Graduation Time

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

One of the fun gigs that I’ve gotten to shoot these past few years is the graduation at Spoon River College. For those of you not from Central Illinois, SRC is a local junior college located in Canton, Il.

SRC has a very cool tradition at the end of the graduation ceremony that I’ve only seen them do. All of the professors will form up in two lines and the graduates will walk down the center of that tunnel. As the graduates are walking through the tunnel of professors, you’ll see “high fives”, handshakes, fist bumps, hugs and tears. It’s a very emotional time for the graduates and their professors.

Here’s one of my shots from Saturday’s graduation at SRC!

I hope that you have a great week to come and thanks for taking the time to check out my work!

Kev

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It’s planting time!!!

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!!!

This year has been a very wacky year for weather and I’ve heard that we had the second coldest April since they have been keeping records! Besides being cold in April, it was also very wet with record flooding in parts of the Midwest. For our farming friends trying to get their crops planted in the fields, it means they are waiting for things to dry up and warm up. We’re now getting to a point where things are starting to look up for our farmers and the weather is getting a little better and they are getting out and getting their seed planted!

Here’s one of my snaps from last weeks first farming shoot of the year! This is always something that I really enjoy shooting and like the farmers wanting to plant their crops, I can’t wait to get out and do a little farming photography!!!!

Here’s a Facebook version of the photo as well! http://kevinmay.com/kmclg5may13fb.jpg

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

Kev

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The Peoria Riverfront Museum

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

The Peoria Riverfront Museum has been open for about six months now and I had yet to make it down to check it out. For those of you not from the Peoria area, PRM is located in the same block as the Caterpillar Visitors Center along the Illinois River in downtown Peoria. I have to say that I was very impressed with how nice PRM is! I was down there shooting some photos for the Peoria Chamber of Commerce to help promote the museum. There is a lot to do and see there and they also have done a great job with lots of things for kids to interact with and that’s great! Like anything else, if there aren’t some things for the families to do, it won’t be as successful. I know that I’ll be going back at some point in the next couple of months because they have an exhibit from famed nature photographer Ansel Adams and that will be wonderful!

Here’s some of my shots from the Peoria Riverfront Museum! Do yourself a favor and check out PRM!!!!

I hope that you have a great week to come and thanks for taking the time to check out my work!!!

Kev

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I think we’re getting closer to spring!!!

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

Our weather here in Peoria sure has been whacky this year! In February the weather was very nice and warm and I started to think that winter was going to be over and I wasn’t too upset with that! Well, March came in like a Lion and stayed a Lion the entire month, no Lamb by the end of the month! April hasn’t been anything to write home about and having a Monsoon this past Wednesday and then a little snow on Friday, we still have a ways to go before the warm weather hits!!!!

I was down in St. Louis a weekend ago and one of the things that’s always fun to do is to visit the Missouri Botanical Gardens. St. Louis is a couple of weeks ahead of us in terms of greenery and what’s blooming. It was a very nice day at the gardens and I was able to got a lot of really nice snaps! Here’s some of my photos from the day and I hope that you enjoy them as much as I did shooting them!

I hope that you have a wonderful week and thanks for checking out my work!!!!

Kev

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23 years and counting!!!

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

Here I am after 23 years of working for myself and every year I’m shocked that this all is still happening! To think that I was assistant all those many years ago and to see all the things that I have seen and photographed since then, it’s truly been a wonderful ride!!!

What is so stunning to me is how what I’ve done has been changing so much over these last 23 years. When I started back in April of 1990, we were shooting film and I’ve been doing that ever since I was a kid and first picked up a Kodak Instamatic camera back in the 60’s! Here we are all these years later now shooting digitally for the last 13 years and that in my mind is amazing! We’ve come a long way and I know that how we do things will always be changing and evolving and you have to be ready and embrace the change that is coming!!!

Here’s a shot of my home for the last 31 years, Peoria! P-Town as I like to call it!!!! This night photo is of the Peoria Civic Center, Peoria City Hall, The “Twin Towers“, Sacred Heart Church, and The Pere Marquette Hotel!

For my friends on Facebook, here’s a cover photo that you can upload as well!!! http://kevinmay.com/kmcpia15apr13fb.jpg

Thanks so much for 23 great years and I sure appreciate your taking the time to see what I’m shooting!!!

Kev

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Watching the sun go down!!!

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

One of the most fun things that I enjoy photographing is a nice city skyline at sunset! To me it’s always fun and challenging to try and come up with something that’s different and fresh! When I was down in Corpus Christi, Texas last month, I knew that I was going to try and get a nice skyline shot of the city. Corpus Christi is located on the waterfront of the Gulf of Mexico, so I knew that working the water into the shot was a must!

Here’s my panoramic snap of Corpus Christi, Tx. at night!!!!

I also did a time lapse of the transition from day to night as well and I’ve got a link for that on YouTube

I hope that you have a great week to come and thanks for taking the time to check out my work!!!!

Kev

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Stitching

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April Fools Day Peoria greetings to one and all!!!!

Sometimes I get asked if I ever miss shooting film for my photos and the answer is no! There were things that we could only dream of doing with our photography back in the days of printing in the darkroom that are now possible with shooting digitally. One of those things that’ve been doing for probably seven or so years is “Photo Stitching”. It’s pretty simple, you take a series of photos and then in the computer you “stitch” the images together to create one big image. In the case of the snap that I’m sharing today, this is my first attempt at doing a 360 degree photograph. Inside the Caterpillar Visitors Center here in Peoria is what I like to call the “Big Room”. In this room there are a bunch of Caterpillar products including a life size version of a 797F mining truck. It’s hard from a photography stand point to get a good shot showing the size of these machines and the scope of the room all in one photograph, but that’s where this stitching shot comes in!

Here’s my photo of the CVC “Big Room”. This 360 degree photograph is 72 individual photos stitched together! Enjoy!!!!

Thanks as always for taking to time to check out my work and I hope that you have a wonderful week!!!!!

Kev

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Avery Island, Louisiana

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Winter storm Peoria greetings to one and all!!!!

Here it is the end of March and we get another winter storm rolling though P-Town once again!!!! We had better weather in February then we’ve had in March and if I didn’t know better, I’d think the two months have switched places!!!

You’ve probably never heard of Avery Island, but I know that you’ve heard of a very famous product from Avery Island, Tabasco Pepper Sauce! Down in Southern Louisiana is the home of Tabasco at Avery Island. It’s one of those places that you have to make an effort to see becuase it’s not on the road to anywhere! Besides visiting the Tabasco plant for a visit, you can also visit Jungle Gardens which is right next door!

Jungle Gardens is a 170 acre nature park that contains a botanical gardens and also a bird sanctuary. I was there last month and it was just a little bit early for spring to really start blooming, but the Azaleas were all ready rocking and there were about 300 cranes nesting in the sanctuary. As well, there is also a 600 year old Chinese Buddha in the gardens!

If you’re ever down in New Orleans and looking for a nice day trip, Avery Island is a couple of hours down the road and well worth a visit to see the Tabasco factory and Jungle Gardens!!!

Here’s a few of my snaps from my day at Jungle Gardens!

I hope that you have a great week to come and thanks for taking the time to check out my work!!!

Kev

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South Texas Botanical Gardens

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

I think that one of the things that most of us here in the Midwest miss in the winter time is the greenery that we get in spring and summer! In the winter here in Peoria, there’s not too much short of snow and a lot of brown! We don’t have any leaves on the trees and no grass in the yards, so it’s pretty bland! At this time of the year we’re really ready for some warmer temps and the signs of spring to get started. It seems like we’re having to wait a little longer for those warmer temperatures here in P-Town!!!

I was down in Corpus Christi, Texas last month and I was able to escape winter for a little while and also get some of that spring time color that we’ve all been missing! On one of my days in Corpus Christi, I was able to spend the day at the South Texas Botanical Gardens and it sure was fun!!! I was a little bit early for a lot of the plants and flowers that will be coming, but I was still able to see lots of greenery and color and it was wonderful!!!

Here are a few of my snaps from a day spent at STBG!!!

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

Kev

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Two years in the making!!!

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all,

I was just able to finish up a gig that we have been trying to shoot for the last two years. The Peoria Park District wanted to do a shoot showing some of the different zoo animals out in the snow to help promote visiting the Peoria Zoo in the winter time. For this shoot, we needed to have at least a couple of inches of snow to make the shots look good and last winter we never really had enough snow to do the shoot. This winter rolls around and we’re waiting for a good snow and nothing of any amount for the first three months of winter. We had come up to the end of February and still really didn’t have any good snow and we were starting to think that we were going to strike out again this year and would have to wait until next year. All at once last week we got a lot of snow and were able to get the shots that we needed!!!!

Here’s a few of my snaps from a day at the Peoria Zoo!

I’ve also got a Facebook cover shot of Lizzy the Lion as well for those that would like to use it! http://kevinmay.com/kmczoofb.jpg

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

Kev

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