Tag Archives: Kevin May

The Moody Blues

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

Shooting bands in clubs and concerts is something that I’ve always enjoyed doing! For the last number of years, I haven’t had the time or opportunity to do it and it’s something that I’ve really missed! I got my chance to get back into the game this past week in Peoria to shoot the Moody Blues at the Peoria Civic Center. Those of you under 30 probably won’t know who this band is, but to those of us in that 50 and over range, we know all about the band!

I was shooting photos for Frank Productions out of Madison, Wisconsin who was promoting the MB show here in Peoria! The concert was in the Civic Center Theater and they had a sold out show!!!! It was my first time shooting in the theater having seen a number of shows there as part of the audience. One of the challenges is that with any press pass, you can shoot the first three songs and then you’re done! You’ve got to make sure that you get your shots and at most you have 15 minutes of time to get those shots! The other challenge in shooting at the PCC theater is that you can’t get in front of the stage since they have seating there, so it’s either stage right or stage left to get your shots! There’s no time to mess around with a gig like this!!!!! 🙂

The band came out and right out of the box starting cranking out some of their hits! While they were singing and playing I was working on getting my photos! I think that I got a number of good snaps and here are some of my shots from this past Monday night!

It’s another busy week for me, so I’ve got to get rocking and rolling!!!!!! I hope that you’re going to have a great week to come and thanks as always for checking out my work!!!!

Kev

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200,000 hits and SRV!!!

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

I’ve had my photos on a website called Flickr since March of 2006 and it’s been a great place for me to share my images! I shared a post back in December of 2011 about how my 2400 photos had passed the 100,000 view mark. It took me five and a half years for me to reach 100,000 views. Now here we are less then two years later and my 3339 photos have passed the 200,000 view mark. It’s amazing to me and it also shows me just how much we as a society are migrating to the web for everything that we do! One of the things that I like is that people can go to my Flickr site and see a wide variety of photography that I enjoy shooting! Here’s a link for the 14 different sets of photos that I have on Flickr, so just pick a subject and enjoy some of my work! http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmay/sets

Back in July I was down in Texas for a shoot and I was able to spend a day in Austin before I flew home. In Austin down at their riverfront, they’ve got a statue for their hometown boy, blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughn. I was able to get out and get a few shots of SRV’s statue at night with downtown Austin in the background. I’ve also paired that photo with one that I shot of SRV here in Peoria almost 30 years ago!!! Yes, I have been around for awhile!!! 🙂

Here’s my photos of Stevie Ray Vaughn back in 1984 and today in Austin, Tx.

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

Kev

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It’s that time of year!!!

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all,
Yes it’s that time of year when football is back and it’s a glorious time of the year! The high schools and colleges started playing last weekend and this weekend the NFL kicked off their season. I felt a little guilty watching my beloved Chicago Bears on Sunday being such a nice sunny day in Peoria, but I couldn’t miss the first game of the season. On a yucky rainy day it’s one thing to be a couch potato and watch all the ball games and I don’t feel too guilty, but on a good day I do just a little bit!!!! 🙂 It’s going to be fun watching all the games this season and I’m looking forward to it!!!

I was shooting for my friends at Schutt Sports recently and we shot a bunch of football shots! It’s always fun and challenging to come up with some different ways to showcase the different Schutt products. We’ve got a good team working on these shots and it shows in the shots that we are getting! It’s fun to be able to do lighting and create some mood and drama to these photos!
Here’s a few of my shots from the day shooting for Schutt Sports.

It’s time for the big push for the next few months before Thanksgiving and I’m ready to rock!!!!!

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

Kev

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Tee it up!!!!!!!!

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Labor Day Monday morning St. Louis greetings to one and all!!!!!!

For all my friends here in the USA, I hope that you’re having a wonderful Labor Day weekend!!!!

This past Monday I was out shooting photos for the 2013 “Tee it up for the troops” charity event in Peoria. This was the fifth year that the event has been in Peoria and in those five years, the Peoria area has raised over one million dollars for this great charity!!! We have so many great charities here in Central Illinois and it always amazes me just how generous this area is to all of these organizations! For a smaller town like Peoria, we do pretty darn good!

For those that haven’t been to this event, it’s now held at two local golf courses, the Country Club of Peoria and also Mt. Hawley Country Club. At both courses in the morning they have about 240 veterans at each course that play golf and then have a great lunch and dinner as well (no charge for any of that for the Veterans)! In the afternoon, all the golfers are paying to play and help support the charity. At lunch time at both courses they have ceremonies that honor the veterans and also the active duty military that have and do keep us safe and free! As everyone is playing golf, there is lot of fun and laughs (and a occasional swear word for a bad shot), but when the ceremony is happening and then the trumpeter plays Taps, you realize why we are all there and what the event is all about!!!!

Here’s a couple of my snaps from this years Tee it up event!!!!

Thanks as always for checking out my work and I hope that the rest of your Labor Day weekend is a safe and fun one!!!!!

Kev

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That was fast!!!

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

Wow, for my friends here in the US, this coming weekend is Labor Day weekend and that’s the last big weekend to signal the end of summer!!!! The kids are back in school and the college kids at Bradley University were moving in this past Saturday. The high schools and colleges will start playing football this coming weekend, so fall is coming! I’m just always amazed at how fast time flies the older that I get. It seems like it was just yesterday and it was Memorial Day weekend! Wow!!!

Here’s one of my quick snaps from last month when I was shooting a gig down in Texas! I’m always glad to have road trips, but Texas in July is a little toasty!!!! It would be nice to go back there in November or December when things are a whole lot cooler there and here in Peoria as well!!!! This night shot is of the state capital in Austin and the thing that I like about it is that they have a underground walk way for the Texas state legislators. I’m thinking it’s a security thing and also a much cooler way to walk in the summer time!

If you’re traveling this coming Labor Day Weekend, make it a safe one!!!! Have a great time as well and bid summer a fond farewell!!!!

Thanks as always for checking out my work and I really do appreciate it!!!!

Kev

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Women of Faith

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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!!!

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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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Dream Camp

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!!!

Sometimes I get involved with a project and they are really good ones that you’re proud to be a part of! In this case, my friends at Progressive Impressions International asked me to help out and shoot some stills on a video shoot. The shoot was for American Family Insurance and their “Dream Camp“. They selected three winners to come in and get all kinds of mentoring from people in their respective fields. It was a three day shoot and it couldn’t have been more fun! Lots and lots of very nice people and the three winners Robin, Jason and Jorge were outstanding young people. We shot all this in March and I’ve watch them on social media working on making their dreams come true these past few months!!! Did I also mention that supermodel Kathy Ireland was involved in all of this as well? She was a big part of the video and acted as a mentor and hostess for the project!

Here’s the cover shot from the magazine and the best part of this shot was it was the last one that we were going to do. We told Jason to take the frosting bag and he was going to make a swirl on Jorge’s head. We only had one take for this and the best part that Jorge who was always so serious when I would take his photo, busted out smiling and then laughing!!! Truly a great moment and it made for a great shot and it also made the cover!!!!!!!

Here’s that cover shot of Jason, Jorge and Robin http://kevinmay.com/kmc1amf4aug13.jpg

Here’s the inside pages of the magazine and some of the other photos http://kevinmay.com/kmc2amf4aug13.jpg

Of course I had to get a photo with Kathy as well http://kevinmay.com/kmcki4aug13.jpg

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

Kev

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A real man!!!

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Monday morning greetings to one and all!!!

I was down in West Texas this past week on a shoot and it was hot, but it was also fun! I was shooting some oil workers in Big Spring, Tx. and this is real work! I can’t even begin to imagine what the conditions are like when the temperature is 100 degrees as it was for our shoot and these guys are out there giving it there all. I wasn’t doing anything and I was still roasting in the sun!!!! I guess that’s what you call being a real man!!!!! I’m very grateful that these men and women are out there getting the oil and natural gas that we need!!!

Here’s one of my shots of my buddy Mike who took good care of me while we were shooting 100′ up in the oil rig!!!

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

Kev

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Where has the summer gone?

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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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