know if this is true, but I’d like to think that it is!

In the coming days we’ll hear more about what can be done to help out the people effected by this storm and I know that it’s going to take awhile for things to be rebuilt! The good thing that I’ve come to know about Central Illinois is that it’s a very giving area and we will help our own!!!

Thanks for checking out my work and I hope that you’ll keep all these people in your thoughts and prayers!

Kev

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

I was able to get over to Morton, Illinois this past Saturday for the 7th annual “Muscle on Main” strongman competition, It’s the first time that I’ve had the chance to watch this event since I’ve been out of town in past years. They shut down a block on Main St. in Morton and they set up a bunch of different challenges for these tough men and women! It was raining for a good part of the event, so for safety they didn’t have all of the events. What I did see was amazing! One of the events that I have featured in this promo was the “yoke” carrying of two full sized refrigerators. The object to to pick up the yoke and carry those refrigerators 20 yards in the quickest time possible. Some of the bigger contestants we’re able to do this fairly quickly and others that were a little smaller had a heck of a time! In those cases it was pure guts and determination that would get them through it. You can see the pain that they were going through to get the yoke picked up and then walk with it! Oh by the way, the whole rig weighted over 500 pounds!!!! That’s crazy!!!!!!!!

The other event that I shot was the “Conan’s Wheel” and for this challenge, the contestants had a long steel bar that had a Ninja motorcycle as the weight that they had to move. The object was to see how many times they could carry this motorcycle in a circle. The one interesting thing is that when they started, the bar that they were carrying was up by their neck and as it the motorcycle got heavier and heavier, the bar would drop lower and lower in their arms until they couldn’t hold it anymore! Amazing to watch!!!!!!

Here’s a few of my snaps from the 7th annual “Muscle on Main”!

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

Kev

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

It was quite the whirlwind week for me this past week!!!! A Monday driving trip to Mississippi for gig on Tuesday and then driving back to Peoria on Wednesday for shoot that afternoon. On Thursday a long day with a shoot in St. Louis and then on Friday a shoot in Peoria and then in Springfield, Il. in the afternoon!!!! Woo! I haven’t been that busy since I don’t know when!!!!! It’s always good to be needed!!!!!

On my Thursday gig in St. Louis, I was shooting for a new client and we were shooting a bunch of stock photography which is always fun! The thing that’s great about that is there are some general ideas and concepts that we are trying to shoot, but nothing that we shoot is so ridged that we can’t play and experiment with the shots and the photography! The main focus of this stock shoot was nutrition, food labeling, calorie counts on menus and healthy lifestyles. We were able to do a number of different scenarios and locations and I couldn’t have been happier with what we were able to accomplish!!!!! All and all a very good shoot and the client’s going to have a ton of stock photos to use for years to come!!!!!

Here’s a few of our snaps from this past Thursday for our health and nutrition stock shoot!!!!!!

I hope that you’re going to have a great week to come and thanks as always for taking the time to see what I’m up to and what I’ve been shooting!!!!!!!!

Kev

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

We had one of the most perfect weather weekends here in Peoria for this year! The temperature was in the low 70’s and there was nothing but sunshine and blue skies!!! It was one of those weekends after a hot humid summer when it’s nice to have the windows open and the air conditioning turned off!!!! It also helps on the electricity bill! 🙂

Pretty much any weekend in Central Illinois, there is some sort of activity going on, so I don’t know how people can say that there’s nothing to do! At the new Levee District in East Peoria, they had the 1st annual “Cars ‘n Art” show and from the number of people that I saw there I would say that it was a huge success. They had a number of Central Illinois artists and a car cruise-in. Needless to say, I was drawn to the cars and that’s no shocker! One of the things that I really liked is that they had a very wide variety of cars from different eras and that really made it fun! Seeing some of the older cars from the 40’s and 50’s and their style always attracts me and makes for a lot of very interesting photos.

Here’s a few of my snaps from the 1st annual “Cars ‘n Art” event!

Have a great week to come and thanks as always for taking the time to check out my work!!!!

Kev

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