Women of Faith

Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all,

I’ve been working with the Peoria Civic Center this past month documenting some of the events going on and also working on new fresh photos for them to use in their marketing materials. This past weekend the PCC hosted the “Women of Faith” conference in the arena. There were thousands of women there listening to a wide variety of spiritual messengers and it was pretty neat to see! When I first walked into the arena I thought I had walked into a full blown rock and roll concert. An amazing set up with incredible lights, sound system and video projection! First rate to say the least and a very well thought out and produced show!!!!

Here’s a few of snaps from the Peoria stop of the “Women of Faith” 2013 tour.

I hope that you’re going to have a wonderful week and thanks for taking the time to check out my work!

Kev

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Wow!!!

Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all of my friends around this big beautiful place we call Terra Firma!!!!!

One of the projects that I’ve been working on lately is to help the Peoria Civic Center freshen up their images to help promote itself as a place to host Peoria events. We’re very fortunate that we have a lot of options here in Peoria for clients to look at for their events, be it meetings or a convention or even in this case a wedding!!! I got an e-mail from the Civic Center telling me that they had a great wedding reception that they would be hosting and said the room would be a knock out! Well, when I first walked into this room at the Peoria Civic Center, my first word was “Wow”!!!!! I don’t know how you could describe it any other way and I can’t think of a better word that describes some place knocking your socks off like this room did!!!!

We have an awful lot to be proud of here in our city of Peoria and the Civic Center is one of those gems!!!!!

Here’s one of my snaps of the room that made me say “Wow”!!!! You might be wondering also about the food, “Oh yea, it’s good”!!!! Here’s a link for that! http://kevinmay.com/kmc2pcc11aug13.jpg

I want to say thank you for always taking the time to see what I’m shooting and what I’ve been up too!!! Have a very wonderful week to come!!!!

Thanks again!!!!

Kev

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Where has the summer gone?

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

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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The “New” Pere Marquette

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

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

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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PIA Skyline

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

I wanted to get out and get a new shot of the Peoria skyline last week and the weather was perfect! Our skyline has changed over the past few years with the new additions of the Peoria Riverfront Museum and the Caterpillar Visitors Center. The downtown is coming together and in the coming years is going to change even more! It will be interesting to see what happens next!!!

Here’s my new shot of the Peoria skyline and I’ve also got some links for a computer desktop images for those that are looking for something new to look at as well.

Widescreen image http://kevinmay.com/kmcpia19may13ws.jpg

Standard screen image http://kevinmay.com/kmcpia19may13ss.jpg

Facebook cover image http://kevinmay.com/kmcpia19may13fb.jpg

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

Kev

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The Peoria Riverfront Museum

Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

The Peoria Riverfront Museum has been open for about six months now and I had yet to make it down to check it out. For those of you not from the Peoria area, PRM is located in the same block as the Caterpillar Visitors Center along the Illinois River in downtown Peoria. I have to say that I was very impressed with how nice PRM is! I was down there shooting some photos for the Peoria Chamber of Commerce to help promote the museum. There is a lot to do and see there and they also have done a great job with lots of things for kids to interact with and that’s great! Like anything else, if there aren’t some things for the families to do, it won’t be as successful. I know that I’ll be going back at some point in the next couple of months because they have an exhibit from famed nature photographer Ansel Adams and that will be wonderful!

Here’s some of my shots from the Peoria Riverfront Museum! Do yourself a favor and check out PRM!!!!

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

Kev

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23 years and counting!!!

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

Here I am after 23 years of working for myself and every year I’m shocked that this all is still happening! To think that I was assistant all those many years ago and to see all the things that I have seen and photographed since then, it’s truly been a wonderful ride!!!

What is so stunning to me is how what I’ve done has been changing so much over these last 23 years. When I started back in April of 1990, we were shooting film and I’ve been doing that ever since I was a kid and first picked up a Kodak Instamatic camera back in the 60’s! Here we are all these years later now shooting digitally for the last 13 years and that in my mind is amazing! We’ve come a long way and I know that how we do things will always be changing and evolving and you have to be ready and embrace the change that is coming!!!

Here’s a shot of my home for the last 31 years, Peoria! P-Town as I like to call it!!!! This night photo is of the Peoria Civic Center, Peoria City Hall, The “Twin Towers“, Sacred Heart Church, and The Pere Marquette Hotel!

For my friends on Facebook, here’s a cover photo that you can upload as well!!! http://kevinmay.com/kmcpia15apr13fb.jpg

Thanks so much for 23 great years and I sure appreciate your taking the time to see what I’m shooting!!!

Kev

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