Category Archives: Landscape and Nature Photography

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)

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

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.

Also posted in Travel Photography, Underwater 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.

Also posted in 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.

Also posted in 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.

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

We Won a 2022 Telly Award!

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, Photography Tips & Techniques, Shot of the Day Tagged , , , , , , , , , |

Snow Days of Early 2022

Hello Friends,

So the title of this article might be a little misleading…it should probably have read something like ‘Snow Days of late 2021’, since technically the snow dropped right before the New Years. But since I had created and posted my 2021 pics and video earlier in December I’m going to go ahead and count this post as 2022 snow.

Anyway, we had a major dump of snow in the Puget Sound area and unlike most years where it melts the same day it falls, this one stuck around for the entire week. And because it did, people like myself were afforded the opportunity to get out and enjoy it.

All of these photographs were aerial shots I took with the drone in and around my neighborhood during the snow event. I couldn’t get much further out than that, but that’s ok since I like some of the photos I took here. I even think there is a drone selfie in there, long hair, beard, and all. Haha.

Enjoy the photographs and as always stay safe and blessings to you.

Chris.

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

“Around 2021” My Year-end Aerial Video Compilation

Hello Friends,

It’s Monday and the end of the month, but we’re still in the first part of the year. For me at this moment in any year it’s hard to get excited about much. You know: short and cold days, long and cold nights, rain, wind, fog, etc. etc. But I have a dive trip coming up real soon and another later in the year so there’s that, and then there is my year-end video of drone footage.

I compiled a number of “shorts” throughout the year, some of those shorts were single knock-off videos and wouldn’t make it into the garbage can when compiling a year-end video, but this one is a little more deliberate and thought out, planned, executed, edited with love and care and contains footage that I have not released until this.

Some of the sites included in this video are around Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Puget Sound, Lake Tapps, and the Methow Valley to name just a few. I had a few snow scenes that technically I shot in 2021 but well after I started working on this video that didn’t make the cut. Those will definitely make it into the 2022 compilation.

I hope that you enjoy this video. Please follow the link back to YouTube, “like” the video, and comment if you so feel inclined.

Blessings,

Chris.

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

Giggsters One of Tacoma’s Best Landscape Photographers in 2021

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 General Tagged , , , , , |

It’s Another Snow Day 2021

Happy New Years my Friends,

If you live in the Puget Sound region, you are well aware that we had a bit of a snow event that kicked off on Christmas Day. As I mentioned in my last post it wasn’t quite the white Christmas that we always dream about but it was close enough for us not to complain. That event kicked off the week with a number of inches and as it continued into the week picked up a few more inches.

So I took the drone out for a couple of flights as the weather allowed. First around the neighborhood and surrounding areas and then down to a local lake for a bit of a flyaround. I tried the another lake yesterday and I was able to unlock the drone and get it airborne-something that I hadn’t been able to do in at that location for a while. I got a few interesting shots and compiled a bit of video for your enjoyment.

Enjoy the video. I’ll post some of the pics next week.

Blessings,

Chris.

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