Bear Run Mine

Monday morning Peoria greetings to all!!!!

I was over in Dugger, Indiana for a quick shoot last week. We were shooting some photos at the Bear Run Coal Mine and we met a lot of very nice people and that’s always a very good thing! One of the people that we met was Jeff and he works on servicing some of the mine vehicles for the mine. We wanted to grab a quick portrait of Jeff with one of the bulldozers in the background. When I got back to the studio, I started to play with the image and have a little fun working on it. I wanted to give this photo a little more of a gritty feel and by converting it to black and white and doing a few other things in PS, I think that it worked great!

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

Kev

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Year 22 in the books!!!!

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

Today is the start of year 23 of self-employment and I have to tell you that I feel pretty darn blessed to be doing something that I so love to do!!!! It’s been a great ride so far and it’s not over yet!!!! I’m always amazed to think of where I started and all the wonderful places that I’ve had shoots at!

Here’s todays photo from the Painted Desert in Northern Arizona!

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

Kev

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Grand Prismatic Spring

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

One of the things that happens when I go on a big road trip is that sometimes I don’t always get to look through everything that I’ve shot on that trip! Typically when I’m out like that, I’ll “work up” some of my photos in Photoshop and it’s the ones that grab me right away. When I get back home and if time permits, I’ll work up some of the other photos that I didn’t have time to work on before! This snap taken last October from Yellowstone National Park at the Great Prismatic Spring is one of those shots! There were a couple of dead trees that were obstructing part of the shot and they really stood out like a sore thumb and I knew that it was going to take a lot of work to remove them from the photo. I was finally able to take the time (and also have the patience) to remove those dead trees and make this shot even better then it was!!!!! Next time I visit out there, I’ll take a chain saw and cut down the dead trees and then I won’t have to worry about doing and Photoshop work!!!! lol

Here’s my panoramic stitch of the entire Midway Geyser Basin and the Grand Prismatic Spring!

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

Kev

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Spring is here!

Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

We’ve really lucked out with the weather in Peoria this winter and now into spring!!! I cut the grass at the house for the first time last week and that’s something that usually doesn’t happen for a couple more weeks! Spring is in the air and with the trees budding and flowers starting to bloom, things are look a whole lot better around here!!!! Here’s a couple of quick snaps of the Red Bud and it’s in full force and that’s always a sure sign of spring!

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

Kev

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Summer reading fun!

Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

One of the things that I really enjoy doing is helping out our local charities and non-profits by donating some of my photography or in the case of this gig, shooting some photos! The Morton Community Foundation was started in 2000 and has been helping fund a number of great programs in the Morton area. Lynne and Dan Walters wanted to give back to the community and along with MCF have funded a Summer Children’s Reading Program through the Morton Library. MCF wanted to get some shots of the Walters reading with the kids, so we got out last week and helped them out! Here’s one of my favorite shots of Lynne Walters reading with North at the Morton Library!

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

Kev

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Tower Park

Monday morning Peoria greetings to all!!!!!

I’ve been in Peoria since the early 80’s when I first came here to go to school at Bradley University and in all the time that I’ve been here, I’ve never been to the top of Tower Park in Peoria Heights! I think that it’s always that way that you just never visit some of the places in your local area that some might think of as a tourist area. Here in Central Illinois, we have lots of places like that, so it’s good to get out and support our local attractions!

I was up at the top of the tower and for those that have never been up there, it’s an incredible view! They say that on a clear day you can see 20 miles and I believe them! I was up there at sundown and I was just blown away with all that you could see! All I had was my point and shoot camera, but I still got some incredible snaps! I can’t wait to go again with my big boy camera when the trees start budding and there gets to be a little color in the river valley!!!

Here’s one of my snaps and the view is up the Illinois River to the North and also out to the East as well!!!

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

Kev

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The happiest day of the year!

ХудожникMonday morning Peoria greetings to all my friends around the world!!!!

You’ve heard me complain about the day that we turn the clocks back in the fall as being one of the unhappiest days of the year for me! I just hate it when the sun is going down and it’s getting dark at 4:30 pm at night!!! It’s usually cold and the wind is blowing and then you add the fact that it’s dark by 5:00 pm and that all adds up to be a very unhappy time of the year for me! Now it’s the flip side of that and we’ve turn the clocks forward and we’re heading to the longest days of the year when it’s getting dark at 9:30 pm and I’m loving it!!!!

I was out shooting some snaps this past week for local Peoria attorney Joe VanFleet of his office and staff for their new web site. We had a lot of fun and were able to come away with a lot of very nice shots for them! Here’s a few of the shots that we got last week!!!

Thanks as always for checking out my work and I hope that you have a great rest of the week!!!!

Kev

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PIA

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

What’s going on? If you asked me that question, my response would be “not too much”! This is always a very slow time of the year for me, so I’m trying to keep myself busy with projects and getting caught up on things here at the studio!!!! I did get out yesterday morning and snagged a couple of snaps of the Peoria Riverfront and as always, it looks great!!!!!

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

Kev

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The Peoria Ballet

Monday morning Peoria greetings to all!

I had the pleasure last week of having some of the young people from the Peoria Ballet out to my studio for a shoot! They’ve got a number of upcoming events including a show in Washington, Illinois that’s going to be a ballet to rock music! Doesn’t that sound like a lot of fun? The group spent a number of hours out here at the studio and we had them go through a bunch of their different poses and also some costume changes as well!

The other thing that blew me away about all of this was the very nice thank you note that the group had written to me! I was very moved by that and I don’t always get a thank you, so that was pretty special indeed!

Here’s a composite of images from the day with all of the young people doing there thing!!!!

Thanks again to the Peoria Ballet for coming out to my studio and making my day!!!!! You all rock!!!!!!

Kev

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Hueco Tanks and The Great American Race!

President’s Day Monday morning Peoria greetings to all,

I had a great time visiting with my folks in New Mexico this past week and it’s always good to be back home as well!!!

Springtime is here! How can I be so certain you might ask? Next Sunday is the Daytona 500 and when I think of spring, that’s the start of a lot of great sporting events from the “Great American Race” to “March Madness” to the Masters!!! The flowers are about ready to bloom!!!!

When I’m out visiting my folks in Las Cruces, I always try to get out everyday and shoot photos of the area and one of the places that I’d never visited was Hueco Tanks State Park just outside of El Paso, Tx. It’s a very interesting area that has a lot of history from the Indians and their pictographs to a stop on the Butterfield Stage. It’s also become one of the premier rock climbing places in the US and you’ll see climbers doing there thing. They call it Bouldering and it’s pretty cool to watch them! They do limit the amount of people in the park everyday, so you need to make a reservation before you visit or be prepared to wait if the park is full!

Here’s are a couple of my snaps from the day spent at Hueco Tanks!!!!

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

Kev

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