Tag Archives: USA

PIA Skyline

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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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kmcpia19may13

23 years and counting!!!

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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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Stitching

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April Fools Day Peoria greetings to one and all!!!!

Sometimes I get asked if I ever miss shooting film for my photos and the answer is no! There were things that we could only dream of doing with our photography back in the days of printing in the darkroom that are now possible with shooting digitally. One of those things that’ve been doing for probably seven or so years is “Photo Stitching”. It’s pretty simple, you take a series of photos and then in the computer you “stitch” the images together to create one big image. In the case of the snap that I’m sharing today, this is my first attempt at doing a 360 degree photograph. Inside the Caterpillar Visitors Center here in Peoria is what I like to call the “Big Room”. In this room there are a bunch of Caterpillar products including a life size version of a 797F mining truck. It’s hard from a photography stand point to get a good shot showing the size of these machines and the scope of the room all in one photograph, but that’s where this stitching shot comes in!

Here’s my photo of the CVC “Big Room”. This 360 degree photograph is 72 individual photos stitched together! Enjoy!!!!

Thanks as always for taking to time to check out my work and I hope that you have a wonderful week!!!!!

Kev

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kmccvc25mar13

Avery Island, Louisiana

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Winter storm Peoria greetings to one and all!!!!

Here it is the end of March and we get another winter storm rolling though P-Town once again!!!! We had better weather in February then we’ve had in March and if I didn’t know better, I’d think the two months have switched places!!!

You’ve probably never heard of Avery Island, but I know that you’ve heard of a very famous product from Avery Island, Tabasco Pepper Sauce! Down in Southern Louisiana is the home of Tabasco at Avery Island. It’s one of those places that you have to make an effort to see becuase it’s not on the road to anywhere! Besides visiting the Tabasco plant for a visit, you can also visit Jungle Gardens which is right next door!

Jungle Gardens is a 170 acre nature park that contains a botanical gardens and also a bird sanctuary. I was there last month and it was just a little bit early for spring to really start blooming, but the Azaleas were all ready rocking and there were about 300 cranes nesting in the sanctuary. As well, there is also a 600 year old Chinese Buddha in the gardens!

If you’re ever down in New Orleans and looking for a nice day trip, Avery Island is a couple of hours down the road and well worth a visit to see the Tabasco factory and Jungle Gardens!!!

Here’s a few of my snaps from my day at Jungle Gardens!

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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kmcai25mar13

South Texas Botanical Gardens

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

I think that one of the things that most of us here in the Midwest miss in the winter time is the greenery that we get in spring and summer! In the winter here in Peoria, there’s not too much short of snow and a lot of brown! We don’t have any leaves on the trees and no grass in the yards, so it’s pretty bland! At this time of the year we’re really ready for some warmer temps and the signs of spring to get started. It seems like we’re having to wait a little longer for those warmer temperatures here in P-Town!!!

I was down in Corpus Christi, Texas last month and I was able to escape winter for a little while and also get some of that spring time color that we’ve all been missing! On one of my days in Corpus Christi, I was able to spend the day at the South Texas Botanical Gardens and it sure was fun!!! I was a little bit early for a lot of the plants and flowers that will be coming, but I was still able to see lots of greenery and color and it was wonderful!!!

Here are a few of my snaps from a day spent at STBG!!!

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

Kev

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kmcstbg18mar13

Two years in the making!!!

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all,

I was just able to finish up a gig that we have been trying to shoot for the last two years. The Peoria Park District wanted to do a shoot showing some of the different zoo animals out in the snow to help promote visiting the Peoria Zoo in the winter time. For this shoot, we needed to have at least a couple of inches of snow to make the shots look good and last winter we never really had enough snow to do the shoot. This winter rolls around and we’re waiting for a good snow and nothing of any amount for the first three months of winter. We had come up to the end of February and still really didn’t have any good snow and we were starting to think that we were going to strike out again this year and would have to wait until next year. All at once last week we got a lot of snow and were able to get the shots that we needed!!!!

Here’s a few of my snaps from a day at the Peoria Zoo!

I’ve also got a Facebook cover shot of Lizzy the Lion as well for those that would like to use it! http://kevinmay.com/kmczoofb.jpg

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

Kev

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kmcpz10mar13

Is lighting is becoming a lost art?

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Monday morning Corpus Christi, Tx. greetings to one and all!!!!

I’ve talked for a long time about the lost art of doing lighting! It’s something that we did before the days of digital photography and it seems like we do it less and less nowadays. Don’t get me wrong, I’d never go back to shooting film and I’m so happy to have a digital image that I can massage and manipulate in the computer. So much of the photography that I now do wouldn’t be possible without shooting digitally! I just miss that we would take time in the past to do some really nice lighting on a product or a person and now we just kind of bang it out in a more photojournalistic style (Thank God I have a degree in Photojournalism from Bradley University)!

I was very fortunate to have one of my clients Simformotion allow me a little time to do some lighting on one of their simulators. The best part is that we were able to come away with some really nice shots of their products without spending a ton of time! The client was happy and I was happy!

Here’s one of our shots from the day showing what can be done if you just take a little time to do something right!

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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kmcsim22feb13

Finding hidden treasures at home!!!

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Monday morning Peoria greetings to one and all!

Sometimes in life we miss things that are right in our backyard. It doesn’t matter what city you’re in, you just don’t always know what little treasures are out there. I found one of those gems down in Manito, Ill. last week at Sand Ridge State Forest. It’s a place that I had seen on the map, but there wasn’t a lot of information out there on it so I never made a visit. Last week I thought what the heck and went out and I was very pleasantly surprised by what I found. Sand Ridge is 7,200 acres and probably has about 70 miles of hiking trails! I picked the “Orange” trail and it’s a five mile hike. I didn’t see one person all day, so I had the place to myself. It was great in February and I can only imagine how great it will be in October when the leaves are turning on the trees!!! I will be back!!!!

Here’s a few of my snaps from an afternoon spent at Sand Ridge State Forest.

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

Kev

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kmcsr17feb13

Arches National Park Time Lapse

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

If you’ve known me for any amount of time, you know that my favorite national park is Arches in Moab, Utah. I guess that for someone from the Midwest to see those red rocks and the formations is nothing like we have here with our flat landscape and cornfields! There is just something about that area of the country that calls me to come back again and again and explore all the different areas of the park!!!!

I was able to put together a nice time lapse from the park at three different areas within Arches; Devils Garden, Delicate Arch and the La Sal Mountains.

Here’s also a link for the image on the right of some tracks going through the snow at Arches! Your guess is as good as mine as to what kind of animal makes tracks like these!

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

Kev

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kmc3anp13jan13

Back in the ball game

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Monday morning greetings to one and all!!!!

Happy New Year and I have a feeling that most of us are now back to work! Wow, It sure was nice to be off durning the Christmas holiday!!!!!

I spent some time this past week at one of my favorite National Parks in the US! Arches National Park in Moab, Utah is one of our treasures here in the US and I feel like it’s my home away from home! If you’ve been there, you might know what I’m talking about. If not, make a road trip there and I guarantee you won”t be disappointed!!!!!

Here’s one of my snaps of Delicate Arch at sundown and to see the La Sal mountains as the background is wonderful!!!

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

Kev

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kmcanp5jan13