Contact:

mckenneyslight@gmail.com

About Paul

Paul McKenney is a bird/raptor, wildlife and landscape photographer and educator. He is now residing in the Atlanta, Georgia. He has followed his wife's longstanding advice, shoot what makes your heart sing. Not only is that the most enjoyable, but also, that passion yields photographs with impact.

Paul bought his first SLR camera in 1991. While then engaged in a very full time legal career, photography quickly became a passion as it opened a whole world of visual exploration. Paul's challenge is to effectively communicate emotion into a viewer's still image. As Jay Maisel famously said, "It's not about the F- stop." Why did Paul choose photography rather than painting or other visual expressions to communicate his visions? Paul could pre-visualize an image in his mind, but he simply could not paint or draw to save his life. He soon realized that with a camera, lens of varying focal lengths and a little knowledge he could create what he wanted to capture. Paul became entranced with wildlife and eventually raptors. Annual lengthy trips to the Eastern Sierras, U.S. and Canadian national parks and the southwestern U.S. soon followed. Subsequent journeys took him off the proverbial beaten track in Costa Rica and fifteen other lands. Paul also quickly learned that the best way to shoot better bird, alligator and other wildlife images was to spend time with the subjects and with falconers, birders and naturalists. For example, he accompanied falconers hunting with their raptors, and learned so much about those birds' behaviors and their preys' proclivities. Also, if one becomes a better naturalist, a photographer will also evolve into a better landscape photographer.

Paul grew up and lived in Metro Detroit until he and the love of his life moved to Sanibel Island in SW Florida in late 2015. Three Hurricanes in 2022-2024 that washed over his Sanibel, Florida residence spawned the 2025 move to Atlanta. He is passionate about capturing the beauty and behavior of birds, mammals and large reptiles and assisting others achieve their visions. Paul began teaching raptor/bird workshops and other photography education programs and workshops about twenty-five years ago in Michigan. In 2015 after 41 years as a practicing tax lawyer he retired and now indulges his photographic interests full time. He is also a Florida Camera Club Council judge. Paul is combines a retiree's travel time with photographic opportunities. Paul both captures images in color and also converts some to B&W. He is also intrigued with creating images invisible to the human eye via infra red (IR) light. Paul acquired IR digital cameras, and also converts some of those IR images to B&W. There are no shortages of interesting subjects to photograph in Metro Atlanta. Then there are myriad other locales in the U.S. mainland, Maui, and over fifteen other countries where his cameras have led then to photograph.. Paul spent decades in Metro Detroit prior to moving to Sanibel in 2015. In Florida Paul focused his shooting on Wading birds, raptors and vertically challenged Floridians a/k/a gators. Paul also particularly enjoys photographing landscape and travel images. The move to Atlanta reignated his pre-2015 yeas in Detroit with shooting street photography.

He also wishes to remember the sage advice of one of America’s finest photographers, the recently deceased Bryan Peterson, “Keep on shooting!”