Kevin Gilligan - In the Air!

It's the social side of "social media" that makes the world a smaller place and here's a prime example. I met Kevin Gilligan through Tamron USA. He's a Tamron Image Master and a short time ago I did a Spotlight Profile about Kevin.  I always check with each artist being featured before their post runs, so I picked up the phone and called him. That led to a couple of follow-up conversations about his business and *poof* a terrific friendship was started. 

Seriously, when was the last time you picked up a phone and just had a conversation with somebody you barely knew? We text, we email, post and tweet, but NOTHING trumps actually talking to somebody. Well, ever talk with somebody and then feel like you've known them most of your life? That's what I felt in my conversation with Kevin, but I also had a chance to look at more of his work and I want to share some images that are simply out of the norm...

Kevin's a diehard artist with a passion to dissect the world most of us see, but he looks for those moments we might miss. I was first drawn into his work with this image of a surfer, but during our last conversation he told me all about wanting to shoot part of the South Bay coastline from the air. So, off he went in a private plane with only one purpose, to photograph the coastline of Los Angeles from a Cessna.

Over the last couple years you've heard a lot about special projects. In fact, both Matthew Jordan Smith and Kevin Kubota have talked a lot about them. Not every project has to have a direct purpose, at least not in the beginning. Now and then you need to just get out with a camera in your hands and shoot for the fun of it. You need special projects to get your blood flowing and push your creativity to the max.

A big thanks to Kevin for allowing me to share his images and to Tamron who introduced us! The fun of this industry is about relationships and between Kevin, the other Image Masters and the staff at Tamron, I feel pretty lucky to have all of them in my network.

A blog like this is limited on the size I can share these images. Take a look at any image at double the size just by clicking on it. 

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Kevin's Tamron Gear Box

SP 10-24mm F/3.5-4.5 Di II (model B001)
SP 24-70mm F/2.8 Di VC (model A007)
16-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD (model B016)
18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD (model B008)
SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC (model A011)
SP 90mm F/2.8 Di VC Macro (model F004)