Dream Camp

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!!!

Sometimes I get involved with a project and they are really good ones that you’re proud to be a part of! In this case, my friends at Progressive Impressions International asked me to help out and shoot some stills on a video shoot. The shoot was for American Family Insurance and their “Dream Camp“. They selected three winners to come in and get all kinds of mentoring from people in their respective fields. It was a three day shoot and it couldn’t have been more fun! Lots and lots of very nice people and the three winners Robin, Jason and Jorge were outstanding young people. We shot all this in March and I’ve watch them on social media working on making their dreams come true these past few months!!! Did I also mention that supermodel Kathy Ireland was involved in all of this as well? She was a big part of the video and acted as a mentor and hostess for the project!

Here’s the cover shot from the magazine and the best part of this shot was it was the last one that we were going to do. We told Jason to take the frosting bag and he was going to make a swirl on Jorge’s head. We only had one take for this and the best part that Jorge who was always so serious when I would take his photo, busted out smiling and then laughing!!! Truly a great moment and it made for a great shot and it also made the cover!!!!!!!

Here’s that cover shot of Jason, Jorge and Robin http://kevinmay.com/kmc1amf4aug13.jpg

Here’s the inside pages of the magazine and some of the other photos http://kevinmay.com/kmc2amf4aug13.jpg

Of course I had to get a photo with Kathy as well http://kevinmay.com/kmcki4aug13.jpg

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

Kev

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A real man!!!

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Monday morning greetings to one and all!!!

I was down in West Texas this past week on a shoot and it was hot, but it was also fun! I was shooting some oil workers in Big Spring, Tx. and this is real work! I can’t even begin to imagine what the conditions are like when the temperature is 100 degrees as it was for our shoot and these guys are out there giving it there all. I wasn’t doing anything and I was still roasting in the sun!!!! I guess that’s what you call being a real man!!!!! I’m very grateful that these men and women are out there getting the oil and natural gas that we need!!!

Here’s one of my shots of my buddy Mike who took good care of me while we were shooting 100′ up in the oil rig!!!

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

Kev

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Where has the summer gone?

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

Where has this summer gone? It seems like just yesterday it was Memorial Day weekend and here we are and July is almost over! I guess it’s better when time is moving faster then slower!!!

One of the annual summer events here in Peoria just wrapped up this past Saturday night and I was able to get out and grab a couple of snaps! The 64th Annual Heart of Illinois Fair is one of those Peoria events that kids of all ages (mostly the under 16 crowd) looks forward too with all of the games, food and rides! There was a pretty good crowd for the last night of the fair and the weather cooperated and it was a lot cooler then it’s been the past week! Here’s one of my snaps from Saturday night!

We all better get out there and enjoy the rest of the summer before Labor Day weekend hits in just five weeks!!!!

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

Kev

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AMA Flat Track Racing

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

If you know me, you know that racing is in my blood! No, not as a driver, but as a fan and a photographer! For me it’s so much fun to go out and shoot whatever form of racing there is from bikes to cars to boats to camels!!!! There’s just something about the speed that is like a drug to me and pulls me in. I guess I just love being around it!!!!!

I was out yesterday at the Peoria Motorcycle Club’s track in Western Peoria for their June race. Yes, the June race had been postponed, so they had it yesterday! It was a great day despite the heat and there was a lot of great racing going on!!!! Here’s one of my snaps from the day and I just loved the motion and speed that I was able to create in the camera.

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

Kev

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Sculpture Park

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

Hopefully for my friends here in the USA you were able to have a safe and wonderful 4th of July weekend! It’s always nice to have a bit of a break and get a few days off to spend some time with family and friends!

I was able to get out of town for a couple of days and make a quick trip over to Kansas City. It’s one of those cities that I’ve been to before, but it’s been a number of years and I didn’t really remember too much about KC. I knew that we had a great time, so it was easy to want to go back and check it out again! Besides getting lots of great food and some incredible barbecue, we also had the chance to get out and see some of the city and all that it has to offer! One of those spots that we got to check out was Sculpture Park at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The thing that’s really fun about Sculpture Park is that it’s all outside and you can walk around and right up to each piece of art!!!!

Here’s a few of my snaps from a day spent at Sculpture Park!

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

Kev

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Independence Day

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Monday morning Peoria greeting to one and all!

For my friends here in the USA, this is going to be a “short week”. Thursday is the 4th of July and that means that a lot of people will be taking time off to spend with families having picnics and cook-outs or traveling and making it a long weekend. It’s a great time to leave town and there will be a lot of people on the roads with a four day weekend in mind. With all of the fun, food and fireworks, it’s easy to not think about the 4th and what it means. It’s all about our independence and our freedom and just how lucky we are to live in a free country. Despite some of our problems as a country, we still have a pretty darn good one to live in and we are all blessed!

Enjoy the 4th and your freedom and fly free!!!!

If you’re going to be traveling this week and weekend or you’re going to be out and about, make it a safe one!!!

Have a great week and thanks for taking the time to view my work!!!!!

Kev

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The “New” Pere Marquette

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!!!

The grand lady of Peoria is back and better then ever. The “New” Pere Marquette is reopening later this week and I think the people of Peoria are going to be very impressed with what they see. The Pere was really in need of a major overhaul for a long time, but no one was willing to take a big risk and spend the money needed to restore it and bring it back until now. It was a jewel when it was first built in 1926 and I think that they have restored it back to that same condition! For those of my friends that are here in Peoria, drive by and you’ll see a very different Pere when you look in the windows!

I was shooting photos at the hotel this past week for ads that will be running in the coming weeks. For this first ad, they wanted to get a great night shot of the hotel. They had it all lit up for me and I was very fortunate to have a great night to get the shot!!! Here’s my shot and the first ad for the “New” Pere Marquette!

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

Kev

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Canton Cruise In

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

One of the questions that I get asked a lot is if I miss having the studio since I sold it last July. For the most part I really haven’t, but there is one thing that I have missed shooting and that is all of the cars and bikes that we shot in there in the past. It was always a lot of fun and challenging as well to do some lighting and make them look good! I was able to get a bit of a fix this past Friday night down in Canton, Illinois at their annual “Cruise In” for 2013. They had the entire downtown blocked off and well in excess of 200 cars and bikes on display. For me getting to go and shoot an event like this is always a big challenge becuase of all the people around the different vehicles. My challenge as always is to try to shoot some interesting shots and different angles and yet not have a bunch of people in the photos. I spent a couple of hours at the Cruise In walking around and checking everything out and shooting some of the cars that grabbed my interest! All and all it was a great event and the city of Canton should be very proud of how well it was organized and attended!!!

Here’s a few of my snaps from this years Canton Cruise In!

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

Kev

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Dozer Park

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

This past Friday evening the Peoria Chiefs minor league baseball team had a ribbon cutting for the renaming of their ball park. The former O’Brien Field has now become Dozer Park and will be for at least the next ten years! The stars of the evening were two guests that might surprise you. No, it wasn’t Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman and his wife Diane, but their two black labs Dozer and Diesel. The two labs were the rock stars of the evening and the kids that were waiting to get into the game mobbed those two pooches with lots of pets and hugs! Dozer and Diesel were great and were loving all the loving that they got that night!!!!!!

Here’s a few of my shots from the evening spent at the new Dozer Park!

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

Kev

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Dirty Jobs

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

I was down in Galveston, Texas late last week for a quick gig on a dirty job! My friend Mike Rowe would feature different tough jobs on his show “Dirty Jobs” and the one that we were shooting last week would qualify to be on the show! We were down shooting photos and video (Water Street Media) for Honeywell Safety who makes a great new respirator product for people doing dirty jobs! As you can see in my photos, we had guys that are doing sand blasting of metal parts for Gulf Copper Dry Dock and Ship Repair in Galveston. Trust me, this is a dirty job that you don’t want to do! This new respirator that Honeywell has made is a great product that pumps cool clean air into the orange hood that you see in my photos. It’s a hot nasty job in the summer time, so to be getting cool air to the head gear and also have that air be free of dust and dirt particles is huge!

Here’s a couple of my shots from Galveston and despite being hot and sweaty on this shot, we sure had a lot of fun working with this guys!!!!

It’s time to get to work, so I hope that you have a wonderful week and thanks for taking time to see my weekly photos!!!!

Kev

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