Category Archives: General

And…The Force Was With Them

August 2, 2023 by admin | Comments Off

Wow! What a fun and beautiful wedding day!

It is always such and honor and a blessing for Chris and myself to be asked to photograph a wedding. This one was special…

With a nod to some of our favorite Sci-Fi/fantasy fiction/sit-com series (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Friends, Big Bang Theory), Matt and Susan were “going on an adventure”.

Our happy couple said their vows in Susan’s parents back yard with friends and family there to celebrate with them. It was absolutely beautiful (which you will see in the pics I’ve posted)! And so much fun! There was laughter, dancing, joy and true love throughout the day. What an amazing day! Starting off with the “pre-flight announcements” and concluding with fun and funky dancing-it was the best! Oh, and let’s not forget the incredible dessert table that Susan’s mom and friends put together. Certainly one of the best that we’ve ever seen (and tasted).

Congratulations, Matt & Susan. Thank you for choosing us to help capture your special day and be part of your wedding celebration.

May the Force be with you. ALWAYS!!!

~ Lynette

Also posted in Family Portraits, Portraits, Wedding Photography, Weddings Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , |

Goodbye To My Sweet Doggy

April 14, 2022 by admin | 1 Comment

This past week we had to say goodbye to our sweet and beloved dog, Bowen. He was a 14 year old Australian Shepherd and he was a deep and loved part of our family.

Bowen entered our life in 2008 as a puppy, like most dogs do. He was a gift to me from my family for my 40th birthday. He quickly integrated into life with the McKenna family-even life with the other dog we had at the time. Like most puppy’s, he missed his birth family but he found comfort in his new family and quickly came to love us. At least that’s what he told us.

His teenage years were not untypical for dogs. He spent a lot of time chewing on slippers, learning his manners, and chasing the girl dogs around. We didn’t allow him to get his drivers license because as you know-lack of opposable thumbs. But the walks we took in the neighborhood and the time he got to spend chasing birds took his mind off that.

Later in life he found work in keeping the crows and squirrels away from the bird feeders around his yard. This was his calling and he was so good at it he earned “employee of the year” for 12 years running, 2010-2021. He reluctantly retired in summer 2021 after an L&I claim forced him to “let the crows have one every once in a while.”

In his spare time, Bowen liked to take walks with his peeps, run around the yard like he was possessed, chill by the fire, eat treats and occasional people food, chase his ball on the beach, and relax on the couch watching “Gold Rush” every Saturday morning with his daddy.

I know it’s cliche to say but he was my best friend. He followed me everywhere I went and he was never far from my side when I was at home. It has been a hard week for me since his passing and it will continue to be for a while. I will miss him deeply.

Goodbye, Bowen.

Love, Chris.

Also posted in Shot of the Day Tagged , , |

Giggsters One of Tacoma’s Best Landscape Photographers in 2021

January 6, 2022 by admin | 4 Comments

Hi Friends.

It’s no secret that the Pacific Northwest is home to some of the most majestic scenery in the United States. Breathtaking coastlines, lush forests, and gushing waterfalls lie around every corner, offering plenty of inspiration for landscape photographers. As a result, Tacoma and Pierce County is home to some of the best in the business, who have made documenting natural scenes their mission.

We are happy to report that I made Giggsters list as “One of Tacoma’s Best Landscape Photographers” for 2021. Quite an honor to be sure.

Head over to their page at this link to see: https://giggster.com/blog/landscape-photographers-tacoma-wa/

And as always, check out my landscape portfolio page or scroll through this blog to see some of my work.

Blessings,

Chris.

Also posted in Landscape and Nature Photography Tagged , , , , , |

Drone Photography Now Available for Business and Personal Use

June 26, 2021 by admin | Comments Off

Hello friends,

I am pleased to announce that I have passed my FAA Part 107 exam and am now a licensed commercial drone pilot with capability for drone aerial photography and/or video.

What does that mean for you? Well, drone photography offers a perspective that ground photography just cannot provide. In real estate, aerial photography is the perfect way to show off the surrounding environment of your property. Why? Because location is everything. And for many industries, location sells.  For others, the use of aerial photographs or video can be included in digital marketing (and print with photo) on your website, social media posts, and email campaigns. It really doesn’t matter what your business does or where your business is located, by adding stunning visuals it will truly complement your marketing and creative efforts on getting your message out. And finally, keep your employees and crew safe and out of danger by using my drone services for various inspections and assessment of hard-to-reach or potentially treacherous places and situations.

Our aerial photography and video services are not only just for business, but also for every individual. Consider a personal portrait session and wedding photographs that can now have a new perspective for a truly unique image. We are only limited by your imagination and what is legal and limited by FAA regulations.

Please give a call and let’s talk about how we can help you achieve your goals.

Blessings,

Chris.

BTW-don’t forget to visit our Instagram page.

Also posted in Architectural, Drone Photography, Engagement Photography, Event Photography, Landscape and Nature Photography, Photography Tips & Techniques, Real Estate Photography Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

My Cool Pics of the Florida Keys 2021

June 23, 2021 by admin | Comments Off

Hello again friends,

This May, we were once again supposed to be in the Bahamas. But for the 2nd year in a row Covid kept us out. So we were left wondering what do to. Do we take our chances traveling to Mexico? What about going back to Hawaii? How about giving Iceland a try? Turns out Covid played a part in keeping those destinations out of reasonable reach for us so we decided to stay in the lower 48 and go to the Florida Keys. I have never been there before and since the diving was supposed to be great the destination made absolute sense.

We packed the bags and our equipment and off we went. We flew into Fort Lauderdale, rented a car, drove across the State of Florida and stayed the night in Cape Coral. Cape Coral is a city that we have considered moving to and we wanted to check out the scene. You know…housing, community, and of course the dive scene. It checked all the boxes except one: the local diving wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. But that’s ok…after spending some time there and meeting and talking with some local people I believe that if we could find good jobs there we would make the move.

After, we drove down through Naples and hit the northern part of the Everglades before crossing the bridge and arriving in the Florida Keys. We ended up in Marathon, which is right in the approximate middle of the chain between Key Largo and Key West (link below). It was a good place to base out of and we were happy to be there. And I’m sorry I didn’t get any pictures of these areas before getting off the mainland, but if you ever driven the highway we were on you’d know there isn’t much to photograph along that route.

Unfortunately, the weather didn’t exactly cooperate with us the entire time we were there. The wind never stopped blowing and it got worse with each passing day. The result was that the water was so rough and churned up that half our diving was canceled out (an no chance to get in and snorkel and swim off the beaches). It was so rough that I even got seasick at one point. Yuck. But of those times that I did get out to dive I managed to get a few photographs that I’ll post separately.

The wind didn’t really stop us from getting out and doing a little exploring, however. We got to Key West and the southernmost point in the contiguous United States, the 7-Mile Bridge, some of No Name Key, Deer Key, Islamorada, The Bahia Honda Bridge (before and during sunset), and Crane Point Hammock.

Below are some of the non-diving pictures I took (those will be in another post). I hope that you enjoy them. As always, please don’t hesitate to comment.

Blessing,

Chris.

Link to Marathon in Maps

Also posted in Landscape and Nature Photography, Travel Photography Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , |

RIP Patrick J. McKenna 1943-2020

January 26, 2020 by admin | Comments Off

Today, I lost my father. My prayer is that he find peace with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Chris.

Also posted in Family Portraits

Fireworks 2019

July 5, 2019 by admin | Comments Off

Hi all.

I’m not going to spent a lot of time telling a story about yesterday, but I wanted to post a few pics I took of the neighborhood fireworks.

Thanks to Joe and Leslie for letting us crash your place this evening.

Blessings,

Chris.

Also posted in Event Photography Tagged , , , , |

Around Washington, Part 1

February 29, 2016 by admin | Comments Off

Good day Friends! And happy Leap Year!

Well, I’ve been working on several projects lately, including an album (quickly turning into 2 albums) of Iceland. One of which is trying to accumulate some of my favorite various pictures from around Washington State. One of the challenges I’ve had is that I have pictures spread across 3 different computers using 3 different versions of Lightroom (which reminds me-another great big thank you to Adobe for making Lightroom and Photoshop subscription-based, I say very sarcastically). And trying to compile them to one spot without reworking a slew of pictures has become very problematic. But I digress. Another is that I haven’t really taken much landscape photographs in Washington State in the last few years (that should change this year). Most have been in Iceland, Nevada, Oregon, or somewhere in between.

Nevertheless, I post here for your enjoyment a few photographs from around Washington that I have taken in the last 2 years.

And now for the shameless plug, all photographs are available for purchase. Please email me or visit what I have on Fine Art America – Chris McKenna.

Stay tuned for Part 2 coming up with a few weeks.

Blessings,

Chris.

Also posted in Architectural, Landscape and Nature Photography Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , |

Hello blogging world!

April 15, 2009 by admin | Comments Off

Hello world. Hope that this post finds you well.

Well, let me be honest for a moment. I have known about blogs–and I’ve been using them for a while. I had my photo blog entwined with that of my other business and thus it got lost. So this is my effort to untangle them and keep my photo efforts on their own. You may see some video on this site, but the video is to highlight my photography and not the video portion of myself-although recognition for my video is always welcome 🙂 .

So here we go…

First, an introduction. My name is Chris McKenna. I have been a photographer for as long as I can remember. I remember picking up my fathers 35mm SLR camera when I just a wee lad, and probably broke it trying to figure out how it worked. Sorry Dad-I’ll replace it soon. Anyway, my parents gave me their old 110 camera when they moved into the Polaroids in the late 70’s, and I purchased my first SLR in the early 80’s and I have never looked back. Photography has always been my love, and right now it is my passion. I love digital photography and what it allows me to do. I am currently a member of Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (www.wppionline.com) and the Pierce County Professional Photographers Association (www.pcppa.net) and am just three photographs shy of earning my Professional Photographers Certificate from the New York Institute of Photography.

In 2004, my wife and I started McKenna Video Services and were up and operating in 2005. We are now heading into our 5th year in business and we are happy to have made it this far. Operating in Puyallup, WA has had its challenges, but we love what we do and will push through those. In 2007, we formed MVS Wedding Productions to focus on wedding video as well as photos.

Like photography, my video background began over 20 years ago and over the years we have continued to hone our editing and shooting skills as technology has evolved. We are currently members of the Association of Video Professionals and WEVA International (www.weva.com) as well as a handful of business memberships including the Puyallup/Sumner Chamber of Commerce. Besides video production, which can be quite expansive (including weddings, corporate training, web video, trade show video, memorials/funerals, etc.), we also create photo video keepsakes (montage), transfer 8mm and 16mm film to DVD, convert video tape (VHS, VHS-C, S-VHS, 8mm, Hi-8, beta, mini-dv, and mini-dvd) to DVD, DVD/CD/Video Duplication, convert videotape to digital media (Quicktime .mov, Windows Media .wmv, and Flash .flv), limited digital media recovery, slides and photographs to .jpg, and many other services. If you don’t see it listed here, that doesn’t mean that we don’t do it, but if we don’t chances are we know someone who does. And all of our services can be customized, personalized, and individualized to create exactly the video that our customer wants-something that the competition won’t do. We plan to use this forum to help educate our customers and to share our thoughts on certain subjects.

In the next week or so, you will see a number of posts from me as we plan to migrate posts from the last year on the other service, share some customer comments about our photography, post helpful hints and insights, and other topics related to photography.

God’s blessings on your day,

Chris.

Also posted in Architectural, Baby and Children Portraits, Engagement Photography, Event Photography, Family Portraits, Landscape and Nature Photography, Photography Tips & Techniques, Portraits, Prom, Senior Portraits, Shot of the Day, Sports Photography, Underwater, Wedding Photography, Wedding Show, Wedding Venue Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , |