Tag Archives: USA

Chihuly and Thanksgiving

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New Mexico greetings to one and all!!!!

It’s been a little over a year since the Caterpillar Visitors Center and the Peoria Riverfront Museum opened up in downtown Peoria and it sure has been a great improvement to our city!

For those of you that remember Lakeview Museum, the PRM is a huge upgrade and they really have done a nice job with it! Since PRM has opened, we’ve had a couple of major shows with a great show of photographs from nature photographer Ansel Adams and now a show of glass work from the George R. Stroemple Collection. In this collection is the work of one of my favorite artists, Dale Chihuly! Chihuly’s glass work is incredible and if you’ve never seen it, do yourself a favor and come down to PRM in the next few months and check it out!

Here’s my snap of the exhibit room at PRM of the Chihuly and Friends show!

It’s Thanksgiving week and like me, I have a feeling that a lot of people that I know will be taking advantage of this short work week and traveling! I’ve traveled down here to New Mexico to spend Thanksgiving with my folks and am very happy about that!!!! I’m thankful for the people and things in my life, so this is a great time of the year to reflect on all of that!

If you’re going to travel this week to visit family and friends for Thanksgiving, make it a safe one!!!!!

Have a great week as always and thanks again for checking out my work!!!!

Kev

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Laissez les bons temps rouler

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Monday morning greetings from New Orleans to one and all!!!

It’s always great to get out of town for a few days and to have more then a few days means a much longer road trip!! Being from the Midwest and going to the gulf coast from New Orleans over to the panhandle of Florida has been a family tradition for my family for many years! We spent many a Easter vacation in Biloxi, Mississippi when I was a kid and came to love this part of the country! Here we are all those many years later and we are still drawn to the Gulf Coast!!!! Lots of great food and drinks and that famous Southern hospitality, it’s always a can’t miss time!!!!!

One of my favorite places in New Orleans is Pat O’Briens! If you’ve been there, you know all about Pat O’s!!!! If you haven’t been Pat O’Briens, you need to add it to your list of places and things to do! There’s something special from sitting outside on the courtyard patio to being inside in the dueling piano bar! Their motto is “Have Fun” and I can’t think of a better place to do that!

Here’s one of my snaps of the world famous Pat O’Brien Hurricanes!!!! What a drink!!!!

As they say down here in NOLA, “Laissez les bons temps rouler” and for those of us that don’t speak French, “Let the good times roll”!!! That’s a metaphor for life!!!!!

Have a great week as always and thanks for checking out my work!!!!

Kev

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Halloween Hunt!!!

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Monday morning greetings from Peoria!!!!!!!!!

It was an very beautiful weekend here in Peoria!!! Fall is in the air and with temps in the 50’s, it’s time to put that sweatshirt and jeans on!!!!! I really just love this time of year!!!! The humidity of summer is long gone and having the cooler temperatures is a wonderful change from summer here in the Midwest!!!

Wow, the Peoria Riverfront Museum is kicking things up and they had a great event yesterday! They hosted their first “Halloween Hunt” on Sunday and I’d say it was a huge success!!!!!! I saw lots of kids dressed up in costumes and also a few adults got into the swing of things as well!!!! They had all kinds of fun and educational things for the kids from a laser light planetarium show in the dome with Halloween music to science demos with dry ice (always a favorite of mine) and also real live bats!!!!!!!!!! The bats were very cool and the kids liked them!!!!! One of my favorite shots on this promo is the shot of the young man wearing his Batman custom and they hung a real live bat on him!!!! The funny thing was they asked him after how it was and he said, “his claws were sticking me, it hurt!!!” Priceless!!!!!!!

Lots of fun in P-Town yesterday at the museum and here’s a few of my snaps!!!!

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

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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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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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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AMA Flat Track Racing

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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

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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

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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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kmcci16june13

Dozer Park

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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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