Category Archives: Shot of the Day

We Won a 2023 Telly Award!

June 15, 2023 by admin | Comments Off

Hello friends,

We are excited and thrilled to announce that we have won a 2023 Telly Award (winner banner) for our production of “Maui Dawn to Dusk“, a compilation of video that I shot over the course of a day during a trip to Maui last summer. This is my second Telly Award, my first being last year for a video I produced features some locales around Washington State.

The Telly Awards were founded in 1979 to honor excellence in local, regional and cable television commercials with non-broadcast video and television programming added soon after. With the recent evolution and rise of digital video (web series, VR, 360 and beyond), the Telly Awards today also reflects and celebrates this exciting new era of the moving image on and offline.

The Telly Awards annually showcases the best work created within television and across video, for all screens. Receiving over 12,000 entries from all 50 states and 5 continents, Telly Award winners represent work from some of the most respected advertising agencies, television stations, production companies and publishers from around the world. The Telly Awards recognizes work that has been created on the behalf of a client, for a specific brand and/or company (including your own) or self-directed as a creative endeavor.

To say that I am excited to have received such a prestigious honor is an understatement. However, I am humbled to have been invited to submit and be even considered for such an achievement as there are so many talented individuals and production companies creating and producing so many beautiful and entertaining programs and I would never want to presume that what we do is anything greater or more significant.

I want to thank you all for your support over the years and encouragement to keep going.

Blessings to you all.

Chris.

p.s. you can find the video at this link on YouTube ,on Vimeo , or click the banner below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsbW_Vmy9-I&t=8s

Also posted in Drone Photography, Landscape and Nature Photography, Photography Tips & Techniques Tagged , , , , , , , , , , |

We Won a 2022 Telly Award!

May 28, 2022 by admin | Comments Off

Hello friends,

We are excited and thrilled to announce that we have won a 2022 Telly Award (winner banner) for our production of “Around 2021“, a compilation of video that I shot around the region last year. It is a first for me to win at this level, especially since I haven’t really done much with video in the last few years-at least professionally.

The Telly Awards was founded in 1979 to honor excellence in local, regional and cable television commercials with non-broadcast video and television programming added soon after. With the recent evolution and rise of digital video (web series, VR, 360 and beyond), the Telly Awards today also reflects and celebrates this exciting new era of the moving image on and offline.

The Telly Awards annually showcases the best work created within television and across video, for all screens. Receiving over 12,000 entries from all 50 states and 5 continents, Telly Award winners represent work from some of the most respected advertising agencies, television stations, production companies and publishers from around the world. The Telly Awards recognizes work that has been created on the behalf of a client, for a specific brand and/or company (including your own) or self-directed as a creative endeavor.

To say that I am excited to have received such a prestigious honor is an understatement. However, I am humbled to have been invited to submit and be even considered for such an achievement as there are so many talented individuals and production companies creating and producing so many beautiful and entertaining programs and I would never want to presume that what we do is anything greater or more significant.

I want to thank you all for your support over the years and encouragement to keep going.

Blessings to you all.

Chris.

p.s. you can find the video at this YouTube link or on Vimeo.

Also posted in Drone Photography, Landscape and Nature Photography, Photography Tips & Techniques 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 General Tagged , , |

Shot of the Day, October 3, 2021

October 3, 2021 by admin | Comments Off

Good morning Friends,

For today’s photograph of the day, I am choosing another aerial photo that I took last week.

I had some extra time to myself on Friday, so I decided to get into the car and drive. Once I loaded my car with my camera (of course) and the drone, I just set off without a destination in mind. I figured I would just let the car guide where and I was just going along for the ride.

Well, it wasn’t too long before the car decided that it wanted to head into the mountains. Headed south, it ended up near Mt. St. Helens past Randle, Wa. Well, not to belabor the point I got a chance to fly the drone on the outside of the no-fly area before heading back down and stopping at a few places along the way to get some more photographs.

One such place was at Mineral Lake. I used to fish there decades ago so I was somewhat familiar with the view, but the clouds and such were such that I knew that if conditions were such I would have a lovely view of the mountains. I launched the bird and off I flew to the other end of the lake, composed my photograph, and snapped away.

This stop did not disappoint. And the photograph didn’t disappoint either. In fact, its my favorite of the year so far (not that that is saying much with all the Covid crap going on) but still it far outranks all the others.

I hope that you enjoy this photograph as much as I do.

Blessings,

Chris.

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

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.

Also posted in Event Photography Tagged , , |

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/.

Also posted in Drone Photography, Travel Photography Tagged , , , , , , , , |

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.

Also posted in Drone Photography Tagged , , , , , , , , |

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

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

Shot of the Day, June 28 2021

June 28, 2021 by admin | Comments Off

Wow, two of these posts this year! What’s up with that you ask? Not sure, but perhaps this post has more to do with the outside conditions around there than anything else.

We are in the middle of a record breaking heat wave across the Pacific Northwest these last few days. It is not normal for temperatures to reach 100 degrees and for the last few days we have been well above that. In fact, the forecast today is for Puyallup to reach 115. Unheard of.

So what are people doing to stay cool? Of course, if you have air conditioning it is normal to stay indoors next to the cooler, but for the rest of us we need to get close to the water. Whether that is Puget Sound or a lake somewhere, we flock to the edge of the water in an effort to stay cool.

Yesterday, we were at a graduation party at a house on Lake Tapps, Washington, and of course I had to bring the drone along and see if I could get a few shots. I was mostly just showing friends the flight abilities of this machine, but when I could I took some video and tried to compose something photographically. The bright sunshine and super washed-out highlights of taking photographs on days like this make it challenging (underlining the need for me to get some ND filters for this drone), but it’s always worth an effort to get what you can.

So this is a photo of Mt. Rainier in the background against the eastern edge of the lake and Snag Island bridge (and a private airfield also in the foreground I believe).

Anyway, enjoy the photograph and as always blessings to you. And stay cool!

Chris

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

Missing you George

April 9, 2021 by admin | Comments Off

I’ve been spending a good portion of this week restoring my tools (fixing this blog and transferring photo’s to a new computer) and I have been running across a lot of pictures of my friend George.

George was another business owner that crossed our path many years ago in a networking group. He was a DJ by trade and great friend by nature. We ended up working a lot of weddings and other events with him over the following years. George even DJ’d at my 40th birthday-an 80’s music festival in my backyard with other friends and family .

Anyway, George unexpectedly passed away a few years back. I miss talking with him on the phone as we always did. We never did connect for that beer, but I know that he’s keeping the stool warm for me in heaven.

Rest in peace, George. We miss you.

Chris

Also posted in Event Photography, Portraits, Wedding Photography Tagged , , |