BryCox.com – Celebrity Style Imaging, Inc.™

This week I won EIGHT AWARDS, including ’Master Photographer of the Year!‘  I also won TWO Kodak Gallery Awards, a Judges Choice Award, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place, and the Court of Honor!

Each year photographers are allowed to enter four images, and here were my four entries:

It was an exciting night, but I was actually out of town during the entire awards ceremony, speaking in Georgia at their annual professional photographers convention.  However, I was keeping tabs on the Utah convention by phone, trying to see how I did.  When the news came in, it was even better than I had expected.  I not only won the big award of the night (Master Photographer of the Year), but a number of other great awards as well!

The level of competition is very difficult in the Masters, as I compete against the absolute best of the best.  I am always trying to raise the level of quality that I offer my clients each year, and to do a better and better job in every way possible.  As expectations and competition in the industry continues to rise, I hope that clients see these awards as a sign that my quality and commitment to great portraiture also rises each year.

Now these images will go on to regionals and then nationals.  I’ll keep you all posted on how they do.

I just finished a project for a family who lost their young boy.  Sadly, he passed away, and the family wanted me to create a new family portrait, and digitally add in their boy.  They brought me this photograph that was taken by a team photographer.  They got written permission from that photographer for me to use it, and I matched the lighting angle, style, and color balance, in creating a new portrait of the family.

I then carefully cut the young boy out of this photo and added him into the family’s new portrait.

Though it’s hard to see on the web, I painted in a lot of detail work like shadowing and other small details that only the mind sees on a subconscious level — these little details make it look as though the boy was photographed with the rest of the group.

Because the last portrait of their son was in a team jersey, the entire family bought matching jerseys.  It was the perfect touch for both an emotional connection as well as making the image work aesthetically.

I then converted this to a custom black and white image, and finished it as a stretched canvas gallery wrap.

I also photographed the extended family and added him to this as well, matching the lighting on this group just as before.

And this last image was one of my favorites, a family line of the entire extended family as a long portrait, with each individual family grouped together.  This was finished this as a long 40 inch b&w portrait for the grandma’s home.

It was a real joy to deliver these images and not only see how great they looked on the wall, but to see how much the family loved them.  All of the extra time that I spent in the small details really paid off.  The work was impeccable and I know that these images will be cherished for generations.

I talk a lot about portraits being heirlooms, but this job really brought that home again to me.  It’s amazing how much a portrait is worth to us all, especially when someone passes away.  It was a real honor for me to do this artistic work for this family.  It makes me feel blessed to have the talents and business that I have so that I can do this for people and do it in a fantastic way too.

If you’d like to see more family groups, feel free to check out my website at BryCox.com.

I just got back from speaking and teaching at a photographic conference in Miami, Florida, where I was teaching the art of Fashion Portraiture.  My approach was to show photographers how to make women look amazing using custom lighting and posing that is specific to each woman’s face shape and body.  I also showed how to do this under varying lighting conditions: in the studio, out of the studio, with a windows, with reflectors, with portable lighting equipment, and even in direct sunlight on the beach.

The trick is to always create a spectacular portrait with complete control of light, and to do it under any lighting condition, and still have it custom for that person’s face shape and body.  Meaning great images anywhere…no excuses!

Here are some of the fashion portraits I created in Miami.

These first few images were created around the hotel using ‘other’ lighting techniques.  These ‘other’ techniques that I was showing was due to the fact that the original lighting equipment that was provided to me, DID NOT WORK!  But rather than waste time trying to dink around with the equipment, I went right into showing problem solving techniques, and how to still create stunning and correct lighting for the model in other ways.

These next two images are shown just as they were shot, with no effects!  I was showing a very high-key style of lighting using some special equipment, and exposing for the final image.

Here are just some black and whites done in a very sassy and fun way.

These two studio images I was showing the use of shadow, color tone, and angles to highlight the eyes.

A very pretty and young high-school senior.  A fashion approach works great with high school senior photography.

This is a model from the country of Malta.  She has very exotic looking eyes and lips, so all of my images of her seemed to be closer to really show those features.  I have a great one of her below of her on the beach.

If you notice in my photographic work, I ALWAYS light people so that their eyes pop, no matter the situation.  Eyes are key to a great and emotional image.

Some images of a different model in direct sunlight, using docks and boats as a background.  Busy backgrounds and sunlight are both very difficult.  Both together are even harder.  These images show that both of these can work really well if done right.

And then back in the studio…

And this next image shows just how fun it is to work with me.  :-)

And the Maltese Princess again, but out on the beach.  Later that day I showed photographers this image directly in the processing software, so they could see that this was shot straight…no adjustments at all!  This was shot in direct sunlight on the beach with external lighting, and everything was set up manually — no auto flash, no auto exposure, no auto anything!

It shows photographers that we all need to be a technician and be more exact in or work, and that pays off in extremely difficult lighting situations like this — Perfect, right out of the camera!  Being a technician means having the ability to forget the equipment and work better with the model for a more stunning and captivation expression.

And this was just a fun art image I created on the beach and then painted in front of everyone later that day using some specific tools that I sell to photographers.

Well there are way more images, but this blog entry is already long enough.  This event in Miami was called AfterDark.  It is an event that travels the country and I’ll be doing more for them in the future.  If you are interested in attending this or any other of my photographic workshops, please visit my workshop site, BryCoxWorkshops.com to see my upcoming schedule.

Here was a very fun photo shoot I did of two cute little boys…brothers! They were so cute and lively, and absolutely full of personality. Here’s one of the two of them together. I like this image, because it shows how much energy the older boy had and how chill the younger boy was. This was true of the entire shoot. So cute!

Here are some alone of the older brother who laughed and laughed at all my tricks.

And here are some of the younger brother who was just chill and content. He just wanted to study me and figure me out, and I think get away and go play as well.

I love their outfits and how their hair is nicely combed. Both boys have such beautiful blue eyes, which seems to be true of their whole family.

After going through the images, I took the favorites and designed up this nine-square composite and framed it in black.

I absolutely love photographing kids. They are so fun and their personalities are very transparent and cute. And I love how this particular piece turned out. There are so many looks and expressions, that it makes up a small story of these young brother’s lives at this point in life.

For the last few weeks I’ve been doing some album design work for one of my favorite people, a friend who is finishing her interior design program at the LDS Business College.  She has worked in the industry for years and has a real knack for putting colors and textures together.  She is an incredible artist on paper as well, as you can see from these drawings of hers, what interior designers call ‘renderings’.

I photographed each of her drawings and pieces, and then created an album of all her designs.  The album I was working on with her was a compilation of all of the work she had done throughout her school program.  It was part of a big production and display that would be judged by outside designers in the industry.

I really can’t take too much credit as I was designing her album to her specifications and ideas.  However, it turned out amazing!  Here are some of the pages from the album design.  It was a large 11×14 album, with horizontal pages.  Every page looked spectacular and was printed so crisp and clear.

Yesterday was the big day…the day of judgement!  Here is Jenna in front of her booth.

And it was no surprise that out of all the graduating students, Jenna won 1st Place!

And here she is being congratulated by her folks.

Congratulations, Jenna!  That was an award well, well deserved!

If anyone would like to see more of her design work, you can visit her website, Design Sparrow.

One of my favorite recent appointments was of these little adorable triplets!  They were so fun, and so expressive.  Not to mention, incredibly difficult!  :-)  Photographing little babies is a hard task, but three little babies was like spinning plates.  I’d get one set up, have another under an arm, and look for the third to see him or her now escaping clear across the room!

How fun for these parents to have THREE little adorable babies to chase around and raise.  They were so fun and did such a great job!  The entire photo session, and not just the time I was creating images, was an adventure!

Here are some of my favorite images for the session.  First the individual portraits…two of each baby…a boy, a girl, and a boy.

Here is one of the groupings of all three babies.  Just looking at it makes me laugh!  I should post some of the images where the grouping didn’t work out, where the kids were all over each other or crying, or escaping.

So with these individual portraits, I created this composite for their wall at home.

And one of my favorite’s of the little baby girl, giving her mom a big hug at the end!  Look at her little smile!

These babies have the most beautiful eyes and faces.  Lighting adults is hard enough, but lighting babies that squirm and wiggle and look all over the place is even harder…but lighting triplets, even when I’m focusing on just one (and trying to keep the other two babies close and out of trouble) is very, very hard.

Looking at these images, I am excited by the beautiful expressions and the exquisite light in their eyes.  Each image makes me feel like I know these babies and their little spirits.  I am excited to watch them grow and do more portraits of them over the years.

– Bry