Sunflowers, Sunshine and Family Fun!

September 16, 2021 by admin | 1 Comment

What a beautiful family and a beautiful sunny day!

I was blessed to photograph the Welton family last weekend at Maris Farms in Buckley. I loved watching this family interact with each other as they made their way through the farm. The children were so adorable as they ran through the rows of sunflowers (followed by mom and dad, of course). Chris and Linnea are amazing parents and never missed an opportunity to teach their children about the wonders of nature that surrounded them. Tons of great candids! A fantastic and fun documentation of this time in their lives…one they will cherish forever ?

Please enjoy these pics…

Blessings,

~Lynette

Monday Morning Blues on Tuesday

September 7, 2021 by admin | Comments Off

Hi Friends.

Well it is Tuesday today. Tuesday after a holiday weekend. Back to life, back to real life. Blah, blah, blah.

For me today is blah. I have a severe case of the Monday blues. It’s hard to keep focused and motivated. But I persevere and am trying to push through it. I keep thinking about what a great weekend this was…I assisted one of my diving buddy instructors with his open water class (see pic below), got to spend some time with my daughter and her boyfriend, and was able to spend some time flying the drone around and getting some cool pics (will share those later).

Below is a picture of the open water class I assisted in this weekend and two students who earned their open water scuba diver certification (Cassandra and Ryan-both in center).

Thanks for being my friend and stopping by my website for a visit. And thank you for letting me vent (I’ll get through this). 🙂

Blessings,

Chris.

Posted in Event Photography, Shot of the Day Tagged Pierce County, pierce county photographer, puyallup photographer |

Shot of the Day, September 2, 2021

September 3, 2021 by admin | Comments Off

Hi Friends,

It’s been quite a month of August. Travel, diving, work, and a corrupted website that needed to get fixed kept us busy and off the grid. But I’m back now and ready to post.

I mentioned travel. I spent a week on the big island of Hawai’i diving and trying to soak up some rays of relaxation. Well I got the diving in but not so much relaxation. In between dives, I was able to break out the drone and get some flying in. These particular photographs are ones I took of the Kona harbor just north of the city. I took these for a project I’m working on.

I hope that you enjoy them.

Blessings,

Chris.

P.S. If you want to see more of my aerial photography, be sure to visit my portfolio page at this link: https://chrismckennaphotography.com/portfolio/drone-aerial/.

Posted in Drone Photography, Shot of the Day, Travel Photography Tagged aerial photography, boat, drone, drone photography, hawaii, kona, Ocean, puyallup photographer, travel |

Shot of the Day, August 2 2021

August 2, 2021 by admin | Comments Off

Hello friends. And Happy Monday to you.

I’m not going to belabor the story here but rather keep it short and simple…I took the drone out for a few shots along the Tacoma Waterfront a few weeks back and snapped this photograph of the Port of Tacoma along Commencement Bay. The change in the water color to a carmel/brownish color is the result of glacial runoff from Mt. Rainier that comes down the Puyallup River and empties into the bay. It’s always a various shade or carmel but this time of year it gets particularly noticeable when higher temps melts more snow off the mountain and it picks up more silt as it rolls down. You can see the river about mid way up the picture in the back behind some of the building and steam stacks.

Enjoy the picture.

Chris.

Posted in Drone Photography, Shot of the Day Tagged aerial photography, drone, drone photography, mt. Rainier, Puyallup, river, Tacoma, water, waterfront |

My Drone over Pierce County

July 21, 2021 by admin | Comments Off

Hello friends,

I hope that you are well this very fine day. I know that I am!

Today, I though that I would post another video of shots of various places around Pierce County, Washington, where I live. As you know, I recently earned my FAA Part 107 Commercial Drone License so I have been on a tear to shoot video and photographs of places I visit and am able to get the bird in the air.

This video contains some shots of my neighborhood, Bradley Lake Park in Puyallup, Les Davis Pier and Dickman Mill in Tacoma, Alder Lake in rural Pierce County, and Dogwood Park in Eatonville.

There is nothing fancy here. Just some cool shots that I wanted to share.

Enjoy the video and as always..blessings.

Chris.

Posted in Drone Photography Tagged aerial photography, aerial video, alder lake, dogwood park, drone photography, drone pilot, drone video, eatonville, mt. Rainier, Pierce County, Puyallup |

Shot of the Day, July 11 2021

July 11, 2021 by admin | Comments Off

Hello again friends,

Today is a busy day for me. Well, you know, this will be my 2nd blog post of the day. Of course, nothing else in my life is going or right now. Haha. Or is it?

Yesterday, I had to drive out to see my friends at YSS Dive in Hoodsport, Wa. I like to get out to Hoodsport and dive occasionally (some great diving in in Hood Canal), and if not to dive then to just visit. And yesterday was a social visit more than anything else (no dives planned). So off I went but brought Tweetie-bird (the drone) with me to see if I could get some shots of the area and whatever else might have come up. When the visit was over, out came the bird and up I went.

So for today’s 2nd post, I am going back to a shot of the day. This photograph is a high aerial image looking down on the Hoodsport Marina and part of downtown Hoodsport (the YSS Dive shop is in the photograph just off to the left of the pier). At the time I took this image, low-tide had just occurred so the water level was really low. You can also see some of the algae bloom going on right now as the water warms up and things in the water start to grow.

I hope that you enjoy the photograph and it somehow enriches your day. And if you enjoy my posts, please don’t hesitate to comment or head over to my Instagram page to follow for more pictures.

Blessings,

Chris

Posted in Drone Photography, Landscape and Nature Photography, Shot of the Day Tagged aerial photography, dive shop, drone, drone pilot, hoodport, landscape, low tide, marina, puyallup photographer, washington, water, yss dive |

Video over Pierce County, July 4, 2021

July 11, 2021 by admin | Comments Off

Hello friends,

So if any of you follow my Instagram or Facebook pages and posts, you’ll know that I took the drone out for an extended flight on Independence Day last week. I flew over Thea’s Park in Tacoma, some of Commencement Bay, the Puyallup River, and some of the old fields in Puyallup, not to mention over the neighborhood fireworks once the sun set (click on the word “firework” to be taken to that post).

What I hadn’t done until now is post video of those flights. Here is short compilation video (click the play button in the center of the screen to view).

Click on the tile to view that video. I hope that you enjoy some of the footage. And please call me if there is anything we can do to help you with your business or personal project.

Oh, and don’t forget to check out my other YouTube videos and follow me on Instagram.

Blessings

Chris.

Posted in Drone Photography, Landscape and Nature Photography Tagged aerial photography, commencement bay, drone, drone footage, drone pilot, Pierce County, Puyallup, puyallup river, Tacoma |

More Cool Pictures from the Florida Keys – Underwater

July 8, 2021 by admin | Comments Off

Hello again friends,

So as promised, I am now posting the underwater photographs I took while I was in the Florida Keys last month.

While the weather and visibility conditions were not favorable (in fact, 50% of our dives were canceled because of high winds and extremely rough seas), I still managed to get off a few shots and got some cool shots of a variety of fish, coral, sponges, and even a photography of my buddy/cousin Walter who was OW certified on this trip.

I ran across a HUGE nurse shark on one of my first dives there but wasn’t able to get a shot off before the individual I was diving with at the time took off on me and I had to give up on the picture to follow her (she obviously didn’t listen to my brief on the boat deck before we got in the water and didn’t understand what an underwater camera is for). Just a reminder to all to all my diver friends….always stay with your buddy. ALWAYS! But I digress. That shark was one of the most beautiful ones I’ve ever run across and her image will forever remain etched in my mind.

We dove with two operations while we were there. One was based in Marathon and the other in Islamorada. While both were exceptional, the one operating out of Marathon was severely overpriced and I will not dive with them again when I return. Not only were they severely overpriced, but they had the gall to automatically include a 20% gratuity when they charged me. Now I am an exceptional tipper, but I want a tip to be my choice and an expression of the exceptional service I may have received. If it’s automatic, it kind of defeats the purpose of a tip-right? So, 1) what motivation do those that are working have to do a good job if the risk of being stiffed is removed and 2) how do I even know that the tip is going to those that its supposed to? Ok, now I’ve digressed again. Sorry.

So the operation that I highly recommend is Islamorada Dive Center out of Islamorada, Florida (link embedded in the name). They were awesome and did everything to make our experience memorable and wanting to go back. I am sorry that we didn’t get more of a chance to dive with them.

I hope that you enjoy these photographs as much as I do taking them and sharing. As always, please feel free to provide a comment or two and share the blog with your friends. And if you want to see some of my other pictures from this trip, click the link below.

https://chrismckennaphotography.com/2021/06/my-cool-pics-of-the-florida-keys-2021/

Blessings,

Chris

Chris.

Posted in Landscape and Nature Photography, Travel Photography, Underwater Tagged dive, eel, fish, florida, florida keys, photography, puyallup photographer, scuba, scuba diving, shipwreck, stringray, underwater, underwater photography |

Interesting Perspective of Fireworks 2021

July 5, 2021 by admin | Comments Off

Hello Friends,

And welcome to your annual post-Indepedence Day hangover. I have to say that having the 4th on a Sunday really makes for a nice, relaxing Monday. Right?

So yesterday I took the drone out to a couple of places I hadn’t been before to check them out and get some shots. I’ll post those later, although I took mostly video. Anyway, when the sun went down and it got dark, of course all the neighborhood crazies came out and turned our quiet, little area into a war zone. Needless to say I had to drug the dog again to get him to calm down, but once he started to relax and I took the drone out again to get a few photographs of the fireworks from the air.

I have never flown the drone at night, but I am perfectly legal and licensed to do it, so I put it up but didn’t move it one-inch from straight up (I really want to be in a more open area for extended night operations). I adjusted the camera settings and started shooting.

This is a real cool perspective-much different that from the ground. But one thing that I noticed was different was with a light breeze having an open shutter on the camera creates a little background out-of-focus blur. That’s ok for these shots as the fireworks themselves turned out good, but of course I would rather have no movement on my camera when the shutter is open.

Nevertheless, I am happy with these photographs. I hope that you enjoy them too. (see more of my fireworks photos at the following link: https://chrismckennaphotography.com/2019/07/fireworks-2019/ )

Blessings,

Chris

Posted in Drone Photography, Event Photography Tagged drone, drone photography, fireworks, Night Photography, Puyallup, puyallup photographer, slow shutter |

The Lindstrom Family

July 2, 2021 by admin | Comments Off

What a great honor it was to be asked to photograph the Lindstrom Family. Patti hired me 8 years ago to photograph her twins, Ashley and Brittney, for their high school senior portraits. On this particular occasion, their family was joined by Mike’s parents, his brother and family. It was the first time they had all been together in quite a while. What a blessing for me to be part of this day.

Lynette