Snow in New Mexico!!

Sunny Monday morning greetings from Las Cruces, NM.!

You would think that by coming down here to see my folks this past week that I would have avoided some of the cold snowy weather that everyone was getting back in the Midwest. Wrong! The temps were supposed to be in the 60 degree range (and they were before I got there) and unfortunately they ended up having some of the coldest temps in their history. Having the high is the 20 degree range and the lows below zero wasn’t the type of weather that I ordered for my visit!!!!!

The other thing that Las Cruces got this past week was a very rare snow storm. 2.5 inches to be precise and in the six years that my folks have lived here, they maybe have had snow in the city 3 or 4 times, so it’s rare indeed!!!!

Even though I’m not all that wild about shooting in cold weather, I had to take advantage of the snow and get a few snaps! Here’s one of my snaps of the Organ Mountains with a fresh dusting of snow and it sure was special to see!!!!

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

Kev

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Our National Bird!

Monday morning greetings to one and all!!!!

I’ve had a few of my photography buddies getting out and shooting photos of the Bald Eagles along the Illinois and Mississippi rivers and for me personally, anything involving cold weather and photography probably isn’t the best combination!!! I thought I would give it the old college try and I got up to the Quad Cities (Iowa / Illinois) last weekend and tried to snag a couple of shots of the Bald Eagles along the Mississippi River.

It sure wasn’t a perfect blue sky day with lots of sun, so when given lemons, you make lemonade! The Bald Eagles are amazing and the first thing that you take from seeing them is just how darn big they are!!!! Here’s one of my snaps of these amazing birds in action!

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

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Watchfire, PAD and the Cold!!!

Cloudy Monday morning greetings to all!

One of the hardest things that I have to do is shooting outside in the winter time! For me to get those great “Kevin May Blue”© sky days, I have to shoot when it’s bitterly cold because the clouds are all gone. Last week was no exception! I got a call from the very nice folks at Watchfire Signs in Danville, Il. and they had just finished making a brand new sign for the Par-A-Dice Hotel and Casino here in East Peoria. They wanted to get some nice snaps of their sign in action. Here’s a couple from the day and at night and I can tell you that this puppy is bright!!!!!!!

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

Kev

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I don’t like the cold!

MLK Monday morning Peoria greetings to all!

This week is one of those weeks that I just dread! The temps in Peoria for the highs will be in the mid teens and that’s never a good thing in my opinion! If there’s one good thing so far it’s that I don’t have a shoot outside this week and I’m not complaining!

I guess we’ll all just have to stay bundled up and inside this week like Maria was doing in this weeks snap!!!!

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

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Wind Turbines in Central Illinois!

Monday morning Peoria greetings to all!

Things are starting to rock and roll this week with work and that’s a very good thing!!!!! I think that everyone this past week was getting back into the groove with cleaning up their desk and trying to shake off the Christmas vacation time away (for those of you that had time any like I did)!

One of things that I’m digging about Central Illinois is that we are becoming a really big area for the wind turbines that are producing electricity for us to use! Our friends in Iowa and Texas are really rocking with all of their stuff and I think we’re starting to catch up a bit! Some people don’t like them, but I do! I just love seeing them cranking along off in the distance! Here’s one of my snaps on a perfect Kevin May Blue Sky Day!!!!

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

Kev

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Grand Isle, La., Rt. 1 and 2011

Happy New Years greetings from back in Peoria!!!

I got back last night from a little R & R down in the Gulf Coast region and as always, it was great!!!! The only tough thing was coming back to temperatures in the 20’s when it was in the 60’s this past week! Oh well, maybe I need a road trip!!!!!

One of the fun little drives that we’ve gotten to do for a number of years now is Rt. 1 south of New Orleans along the cannel to Grand Isle, La. It’s a mix of small towns and a lot of fishing and shrimp boats along the way! It’s been interesting to see this area before and after Hurricane Katrina and things have been coming along pretty good since all of that five years ago. Here’s a series of snaps from the day spent on Rt. 1 down to Grand Isle, La.

It’s the start of 2011 and as always, I remain optimistic about business! This past year, business was up 33% and that was very encouraging considering that 2009 was my worst year ever in business! You always have to look for the silver lining in any cloud! The other interesting stat was that 85% of my work was outside of Central Illinois, so I spent a lot of time on the road as you’ve been able to tell from my promos this past year!!!!

I have no idea what’s going to happen this year or where those shoots will take me, but I’m ready to get started today!!!!

Thanks as always for being a part of my travels and promos and I hope that you’ve enjoyed seeing what I’ve been up to! Let’s all make 2011 a fantastic year!!!!!!

Kev

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Venice, La.

Monday morning greetings from the Big Easy!

I hope that you and those that you love and care about had a very good Christmas this past weekend!

We were down in Venice, La. on Sunday and for those of you that have never been South of New Orleans, It’s the southern most point that you can drive along the Mississippi River. As we were driving south from NOLA, you could still see the effects from Hurricane Katrina more then five years ago. There are many signs that things have been repaired and rebuilt, but you can also see the signs of things that aren’t! It’s hard to imagine how things were in this area after that storm, but when you see some of the stuff that we saw on Sunday, you can start to imagine what it was like and I’m sure it wasn’t pretty!!!

Here’s a couple of my shots from yesterday down in Venice and it was a dark cold day and I think that my snaps reflect that!

Thank you so much for checking out my work as always and I’m hoping that you have a very happy New Years this coming weekend!!! Be safe and have fun!!!!!

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Payton and Easter Seals

Snowy Peoria Monday morning greetings to all!

One of my favorite charities that I love shooting for is Easter Seals and part of the fun for me is seeing the kids grow up year after year! I’m still blown away by how far they have come and how big they have gotten!!! Payton is one of those kids that I’ve been photographing for a number of years now and it’s amazing to see how far he’s come! He’s got a great smile and wonderful personality! He’s also a little dynamo and like the Energizer Bunny, “He keeps going and going and going”! Here’s one of the snaps that I got of Payton racing around the Easter Seals facility this past Thursday!

Well, it’s Christmas week and things are going to be slowing down for the rest of the year! If you’re going to be traveling to see family and friends or just getting the heck out of town for a few days, be safe and have fun!!!!!

Thanks as always for checking out my work and I hope that you have a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Season!!!!!!!

Safe travels!!!!!

Kev

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Cotton and a blizzard!!!

Monday morning stranded blizzard greetings from Mt. Vernon, Il.,

I was on my way back from a shoot in Georgia on Saturday and all was well until I ran into the big Midwestern blizzard on Sunday morning. After seeing 30 cars, trucks and semi’s in the ditch between Marion, Ill. and Mt. Vernon, Ill., I decided that it was probably smart to ride out the storm at a hotel (with an Applebees right next door and they had cold beer just for me!!!). Never mind the fact that I was only able to drive that morning from Paducah, Ky. to Mt. Vernon and called it a day by 8:30 am (Yikes!!). I should be able to make it back to Peoria this morning and that will be very nice!!!!!

The reason for the road trip was a shoot in Georgia and it was something that I had never seen or shot before, “Cotton picking”. I was thinking that we would be shooting cotton harvesting, but I soon realized that the farmers and people in the business refer to it as “picking”! For the most part we had really good weather and were able to come away with a lot of nice shots. Here’s a few of my cotton snaps and I have to tell you that this was a lot of fun!!!!!

Thanks as always for checking out my work and we’re getting a whole lot closer to Christmas!!! Wow!!!!!

Kev

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Keeping my big mouth shut!!!!

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

Well, at least I was able to stay home for a couple of weeks before getting back out on the road!

When I shoot something really cool, I want to share it immediately! I’ve had to keep my mouth shut for the last six months and not share these photos that I shot until now. I was out in Arizona shooting some new Caterpillar trucks that will be sold in the Australian market and as we started shooting, I was digging the shots that we were coming up with and I started thinking, “This will make a great Monday morning promo”! About the time I was thinking that, both the creative director and the client looked at me and said “You can’t use these shots for a promo until the trucks are officially unveiled in Australia”! I’ve been a good boy and keep my big mouth shut till now! The trucks were just recently unveiled in Australia, so now I can show you some of the cool snaps that we got!!!!!

Thanks as always for checking out my work and have a great week!!!!

Kev

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