Brillion Basketball - M. C. Kinney Photography - Appleton Photographers

While setting up lights to photograph the 5th grade boys basketball team in Brillion last night, one of the boys approached me and told me he had a tip for me. Naturally I thought this was the line-up to a joke and asked him what the tip was. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a quarter and held it out to me. I was confused and asked "what is that?"

"It's a quarter," he said. "It's for you. A tip for you." He had the most sincere face EVER, and although I'm not in the fashion of taking money from kids, I opened my palm and told him I would greatly appreciate his tip. You see, quarters have a special meaning to me. Not the quarters you get back as change, but quarters that I find on the street. They are a reminder of my Dad who passed away two and half years ago, and I have a special pewter jar I collect them in. So I told him I would keep his quarter in my Dad's jar.

After photographing the kids as a group and their individual images, I was packing up and mentioned to the coach that one of the athletes had given me a quarter tip and how nice I thought that was and how excited I was to get a tip. She thought that was funny but then I told her that in my 20 years photographing people, only four other times had anyone ever given me a tip, and even though it was only a quarter, it was that he thought to give it. So thank you Paxton for making my entire day!

Here's the team messing around after their team pic. A bunch of triple threats!

Fox Cities Magazine - Headshots - Executives - M.C. Kinney Photography - Appleton Photographers

The staff of the Fox Cites Magazine stopped in to refresh their image for the new website they're launching in the next month. We decided on a muted green mottled background to coordinate with the colors of that new site. Even though I know some of them don't enjoy being photographed, I think they all excelled! Congratulations on a wonderful magazine and asset to the Appleton and Fox River Valley! P.S. love the calendar/events pages and "The Place We Call Home" page in the mag!

 

  

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Lyla - Newborn Photography - M. C. Kinney Photography - Appleton, WI

Check out this cutie pie! Little two month old Lyla came in with her mom and Grandma for her newborn portrait debut and loved being the center of attention. Her big brother Liam was also photographed two years earlier for his two month session and based on what I saw the other day at the studio, he is growing up with lots of energy and fun!Congrats Sonia and Leon-she's a keeper!

Holy Family Girls Basketball - Brillion, WI - M.C. Kinney Photography - Appleton Photographers

The Holy Family Girls 7th and 8th Grade Basketball Team got their SportsMate images taken last night and afterward we decided to take a couple fun group shots. This is their game face:

Oops...that might not be their game face after all. I have a feeling this is their AFTER game face! HERE's their game face image:

Looks like a bunch of tough cookies to me! Good luck on the season ladies!

Kyra Basketball Composite - M. C. Kinney Photography - Appleton Photographer

Kyra loves her sports and is quite the little scrapper. With basketball season well underway, I thought I'd pull out this image I took of her last year, both on the court and in the studio. A composite image created to showcase her game face and her skills...and her determination in "making it happen."

If anyone is interested in having something like this created for their child (in any sport)...please contact me as early as possible in the season to make certain I can attend a game. And I do give discounts if I can attend one game/meet and photograph multiple students at the same time, so get together with some other parents in your league and give me a call!

Sarah, Nate and Peter Family Portraits - M.C. Kinney Photography - Senior Photography - Appleton, WI

Sometimes it's hard to believe, but time just keeps going by.  And it's never more evident than when High School Seniors I've photographed some years ago return for a family portrait and to welcome a new member into their family. Pam and Richard and their three adult children came into the studio for an impromptu family portrait when they realized all of their kids would be in the same place at the same time (something not easily achieved these days for many families) and with a new baby and son-in-law to boot!

Six month old Lydia was all smiles and clearly loves peek-a-boo as she got a real kick out of it.

Congratulations to all the kids. It was great getting to see what you've all been up to since we last met! And congrats to Sarah and Mark on their new bundle of joy!

Snowy Owls - Collins, WI - Appleton Photographer - M. C. Kinney Photography

Tuesday after photographing one of the Dance Teams in the Brillion area, I decided to head over toward the Killsnake State Wildlife Area in my quest to photograph a Great Horned Owl. Of course, I decided to take the long way around and swung past Collins first to see if any of the Snowy Owls were out hunting. Well, I never made it to Killsnake; 'cause this is what I saw on my way instead:

This little beauty hanging out on a dead tree hunting over one of the farm fields. And within a few minutes, tada...an appetizer!

After consuming that little tidbit, back onto the tree she went. At least, I think she is a she.
Then a few minutes later

down for some more.

And then, just because one can never get enough live mice meat, she went down again. I'd show a picture of that but to be honest, it was about 4:45pm by then and pretty dark and I couldn't find her camouflaged in the field as she was. So, in 25 minutes, three mice eaten (I do feel a little sorry for that family as I have a feeling they were missing quite a few of their group that night). When I left her a few minutes later...she was again perched, waiting for more! Mmmm...what's for dinner?!

Eagles - Fox River - M. C. Kinney Photography - Appleton, WI

I had a bunch of errands to run this morning so of course my first thought was that I would have no time to go shooting the birds before opening the studio. But...I was able to finish my trips about town in record time and DID have time to swing by a place relatively close to downtown Appleton to see if anything was out and about. And I'm glad I did. First thing I saw was a Bald Eagle perched on a tree in the middle of the river, but still relatively close. I was able to get off some shots of him sitting there, and then a couple of him flying around above me as he was looking for a fish.

Soon after I saw this Immature Eagle flying around.

But then it got a little quiet so I thought I'd take a couple images of the surrounding dam and a couple of some daring Mergansers that decided to weather the whitewater rapids.

Those crazy Mergansers! How they thought floating through that would be easier than flying over it I don't know! After a few more minutes I decided it was time to actually get some work done and headed toward the studio. But alas, I was detained again. Up in a tree above my car was this beauty:

So even in my haste today, I was still able to get my fix and come upon some pretty amazing surprises!

Len and Mary Family - M. C. Kinney Photography - Oshkosh, WI

Sometimes it's just fun. Meeting new people and helping them to create images of their family they will enjoy and pass down as the children grow up and have families of their own. And that's how it was with the Len and Mary family. Len had called about family portraits and was able to take advantage of a BOGO print special I was running for the month of December. I thought I'd give a BOGO Sale a try and I'm glad I did. Several families took advantage of the HUGE savings, including this extended family photographed in their home.

Of course, while they were together, we had to photograph Len and Mary (something the Grandkids will truly appreciate as they get older).

AND...since everyone was together, it was the perfect time to update all the family images and to create a nice grouping for Len and Mary to hang on their wall.

And what the heck...let's get those cousins all in for a cousin pic...cause who isn't going to want that when they're older?! After all, cousins are many times some of your best childhood friends!

Thanks to everyone in this wonderful family; it's so obvious meeting you that you truly do know how Blessed you are to be together!

Cardinals - Woodpeckers - Juncos - Heckrodt Wildlife Reserve - M.C. Kinney Photography - Appleton, WI

Okay, yes, it's a little cold outside. Like 1 degrees Fahrenheit with a minus 16 windchill. But that doesn't mean I'm going to be stopped from going outside and photographing some birds. So this morning, I headed out to Heckrodt Wildlife Reserve in Menasha to find a Cardinal, maybe an owl (if I was REALLY lucky) and perhaps a woodpecker or two. And here's what I found:

There was this little cutie, a female Downy Woodpecker just going to town on this tree,

and this female Northern Cardinal waiting to decide if a trip closer to me was worth it to get to the feeders,

this fat Dark-Eyed Junco (male) along with about 10 of his closest and dearest friends eating off the ground;

and my favorite for the day, this very busy Male Red-Bellied Woodpecker that visited many trees trying to get his fill, until finally, he flew away.

So, no owls again (I'm really looking for a Great Horned Owl or a Screech, a Barn or a Barred if you know of any near you). But it was still worth putting up with the cold...