STL and the Arch!

Monday morning Peoria greetings to all!

One of my favorites cites here in the Midwest is St. Louis! Since it’s only a three hour drive from Peoria, it’s nice and close and you can pop down there for a nice weekend!!! The food on “The Hill” is outstanding and it’s just such an easy city to get around, it makes for a very nice weekend!!!

I put together another one of my time lapse slideshow and also one of my snaps of the Gateway Arch in Black and White for those that like that!

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

Kev

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Somedays are tougher then others!

Monday morning Peoria greetings to all!!!!

Somedays are tougher then others for photography and creating interesting photos can be a real challenge!!!! I had one of those days last week!!!!! I was shooting at a water treatment facility and the client took us around and gave us a quick tour of the place. It’s by no means the most glamourous place that you’ll ever come across and things were old and not in an interesting way. As I was thinking about what I was going to try and shoot, I was really stumped as to what I could show and what I was going to show! It really took me a bit to try and think of something and as always, I just started walking around with the camera and tripod and things started to come together. The other big problem that I had is that most of the processes that go on are internal, so you can’t really see what’s happening!

Here’s a couple of my snaps from the day and one of the things that I did was to convert the images to Black and White to try to give them a little more mood and drama!

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

Kev

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Balloons at the Park!!!

Monday morning Peoria greetings to all!!!!!

I was out last weekend at Three Sisters Park in Chillicothe, Il. for the second annual “Balloons at the Park” and it was a great day to be out enjoying all the fun!!!! Here’s a few of my snaps and I hope that you enjoy them!!!!!

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

Kev

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Heart of Illinois Fair 2011 and a hot week!!!

Hot and humid Peoria greeting to all my friends around the world!!!!!!

There were lot’s of different events and activities going on in Peoria this past week!!!! The best part is that I even got to shoot a few of them!!!!

The Heart of Illinois Fair has been going on for 62 years here in Peoria and it had been a few years since I last attended to take some photos. I got out on Thursday night and was able to snap a few night shots of some of the rides! It looked like everyone was having a great time despite it being hot and humid!!!! It’s summer in Peoria!!!!!

Here’s a few on my snaps from the evening spent at Expo Gardens!

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

Kev

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Back Home!

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

I got back this weekend from a quick trip out to New Mexico to see my folks and also get out and shoot some nature photography!!!!! Even though the temperatures were in the 100 degree range, it’s still always good to get out and hike around and see a little nature!!!! As always out west, there’s lot’s of sun and that brights my soul!!!!!!

Here’s a few of my snaps form one of my days out and about!

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

Kev

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“Pops” and Route 66!!!!

Tuesday morning greetings from Las Cruces, New Mexico!!!

I hope that you had a safe and fun 4th of July weekend!!!!!!

On my way down here to Las Cruces, I was able to travel along part of old Route 66 and for those of you that didn’t know it, that was “the” road back in the day and it ran all the way from Chicago to Los Angeles!!!! Long before the interstates that we now have was the “Mother Road” and it was one of the only ways to get across the country!

One of the pleasant surprises of the trip just outside of Oklahoma City is a small town called Arcadia and in that town is a place called “Pops“! For those of you that love soda, this place is the cat’s meow!!!!! They have 600 flavors of soda, so if you can’t find it here, they probably don’t make it!!!! One of the cool things as well is the 66 foot high soda bottle (66 foot high bottle on Route 66, get it?) that lights up at night! I was there on a Friday night an the place was packed!!!!!! It’s worth a stop if you’re ever in the area!

I put together a quick time lapse at sundown and you can see the bottle lighting up and changing colors!

It’s time to run, I’ve got some nature photography to do here in the desert!!!!! I hope that you have a great rest of the week as always and thanks for checking out my work!!!!!

Kev

Flickr Video

ICC and the Peoria Flickr Group!

Monday morning Peoria greetings to all!!!!!

It’s probably got to be a very short week for a lot of my American friends with the big 4th of July weekend coming up next weekend! If you are going to travel, make it a safe one!

I was out this past Saturday morning at Illinois Central College’s Hort Gardens with some of my friends from the Peoria Flickr group. They have a monthly photo walk and this month we were over at ICC. We had a very good day to shoot and I’ve already seen a number of great shots from everyone in the group and that’s what it’s all about!!!!! Here’s a collage of nine of my snaps and you might see something that you like in these!!!!!!

Here’s also a link for our Peoria Flickr group if you’d like to see some of the very talented photographers here in Peoria!!!! http://www.flickr.com/groups/peoria/

Thanks as always for checking out my work and I hope that you have a great rest of the week!!!! Safe travels to those that will be out and about for the big holiday weekend!!!!

Kev

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Azura Boutique

Monday Peoria greetings to all!!!!

My friends over at Azura Boutique have moved to a new store in Peoria Heights on the corner of Prospect and Glen and needed some snaps of the new place! I waited for the perfect night and here’s the results!

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

Thanks!!!!!

Kev

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Welcome to my post apocalyptic world!

Night-time or early morning Peoria greetings to all my friends around the world!!!!!

You’re probably looking at the bottom of the e-mail looking for your Monday morning pretty picture and there isn’t one, what gives? You’ll just have to click on the first link on the page to see the treat that I have for you today!!!

When I first started doing some time lapse photography six months ago, I started thinking about other possibilities and variations of it besides time lapse.  I had taken a series of photos of this Australian truck for print ads and I thought that I might be able to put something together in the computer that could be different and fun. The first attempt was the original color photos and it was pretty neat,  but it was lacking in intensity.  I took the photos into Photoshop and converted them to Black and White and then added some grain to give it a more edgy feeling.  I also did some blurring and some burning (darkening certain spots of the photos).  I now was getting the look and feel that I was after!!!!!  I want these photos to have a very edgy Mad Max type of feel and I think that I got it!

The piece that I’ve put together today isn’t shot on video, it’s a series of still photos!  I repeat, this isn’t a video!!!!!!

Also for those looking to kill a little time and would like to see a ton of my photos on all sorts of subjects, here’s a link for the rest of my photos on Flickr.  On the right side of the page you’ll see some different “sets” of photos with everything from Peoria photos to food, nature, farming and everything in between!!!!!  Enjoy!!!   http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmay/

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

Kev

Flickr Video

“Step up your game” and a Lamborghini in the house!

Monday Peoria greetings to all,

Competition. Some people fear it, I embrace it! When I started 21 years ago,  there were only a hand full of photographers in the Central Illinois area doing commercial photography. Today we have a lot of very talented photographers along the I-74 corridor from the Quad Cities down to Champaign that are out there kicking butt with their photography.  When you’re faced with competition like that, you can go sit on the porch and feel sorry for yourself or you can get out there and “step up your game”!  I know that all of these good photographers have pushed me to be a better photographer because of that competition!!!!

I had a Lamborghini Gallardo in the studio this past week and besides shooting a bunch of standard shots,  I tried to push the boundaries with some more moody lighting and this is one of those shots that I really liked!!!!!!   It’s time for me to “Step up my game”!!!!!

I’ve also made a couple of sizes of the image if you want to use this for a desktop image on your computer!
Standard screen    http://kevinmay.com/kmcsd4june11.jpg
HD Widescreen    http://kevinmay.com/kmchd4june11.jpg

I hope that you have a great week as always!!!!

Kev

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