Tucson Botanical Gardens

художник на икониMonday morning Peoria greeting to all my friends here in the US and around the world!!!

You’re probably tired of seeing pictures from Tucson and I promise that this will be the last week that I’ll share anything from this past trip there!!! That is of course until the next time that I visit and have more snaps to show! In the ten days that I was out in Tucson in December, I shot over 75 gigabytes of photos, so needless to say I had a lot to share!

One of those places that we got the chance to visit once again was the Tucson Botanical Gardens. It’s always a fun place with lots of different vegetation and an incredible cactus area with cactus from around the world! Here are some of my snaps from a day spent at TBG!

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

Kev

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Pima Air and Space Museum

ИконописMonday morning MLK Peoria greetings to one and all!!!

On my trip down to Tucson, Az. a few weeks ago, I shot about 75 gigabytes of photos, so I’ve got lots to go through and lots to share and I have to tell you, it’s a lot of fun!!!!

In Tucson, one of the places that I’ve always wanted to check out has been the Pima Air and Space Museum! For those that have never been there or heard about it, It’s a collection of over 300 vintage aircraft and helicopters spread out on 80 acres of land. I’ve always been fascinated with things that go fast and airplanes qualify on all counts for me! The thing that I like about this museum is that you can walk around at your own pace and check out the different displays and you can get right up to most of the planes and touch them if you’d like They’ve really done a nice job of displaying everything and there’s lots of information on each of the planes if you’re so inclined to learn more! If you’re like me, you can spend more then a day here and next time I visit, I’ll be getting the two day pass!

I’ve put together a quick collection of snaps from the day of some of the very different planes and helicopters at Pima! As always, I’m attracted to shoot these different goodies because of some of their design elements. In some cases they are very sleek and the shapes are fascinating and intriguing. The colors and the shadows were great as well, so as a photographer, there’s a lot to shoot there!!!!

I hope that you have a wonderful week as always and thanks for checking out my work! I hope that you enjoy viewing it as much as I enjoy sharing it with you!

Kev

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“White Dove of the Desert”

Monday morning Peoria greetings to all!!!!

When I came back from Arizona last week, I was expecting to be freezing my butt off with winter weather and to my surprise, it’s been pretty mild here in Peoria and I’m not complaining a bit! Winter can be 40 or 50 degrees and I’d be a real happy camper!!!!

While we were in Tucson over Christmas one of my favorite places to visit and shoot is Mission San Xavier del Bac. When we talk about something being “old school”, this place is it! The mission was built in 1797, so that’s been awhile to say the least!!!! Here are some on my snaps from the day and you’ll see the entire grounds in front of the mission. There are also some close ups of the inside and also a few of the features that I liked on the outside as well!

If you’ve got a bigger monitor, do yourself a favor and click on the link and check out the larger version of the promo!

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

Kev

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I love this town!

Monday morning greetings from Tucson, Az.!

It’s the first promo of 2012 and I hope that you’re rocking and rolling already in the new year!!!!!

I love Tucson, Az.! I’ve been here a number of times for business over the years and on vacation a number of times as well!!! It’s probably the town that I’ll retire too when the time comes!!! After being here for the Christmas and New Years vacation this year, it just cements my feeling for the area! As you might know, I love the desert and this place just feels like home to me!!!!

Here’s a snap of the city and it’s a very nice panoramic of the city and the mountains!!!

Thanks as always for checking out my work this past year and it’s very much appreciated by me!! As always, I’m looking forward to 2012 and what adventures it will bring!!!! I can’t wait to share that with you this coming year!!!! I’ll be back in Peoria on Tuesday night and ready to rock on Wednesday of this week!!!!!!

Kev

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Las Vegas!

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

I hope that you had a very Merry Christmas yesterday and Santa brought you a present or two!!!!

I was in Las Vegas this past week and one of the buildings that I’ve wanted to shoot for the last couple of visits is the “Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health“! It’s one of those buildings like the Denver Art Museum that is done in Stainless Steel and is very interesting. Unlike the Denver Art Museum which is very angular and has a lot of straight lines, the CCLRCFBH has a lot of curves and rolling shapes. The building definitely stands out and it’s hard to not take notice of it!!!

Here’s a few of my snaps of CCLRCFBH!

Thanks always for taking the time to check out my work and a week from today it’s going to be 2012! Wow!!!

Kev

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My 10 best from 2011!!!

Monday morning Peoria greetings to all my friends around the globe!!!!!

Today is my last working day for 2011 and that’s a pretty good feeling!!!! I’ve got a couple of gigs to get taken care of today and then on Tuesday it’s time to get on the plane and fly out West to enjoy some of that wonderful warmer weather then we’ve got here in Peoria!!!! I’m really glad to be putting the wraps on this year because to be honest, it was another tough year! This makes three down years in a row and with the US and World economies struggling to get better, it’s going to be tough going forward into next year! I always remain optimistic that this next year will be the year that things start to turn around and we’ll all just have to see where things go!

Despite having a down year business wise, I was still very fortunate to have some great opportunities for some wonderful shoots!!!! I was able to travel a bit and that’s always something that I really like to do and am glad when I get to go some where new!!!! Outside of a number of shoots that I did here in Illinois, I also had gigs in Texas, Las Vegas, Seattle, Brazil, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Louisiana! Not bad for an off year!!!!

I’ve put together a pdf with my ten best business shots from 2011! You’ll see that there was a wide array of different things and subjects and that’s what I really like is the variety of clients that I’m able to do work for!!!!

It’s time to get busy, there’s lots to do today!!! If you’re traveling next weekend for Christmas and the holiday season, make a it a safe one!!!! I’ll have photos from out west the next couple of weeks and am looking forward to that!!!! We’ll be back to Peoria after New Years and ready to rock in 2012!!!!!!!! Thanks again for checking out my work!!!!!

Kev

Click on link to see the ten best images of 2011

KMCTenBest2011.pdf

100,000 hits!

Monday morning greetings from Jackson, Mississippi!

I’m going to hit a milestone today on my Flickr photography site! My photos will have been viewed 100,000 times and that’s pretty darn good! I have limited space on my kevinmay.com web page, but on Flickr I have unlimited space and at the moment I have 2423 photos on there! It’s nice because I’m able to have different categories of photos, so pretty much most areas of photography are covered, from travel to food to farming to Peoria, there’s a bunch of work here!!!!

I’m adding a link for the different sets and if you click on this link, you can check out lots and lots of my photos! http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmay/sets/

I’ve also got the newest addition to the Flickr site as well and it’s one of my nature photos from White Sands National Monument from a couple of weeks ago at Thanksgiving!

It’s time for me to get busy, so I hope that you have a wonderful week and thanks again for checking out all my work!!!

Kev

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El Paso, Texas at sundown!

Monday morning Peoria greetings to all my friends around the globe!!!!

I was able to do a little time lapse photography in El Paso, Texas when I was down that way visiting my folks this past Thanksgiving week! I found the perfect spot to shoot this from on the hill that over looks the city and in the background you can also see Ciudad Juarez, Mexico (not one of the safest cities in the world right now).

I’ve got a great time lapse video showing the transformation of the city from day to night that you can check out on Youtube.

It’s time to get busy, so I hope that you have a wonderful week and thanks for checking out my work!!!!

Kev

A Ferrari 360 Stradele and Lighting, a lost art?

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

We’re all back at it for another week of fun and games after the Thanksgiving break! We’ve got less then one month to Christmas and the end of the year is fast approaching! Where has 2011 gone? Wow!

“The Ferrari is a dream – people dream of owning this special vehicle and for most people it will remain a dream apart from for those lucky few.” Enzo Ferrari

Right before I left for Thanksgiving vacation in New Mexico, I had a very special car in the studio for a couple of days. The Ferrari 360 Stradele is one of those cars that you just don’t see everyday in Peoria, so to be up close and get to shoot it was a real treat!

When I was shooting some of these images, I knew that the shots were coming out great and I was really happy with what I was getting. When I got them into the computer and started to work with them, it dawned on me that we just don’t get to do lighting like this very often anymore! It’s really a shame because I think that the art of lighting in some regards is going away. Back in the days of film, you had to do lighting and make products look good because there wasn’t any Photoshop to enhance or tweak a photo. Digital photography in my opinion has been the biggest thing to happen to photography since George Eastman started Kodak! Now, I don’t want to go back to the days of film because I so love what I can do with a digital image, but I wish that we would take our time making photos like we did when I started all these many years ago! My hope is that in some regards we will get back to the art and craft of lighting products and making killer images in the camera!!!!!

Here are some of my snaps from a two day shoot in the studio with this incredible car! I truly think that it’s some of the best lighting that I’ve ever done! Everything looks clean and crisp and I couldn’t be prouder of these images!

It’s time to get rocking and rolling and get this week started! I hope that you have a wonderful week to come and thanks as always for checking out my work, it’s very much appreciated by me!!!!!

Kev

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A New Mexico sunset and Thanksgiving!!!

Monday morning greetings from Las Cruces, N.M.,

This is going to be a short week (or no week at all) for work for a lot of my American friends! A lot of people have already taken off this past weekend for the Thanksgiving week while others will leave Tuesday and Wednesday to get home to be with family and friends! I made the journey down here to Las Cruces to see my folks and spend Thanksgiving with them and it’s always a wonderful time of year here in New Mexico!

I was able to grab a quick snap when I got to town last night and it was a perfect sunset as you can see!!!!

If you’re traveling in the next few days or you’ve already taken off, be safe this entire week!! There’s going to be a lot of people out on the roads and in the airports, so you have to be careful!!!!!!

Have a great Thanksgiving and I’ll be back in Peoria for next Mondays promo and ready to rock your socks with some of the best work that I’ve ever done!!!!

Take care and safe travels!!!!

Kev

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