Tag Archives: Kevin May

The summer is rolling along!

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

I know as I get older that time for me seems to go faster and faster. In my mind it seems like it was just a month ago and we here in Peoria were a foot deep in snow and thinking that winter would never end. Fast forward six months and this summer is almost over. I saw people at the store yesterday loading up on all the back to school stuff for the kids and it sounds like in the next couple of weeks they will be heading back to school! We’re a month away from the Labor Day weekend and that has always been the traditional end of the summer. Before we know it, we’ll be back to the foot of snow in Peoria!

Despite time seeming to be moving faster everyday for me, I still wake up and try to make everyday the best day that it can be. I don’t want to waste a moment of time in my life and look back with regrets for things that I didn’t do. I put on my smile to start the day and make the most out of each and everyday!

Here’s one of my summer shots at the Heart of Illinois Fair a few weeks ago and it’s part of enjoying every moment of time!

I hope that you’re going to have a wonderful week to come and thanks as always for taking the time to view my photos!

Kev

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kmc3aug14

Spotlighting Peoria

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

I’ve been a busy little beaver this past week. I’m doing some charity work for the United Way on a project for them and we got some good shots this past week and I know we’ll be getting some more good snaps this week as well!

The other project that I’m working on is one for the Peoria Convention and Visitors Bureau and this one will be going on for the next year. What we are trying to do is to step up the quality of the PACVB library of images that they use to help promote the Central Illinois area. We have a really good story to tell here in Peoria for visitors that come to the city to see places like the Peoria Riverfront Museum or the Caterpillar Visitors Center. We’ve also got visitors coming for different events like the TT motorcycle races or the IHSA boys basketball tournament. There are also a number of great hotels and restaurants, so we really have a lot going for our area!

One of the other areas that the PACVB is working on is the convention business. I shot some photos at the Growmark convention at the Peoria Civic Center this past week. Getting big conventions like this is huge for not only the Peoria Civic Center, but also the Peoria area. A lot of local business also benefit from these conventions as well like the hotels, restaurants, gas stations and shopping centers. This is why PACVB is working hard to get more conventions like Growmark to come here to Central Illinois.

Here’s one of my shots of the entire ballroom for the Growmark convention at the Peoria Civic Center and you can see just how big of a deal that this is!

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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kmcpcc22july14

Let’s take a dip in the pool!

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Monday morning greetings to one and all!!!!

With all of the great weather that we’ve had in Peoria these past few weeks, there’s been a lot of opportunities for shooting photography outside. When it gets nice like that, you really have to jump on it and take advantage of the nice weather because you don’t know how long it’s going to be before it’s nice once again to be shooting photos.

I’ve been working with Russ Hinderliter at San Juan Pools for a long time now and we will go around and shoot photos of some of their unique pool projects. Russ and his team really do a nice job on everything from the smallest of projects to the bigger ones that I’m featuring today! For me it’s really a lot of fun to see what they have designed and then come up with the best way to capture the project and make it look good!

There is a trade publication called “Pool & Spa News” and they are going to be featuring one of San Juan Pools latest projects in the next issue. It will be in their annual “Masters of Design” issue and as you can see in my photo, rightfully so!!! Here’s one of the images from our shoot and this night shot has to be my favorite from our shoot!!!!!

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

Kev

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kmcsjp21july14

The Rave is back and better then ever!!!

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

I’m hoping that you were able to have a very wonderful and safe 4th of July weekend! These long weekends sure are nice and when you have the beautiful weather that we had here in Central Illinois for the weekend, that makes it’s even better!

Back in the middle of March I shared a promo about a band that I shot some pictures of called The Rave. Here’s the post from March if you’d like to refresh your memory http://blog.kevinmay.com/2014/03/17/were-getting-the-band-back-together/ I’ve been taking photos of these guys for over 25 years now and we’ve had a lot of fun along the way. We got together back in March of this year to shoot some promo photos since the guys would were getting back together and would be playing some live shows this summer. As always we had a lot of fun doing those promo photos.

The guys had their first live gig this past Thursday down in Pekin, Il. and it was great to see them perform and hear them playing live! It was there first live performance in 25 years for The Rave and I think that they picked right up where they left off! They played a couple of sets and it was everything from the Beatles to the 2000’s. It was a bit of a time machine to hear those songs that I remember so well and to see the energy that they put into their show! They are still kicking it out all these years later and they aren’t done yet! Here’s a few of my snaps from Pekin, Il. with The Rave

Well it’s time for all of us to get back to work after the 4th weekend! I hope that you have a very wonderful week to come and thanks for checking out my work as always!!!!!

Kev

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kmcrave7july14a

No words!

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Monday morning greetings from New York City!

I’m out East for a quick gig this week in New York City. We got in on Sunday and had some time to walk around and see the city. I think the last time I was here was 45 years ago, so it’s been awhile. Getting out and walking across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn was pretty neat and to see everyone out on a beautiful Sunday afternoon was pretty good! There was a lot of activity and people were out enjoying the wonderful weather and enjoying life.

The hotel that we are staying at is in the financial district of the city and we are about five blocks from ground zero. On Sunday night we walked over to see the 9/11 memorial. I don’t think I could come to the city and not get over to see it. There really aren’t any words that can describe the area and the memorial. For someone like me that’s not from the city, it’s not like I can come to the memorial and remember what different buildings were there before the attacks. To me the memorial is a place of solitude and remembrance! I hope it is a place that people will visit and never forget what happened there on September 11, 2001.

Here’s a few of my snaps from the 9/11 memorial in New York City. In the vertical shot you can see the new Freedom Tower in the background of the 9/11 memorial.

Thanks so much for taking the time to view my work and it’s very much appreciated by me!

Kev

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kmcny23june14a

2014 Canton Cruise-In

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

This past Friday in Central Illinois we had weather that can best be described as “Chamber of Commerce” type weather. For those of you that haven’t heard that phrase it means a day that is so nice and perfect that people visiting the city would want to move there because the day was so beautiful and comfortable! So to have a day in Central Illinois in June that was Sunny, low humidity and 75 degree temperatures is just about perfect! Well this past Friday was one of those days and it was a perfect day for a car cruise in!!!

This is the second year that I have made it down to Canton, Il. for their annual “Cruise-In”. They had a great turnout of cars and it takes up a good portion of the downtown area! It’s a nice show in the sense is it’s not all the same types of cars, so there’s a great variety from old to new! One of my biggest challenges as a photographer and shooting this for the second time is to try and come away with photos that are different from last years photos. I did see a fair number of cars from last year, so I tried to look at them in a different light and come up with some angles and looks that were different. That’s a great challenge, but it’s also a lot of fun! Here’s a link from last years Cruise-In and you can see how I approached the photos and then compare them to this year! http://blog.kevinmay.com/2013/06/17/canton-cruise-in/

Here are this years photos from the 2014 Canton Cruise-In! I hope you like what you see!!!

Thanks as always for taking the time to view my work and it’s very much appreciated by me!!!! Have a great week to come as always!!!!!!

Kev

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kmccci16june14a

Stax Museum of American Soul Music and 300,000 hits

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

I’m always blown away by the number of views that I get on my photography on the Flickr web site. Last September I hit 200k views and now here we are just eight months later and I’ve hit another 100k views and that to me is amazing. I’ve got over 3700 photos in 14 different categories on a wide variety of subjects! If you’ve never checked it out or haven’t been there been to the site in awhile, here’s a link for the different albums. https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmay/sets/

Over the Memorial Day weekend a week ago, beside checking out the Metal Museum, we also went to the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. This is another one of the many great things to see in Memphis, Tn. and well worth your time if you enjoy all kinds of music! I remember listening to AM radio when I was a kid and listening to Otis Redding to Isaac Hayes to Booker T. and the MG’s to the Staple Singers all on the Stax record label. The Museum presents all the different artists from the Stax label, but also covers the history of soul music from Detroit to Chicago. One of the things that I really enjoyed was reading and hearing the stories of the different artists and where they came from and who were their influences in music. The Museum has done a really nice job in presenting the material and the displays are fabulous! It’s another one of those places that’s worth checking out when you’re in Memphis the next time!

Here’s a few of my shots from an afternoon spent at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music!

I hope that you’re going to have a great week as always and thanks for taking the time to check out my photos!!!

Kev

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kmc1stax2june14a

The Metal Museum

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Memorial Monday greetings from Memphis, Tn.

Hopefully you have had a good and safe Memorial Day weekend!!!!

We were able to spend the Memorial weekend down here in Memphis and as always it’s a wonderful time! Lots to see and do and also lots of great food!!!! We are always looking for new things to do where ever we go and this time found a great new place to check out. The National Ornamental Metal Museum or The Metal Museum as it’s also know is in Memphis and it’s a very interesting place. The museum is a campus of small buildings with a couple of buildings just showing art work. There’s also a working foundry and blacksmith shop as well, so there is lots to see and do! We were lucky to catch a blacksmith doing his thing working with some iron making some decorative pieces for a gate. This is one of those places that we had never heard about in all of our years coming to Memphis! Do yourself a favor and check it out if you’re ever in the Mid South!!!!!

Here’s a few of my photos from the day at the Metal Museum!!!!

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

Kev

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kmcmm25may14

San Diego

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

Here we are a week away from Memorial Day weekend and it’s always amazing how fast time files!!!! It seems like just yesterday it was Easter and now here we are at the official start of summer. I’m not one to complain about having a three day weekend to regroup and relax!!!!

About a month ago I was out in Phoenix on a shoot and I was able to scoot over to San Diego for a couple of days! It’s always nice to get out to that part of the country and with the weather being so nice, I wasn’t complaining!!!!! There’s lots to see and lots of fun to be had as well in San Diego!!! I was able to hit Kona’s Surf Club Cafe and Balboa Park and really enjoyed shooting photos while I was there as well! I’ve attached a few photos from my time in SoCal for you to check out!

I hope that you’ll have a great week to come and Memorial Day weekend as well!!!! If you’re going to be out on the roads next weekend, be safe and have a fun time!!!!

Thanks as always!!!!!!

Kev

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kmcsd18may14a

It’s that time of year!!!

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

Well it is that time of year when graduations from schools are in full bloom! The hard work of school is over for a lot of these students and they are ready to join the rest of us out in the real world of work!

I was shooting photos this past Saturday at Spoon River College’s annual graduation. One of the things that I really like about the way that they end the graduation is by having all the professors line up on either side of the departing students. You’ll see high fives, hugs and tears from the graduates and professors alike and it’s really a very great way to end the ceremony! This year I saw all of the nursing students had decorated their graduation caps with some bling and other goodies! Here’s one of my photos from Saturday with the nursing graduates, professors and the crowd of family and friends!!!!

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

Kev

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