Cayden’s Senior Photo Session

It’s almost summer!! At least the weather is trying to tell us that…

Last Sunday, after a very wet weekend, Cayden and I met up in downtown Tacoma near the Museum of Glass to snap some senior photos for Cayden’s graduation. It was a fantastic day!! And, I must say, Cayden is a fantastic kid!! He is heading off to boot camp for our honored U.S. Army in July, and his mom just couldn’t let him go without a few good pics

Graduating from Emerald Ridge High School in Puyallup, WA, it is obvious that Cayden loves his family. He has so much family support for his future life plans! I love great family stories like this. We need more of it.

Cayden, it has been an honor and a privilege to work with you. You are a quality young man and I am blessed to know you. I can’t wait to get updates from your mom on your military career!!

Have a beautiful weekend, everyone, and please enjoy a few of my favorite Cayden pics…

~Lynette

Posted in Portraits, Senior Portraits Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

A Big Welcome to Adelaide

Hello friends,

As many of you know, we lost our doggie last year. Bowen was a great pet and dog for our family and we miss him greatly. You can read more about him here: https://chrismckennaphotography.com/2022/04/goodbye-to-my-sweet-doggy/ . His death left a huge hole in our lives.

Having said that, we decided that we were not going to immediately get another furbaby. We thought it would be best to wait about 2 years and reevaluate at that time. Doing that, we thought, would give us the ability to travel more freely and without having to worry about pet care for a while.

Fast-forward about 5 months and thousands of Instagram post feeds of puppies and awesome dogs and we arrive into late September/early October and a decision to start looking at getting a puppy in the new year. So I went looking for a local breeder of our favorite Australian Shepherds and found one that was less than an hour drive from us. We visited and fell in love with their expecting couple (“Longshadow on the Meadow” & “Longshadow’s Simply Simon”) and decided to adopt one of their offspring.

Adelaide was born a week later and we brought her home to live with us in early December.

It’s been 15 years since we had a puppy in the house and it was nice to have another to help fill the void. But with only the two of us to share the duties (versus 4 last time we had a pup) it demands a lot of our time and certainly a lot of patience (I think that God helps us forget the amount needed to raise a puppy otherwise one would never get a new one). Her training is going well, when she decides to listen, and the potential for her into her adult life is great. But she’s been a huge blessing so far and we’re grateful that she is part of our family.

I’ll try and post pics of her here periodically but you can always follow along on her Instagram social media account (click the link).

Blessings,

Chris.

Posted in Family Portraits, Portraits Tagged , , , , , |

Underwater Photographs of Hawaii, 2022

Hello friends,

Happy new year!!! Wow, can’t believe that we’re almost a full month into the new year and I’m only saying that now.

Anyway, it has been almost 6 months since my last trip out. In August, we traveled back to Maui, Hawaii for another set of dives into the ocean. We started with a quick boat trip out to Molokini to dive along the back side of the preserve, then dip into a local beach, a few more from beaches on different parts of the island, a few more boat dives, and finally a close-out dive at another beach.

We encountered a lot of fish (including rarely seen Frogfish and some other species I hadn’t seen before), some turtles, other divers and snorkelers, waves, sun, sand, and lots of fun times. And as a special moment for me personally, I completed my 400th logged dive along the way. To some of you this milestone may not be a big deal but for me it was a big deal. I should have hit 400 2 years ago given all the time I had spent in instruction and my own learning, but certain world events have limited my time underwater and have shrunk my own dive circle quite considerably.

I hope you enjoy the photographs I’ve posted below.

And until next time, Maui, ALOHA and MAHALO for great times.

Blessings,

Chris.

(If you want to see more of my underwater Hawaii photographs, click into the search bar and enter “Hawaii” or visit my smugmug account)

Posted in Landscape and Nature Photography, Travel Photography, Underwater Tagged , , , , , , , |

Audrey at SAMI

Well, looks like we are officially out of our fantastic summer weather and full on into fall. This time of year has its challenges for we photographers who really like to shoot outside in our beautiful PNW, but also gives us some really creative ways to get those coveted senior photos and still not drench our models:)

I’d like to introduce you to my newest and most favorite senior model, Audrey. What an amazing lady! And look at that smile!!

Audrey was accepted and is attending SAMI (Science and Math Institute) which is part of the Tacoma Public School system. It is quite an honor to be chosen as a SAMI student, and Audrey loves it there!! She chose to have her senior photo session at the Environmental Learning Center which is inside of Pt Defiance Park…right next to the Zoo! Really cool building! We had some great backdrops to work with. They even have a whale skeleton!

We had a fantastic time, Audrey and I, and I am so honored that she chose me to be her photographer and help her celebrate this senior year.

Please enjoy a few of my favorite pics of this beautiful girl and her sweet smile.

Posted in Portraits, Senior Portraits

Photographs of Underwater Nassau, Bahamas

Hello friends,

Way, way back in May of 2019, I planned out a trip to the Bahamas with a dive group I belong to: SeaHorses Dive Club. It was set for May of 2020 and we had a very solid group going. But then Covid hit and all travel plans were scrapped-as you are probably aware.

We pushed out another year to 2021 and as luck would have it Covid was still an issue so we pushed out 1 more year. And despite the restrictions that were still in place in terms of travel, we made it in May of this year.

My original group of 25 or so was cut to just 6, excluding myself, but we had a great time anyway. The divers of the group spent time on 6 wrecks, 8 reefs, 10 overall dives, and with too many sharks to count. Those that were snorkeling got time on 2 reefs from a boat, which also included time with sharks on a dedicated shark snorkel. All our trips were with Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas, which I highly recommend if you’re basing out of Nassau.

We all had such a good time. I cannot wait to get back. The Bahamas offer some spectacular diving. The best dives for me, even with my limited trips.

Anyway, my pics from the trip are below. I hope that you enjoy.

Blessings,

Chris.

Posted in Landscape and Nature Photography, Travel Photography, Underwater Tagged , , , , , , , , , , |

Watch Him Sk8

Hey Y’all. Thanks for tuning in…

Today I would like to introduce you all to Connor. This is Connor’s senior year, and he wanted to document his favorite sport during his senior photo sesh. Who am I to deny??;)

Connor and I met up at the Allen York Skate Park in Bonney Lake just this past Friday. I was really excited to see what he could do…and Connor did not disappoint! He is a thrasher! And showed me all of his tricks. It was awesome!!

Take a look at some of what Connor can do..and take notice of the sweat on his face…He was all-in!!

Thanks, Connor, for giving me a great show! I wish you the best senior year ever!!

~Lynette

Posted in Portraits, Senior Portraits, Sports Photography Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Pictures of Tulum, Mexico pt. II

As I started my last post (Pictures of Tulum, Mexico pt. I), I asked the question: where has this year gone? We’re almost into August and I still haven’t got around to posting the non-diving pictures or our to Playa del Carmen y Tulum, Mexico earlier this year-until now.

I had the opportunity to join a number of local divers who where traveling to the area with our friends at YSS Dive to dive in the Caribbean and in some of the Cenotes. After the diving was complete, we had the opportunity to take a ferry across the channel and visit Cozumel. We didn’t spent a lot of time there and didn’t rent a car or take a taxi, so our distances was limited to where we could get to by foot.

Later, we went on a Mexican river float cruise. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of details on that, but there are a few pictures included.

And just FYI, the others in the pictures are cousins Walter and Diane.

I hope that you enjoy the photographs. Next trip up for us is the Bahamas (maybe I’ll get to post those by December at the rate I’m going at).

Blessings,

Chris.

Posted in Landscape and Nature Photography, Travel Photography Tagged , , , , , , |

Pictures of Tulum, Mexico pt. I

Wow! Where has this year gone? We’re already near the end of June and I still haven’t posted any pictures of trip to Playa del Carmen y Tulum, Mexico earlier this year.

I had the opportunity to join a number of local divers who where traveling to the area with our friends at YSS Dive to dive in the Caribbean and in some of the Cenotes. For those of you that don’t know what the Cenotes are a type of pit, sinkhole, cave/cavern created by the collapse of limestone bedrock, exposing groundwater underneath. They are typically, and most commonly, found in Mexico. but there are also known cenotes in Australia, Belize, Canada, Dominican Republic, the USA and Zimbabwe. The cenotes that we were at were, obviously, large enough and deep enough to dive in.

First up were a couple of dives in the Caribbean. The seas were kind of rough (the weather on those days wasn’t great) and we were in small boats but still managed to get a few dives in including one to the wreck of the Mama Vina where we encountered a rather large Bull Shark (it was not a threat at all).

After those, we went inland and dove at Dos Ojos and Dreamgate Cenote. While I have had a number of dives in the open salt waters around the western hemisphere, I have never dove in pitch black, dark, freshwater cenotes before. What a unique experience that was. In some of the pictures you will see some of the rock formations that we came across and perhaps even a couple of the small, freshwater fish that were present.

I definitely plan to return and dive some more of these Cenotes in the near future. The open water around Playa del Carmen I don’t need to dive again (that doesn’t include nearby Cozumel), not sure why but I wasn’t impressed with what I saw (visibility wasn’t great, current was strong, boats were uncomfortable, and there just wasn’t new or unique sea life that can’t be found in better locales).

I hope that you enjoy the photographs. I’ll post a few non-diving pictures after this post.

Blessings,

Chris.

Posted in Landscape and Nature Photography, Travel Photography, Underwater Tagged , , , , , , , , , , |

2022 Bahamas Highlight Video now online

Greetings Friends,

I’m not going to prolong this since I will be posting photographs later, but wanted to let you know that a highlights video of my underwater experiences in the bahamas earlier this year is now online. You can video here or follow the link and head over to my YouTube channel.

Or watch on Vimeo.

Blessings,

Chris.

Posted in Landscape and Nature Photography, Travel Photography, Underwater Tagged , , , , , |

Family is Everything

Last weekend I was blessed to shoot a family photo session. If you remember the weekend weather…it wasn’t great. We even arranged to reschedule if, by 8:00 Saturday morning, the rain had not let up. Wow! Not only did it not rain, but the sky was just about perfect! As a photographer, I live for mornings like that; when I don’t have to worry about harsh light, shadows or squinty eyes. For me , it was a dream:)

This was our first time meeting (at least the extended family) and knowing what I know about family gatherings…you just never know what you’re gonna get (haha). Well, I am happy to say, I got it good;) What I observed in this family dynamic was an abundance of joy. They were genuinely having fun with each other and truly loved spending time together. And, this day was a special birthday celebration, as well. Rarely do I find this much harmony within a family.

What an honor it was for me to photograph this gorgeous family and document this precious time in their lives!

Family is EVERYTHING!!

~Lynette

Posted in Family Portratis, Portraits Tagged , , , , , , , |