Tag Archives: landscape

Around Washington, Part 1

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.

Posted in Architectural, General, Landscape and Nature Photography Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , |

Repost: Improving Your Photography by Having Go-To Places

Hi Friends,

It’s been so long since I have posted any tips here, been way to busy with work, play, fun–life in general. Having said that, I found a great article that I thought was worth sharing. What this article is essentially saying, is that by having a specific location that you love, you can improve your photography by visiting it over-and-over again in various conditions (lighting, weather, season) without having to go out and look for somewhere to shoot. When you have a particular place to go, you are not wasting precious time looking for that particular place.

While not an actual spot (there are way too many), my go to place is Mt. Rainier in Washington State. I live about an hour or so from 2 different entrances, so it is very convenient for me to get in the car and go at just about any time.

The link below will take you to the article. Hope you enjoy.

Blessings,

Chris.

http://digital-photography-school.com/improve-your-photography-by-having-go-to-places-to-shoot/

Posted in Photography Tips & Techniques Also tagged , , , , , |

Iceland, Day 6

Day 6. 6 down, 1 more to go.

Started the day tracking down more Northern Lights. Not too much to report there. Got a few shots, but nothing worthy of sharing. After about 2 hours of sleep, off to the lava fields outside of Vik for sunrise and various landscape shots. I did manage to get of shot of the famous church in Vik, however.

After packing up, traveling back to Reykjavik, stopping along the way to make some new horse friends, then off to Gulfoss Falls, stopping at Strokkur Geyser on the way. Gulfoss is an absolutely incredible waterfalls-a vista of incredible beauty. If you are ever in Iceland, this place is a definite must stop.

Enjoy.

Chris.

Posted in Landscape and Nature Photography, Travel Photography Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , |

Iceland, Day 5

Lack of sleep starting to catch up to me.

Started the day at Black Beach outside of Vik, getting some shots of the sunrise over the glacier and the beach. After which, spent a few hours around the guest house where we were staying, and finally ended the days at various waterfalls, including Skógafoss and Seljalandsfoss Waterfalls. Seljalandsfoss was an absolutely wonderful waterfall to photograph, as we were there at sunset and this is a waterfall that you can walk behind. You get drenched and the path isn’t all that great, but it is definitely worth the effort to get some incredible photographs. Ended the day chasing the Northern Lights around the south end of the country. They were not as visible this night as they were the previous nights, so I was unable to capture anything too dramatic.

Enjoy.

Chris

Posted in Landscape and Nature Photography, Travel Photography Also tagged , , , , , , , , |

Iceland, Day 4

Short post today.

Started the day at midnight photographing the Northern Lights. Got back to the hotel at 2:30 am, then up again at 5:30 to hit the beach for more ice shots. After which, we traveled to Vik, stopping along the way for various shots, including some of the Vatnajökull glacier.

There are some abstract shots in here, shot intentionally as various art personal pieces. I have a few other great pieces to share from this day, but need to do some more work on them so I’ll wait for a later post.

Enjoy day 4.

Chris.

Posted in Landscape and Nature Photography, Travel Photography Also tagged , , , , , , , , , |

Mt. Rainier August, 2014 Photo Trek

Greeting my friends.

I hope that you are all enjoying your summer and the beautiful weather that we’ve been having. Honestly, while enjoying the sunshine a lot I am now ready for some cooler temperatures.

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to join Jennifer King (of Jennifer King Photography Workshops) on a workshop/trek on Mt. Rainier. The goal was to get some good shots of the wildflowers and some sunsets/sunrises on the mountain and while the weather certainly did not cooperate with us, I did manage to get a few good shots for my portfolio.  The wildflowers were incredible, the running water (i.e. waterfalls) were breathtaking, and the wildlife was heartwarming. And even though I cannot post all my pictures, I hope that you enjoy the few that I did.

Now about the workshop. Even professional photographers need some instruction and guidance from time-to-time. I have been wanting to join a professional workshop for some time and Jennifer is one of the best photographers I have run across in a long time. I really enjoyed her tutaledge and guidance and value her friendship. I look forward to joining her on another trek next year. If you are looking for some good professional training, I highly recommend Jennifer King Photo Workshops.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy my photographs and if you are interested in a purchase, please see my gallery on Fine Art America or email me and let me know what you are interested in.

Blessings,

Chris.

(click on the thumbnail to enlarge)

 

Posted in Landscape and Nature Photography, Travel Photography Also tagged , |

SLR Lounge Lightroom Preset Review

Over the years, many people have asked me about my workflow for my images. I generally tell them about Lightroom and Photoshop, leveraging those tools to get the best images possible. I also tell them that with Lightroom, finding a “recipe” or a preset that work for their style will greatly improve their overall workflow and speed up their finishing process.

I own a few presets packages for Lightroom, with one of them standing out above all the rest: the SLR Lounge Lightroom Presets. Without question, these presets are the best that I have found and always provide me with the results that I envisioned when I originally pressed the shutter button on my camera. Their presets have saved me countless hours of finishing work (moving from hours to minutes) and saved me from having to spend a lot of time in Photoshop (something I don’t like to do). The lessons that come with the system not only taught me how to use their presets but gave me confidence to use Lightroom as my primary edit tool.

I have been using SLR Lounge presets for about 2 years now, and will continue to use them as long as I take photographs.

Below is a before/after example of a photograph I recently took using the HDR SLR Lounge Presets for Lightroom.

Good job guys!

If you are interesting in purchasing them for your own use, you can purchase them at this link: http://www.slrlounge.com/lightroom-presets

Blessings,

Chris

Before-After SLR Lounge

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Photography Tips & Techniques Also tagged , , , , , , , |

Shot of the Day 01/10/14

Greetings friends,

And happy Friday to you.

Today, I am sharing my latest Mt. Rainier portrait. I took this one a few nights ago at an undisclosed location during one spectacular sunset.

Many of my facebook friends have seen this already and have been asking for prints. If you are interested, please navigate to the link below to my site on Fine Art America for purchase.

Sell Art Online

 

Blessings,

Chris.

_DSC8036_37_40-Edit.JPG

Posted in Shot of the Day Also tagged , , |

Nisqually Wildlife Refuge

Lynette and I took a quick trip to the Nisqually wildlife refuge the other day to get a few shots of the birds wintering there. Unfortunately, not may birds except a few ducks to look at, but we get a few nice pictures anyway.

Hope you enjoy.

Chris

 

Posted in Landscape and Nature Photography Also tagged , , |

London / Ireland 2004

Are you surviving the hot weather? We’re not doing so well in it, so we have decided to stay in, out of the sun and have ended up looking through our blogs and such. And as it turns out, there is a rich piece of our photographic history that we haven’t shared with  you. Primarily due to the fact that we didn’t have a website/blog prior to about 2007, but mostly due to the fact that we wanted our website to be the most current we possibly could and not delve into archived history.

Nevertheless, since are sitting here on a more-than-hot day not doing much, I decided to resurrect some of those old images and share them with you. First up, is a number of images that I shot when in London, England and throughout Ireland in the summer of 2004. Lynette and I took the family there for a couple weeks of vacation, visiting sites and visiting family. And while most of our images from those two weeks are typical vacation shots, there are a number of shots that were intended for someone else.

These are those shots.

Enjoy.

Chris.

Posted in Landscape and Nature Photography, Travel Photography Also tagged , , , , |