lighthouse

My “Isle of Light” Lighthouse Image Featured in Professional Photographer Magazine, April 2014 Issue

Posted April 5, 2014 by BryCox (Admin)

My lighthouse image Isle of Light, is featured in this month’s Professional Photographer Magazine. The magazine features a few images that did well at national competition, and shares the story of how those images were made.

Here is how it looks in the magazine.

I created this image while speaking on the East Coast after getting bumped from a flight. It was also selected to be in the PPA Loan Collection Book after scoring well at nationals.

This image is available on my art site in various sizes and finishes, if you’d like it for your home or business entry.

Professional Photographer Magazine is a publication that goes out to all professional photographers throughout the US as well as other parts of the world. If you’re photographer, you’ll find this on page 20. Here is the double-page spread.

It’s always an honor to be asked to be in this magazine, and this image is one of my top favorite lighthouse images I’ve created too. I’m glad they love and appreciate it and wanted to showcase it.

Until next time, America.

Hunting Lighthouses on Vancouver Island, Canada

Posted April 2, 2014 by BryCox (Admin)

I love the adventure of hunting down and photographing lighthouses. It’s the perfect activity for someone like me with wanderlust. The entire process is cathartic and inspirational. It requires driving through un-populated areas on old curvy roads instead of fast and straight highways, it means driving with the window down and smelling the sea even if it’s cold outside, it means hiking and sometimes scrambling up and down mountain sides to get to the right spot, and it means sitting and watching light and soaking in the atmosphere around you with no one else around as I wait for the right moment to shoot. And in the end, I leave with a beautiful image that I hope others enjoy, but even if they don’t, I know I will enjoy it and the process of creating it.

This week I had a speaking job in Tacoma Washington, and decided to go a bit early to photograph some lighthouses on Vancouver Island, Canada. I love the adventure of photographing lighthouses, and really like the Victoria area on Vancouver Island. I’ve never had time when I’ve been up there to get out to the lighthouses and photograph them. This was the trip to do exactly that.

After landing in Seattle, I took my rental car over to Victoria, Canada on the COHO ferry. This self portrait is me with my point and shoot, on the cold and windy bow of the ferry. Even though it was cold, I always like being outside on a ferry rather than inside. Everything is different outside on a ferry, and it makes me feel like I’m on an adventure. You can smell the ocean air, you feel the droplets, and you can look off at the dark water beneath you as you crash through it.

After landing and getting established in Victoria, I went out lighthouse hunting. I first photographed the Fisgard Light outside of Victoria. Access is only open during the day and when I got there, I was told hat the light itself was “closed” for the day, but other parts of the ground were open. I paid the fee and went to find an angle where I could still get close and photograph it, knowing I could get around the construction and workers. And that I did. I was able to get right up close, and I spent some time there hiking around the rocks and looking at the light, created these images.

I really loved the clouds and the dramatic sky, and thought a black and white would work well. Even though I love the red of the building, this black and white may be one of my favorites of this lighthouse.

Before leaving, I did this self portrait with the lighthouse with my point and shoot on manual.

The next lighthouse, Sheringham Point, was quite hard to get to, being a long drive up the western coast of the island. Along the way, I looked for my favorite fish and chips hut on the water, but it was closed for the season. When I finally got to the lighthouse, I found that it too was closed — abandoned and gated off by the government. The surrounding land was also locked and controlled by a land developer. Everything was gated and blocked off. It took some hiking and some ingenuity to get to it, but here are the images I created.

By this time, it was getting late in the day, and being on a different part of the island, the weather was dramatically different, giving this lighthouse a very different and beautiful mood. And the rocky cliffs to the side were my favorite part, and I thought were part of the character of this lighthouse. I found a way over to the side where I could photograph the lighthouse using the cliffs to frame it. These looked much more dramatic than the images of the lighthouse from other angles.

I sat on this rock for a while watching the light move and change, and listening to the crashing waves beneath me. I thought it a cool place to created a self portrait with my point and shoot.

Being on the hunt, my mind was distracted all day. It was here sitting, that I realized that I still hadn’t eaten breakfast and it was actually dinner time. So I headed to the nearby logging town of Port Renfrew to get some fish and chips, and then from there took the long way back to Victoria, making a loop up and over the island using a curvy logging road. I arrived back in Victoria at night and got some Chinese food for a late dinner in Victoria’s China Town.

All along the way, I also took abstract images on my iPhone and posted them to my Instagram feed. There are iPhone pics of these lighthouses as well as abstracts from the ferry and other interesting things. You can see those here, http://instagram.com/bry_cox

Until next time, America.

My Lighthouse Image Featured in PPA Loan Collection Art Book

Posted February 22, 2014 by BryCox (Admin)

My lighthouse image, “Isle of Light” scored so well last year, that it is now featured in the PPA’s Loan Collection Book that just came out.

The “Loan Collection” is a group of the highest scoring images (about 7%), that go on loan to the PPA for a traveling exhibit. The loan images are all published in a book each year, and my copy of the book just arrived.

It’s always a great honor to get a Loan print and add another Loan Collection book to my collection. This image will also soon be featured in a magazine article on it’s creation, which I will post when it is made public.

You can also purchase this image from my Scenic/Art store here if you’d like a beautiful canvas to display in your home or even office entry.

Until next time, America.

Caribbean Art Images Created Mostly with Point-And-Shoot Camera

Posted February 5, 2014 by BryCox (Admin)

I recently went on a cruise with some friends to get away from the cold weather, create some unique art prints, and recharge my creative spirits. One of the things I found fun was to create as many art images as I could with just my small point-and-shoot camera on manual. Now that I’m home, I thought I’d post some of my favorite images.

This first image is a multi-image panorama created at the Bahama port at sunrise.

Looking down off my room’s balcony into the water of the Bahamas.

These images were created in the St. Thomas area.

I really like photographing people and faces, even if they are strangers I meet when I travel. This man had such an interesting look to me. I went over and talked with him for a bit while on the island of St. John. He plays in a reggae band. I made sure to position myself with the blue water behind him before creating this image of him. I loved the look in his eye and the stark contrast of colors framed with the deep blue water.

Then we stopped in Puerto Rico. There is an old fort there with a lighthouse, and most of my images from this island were created there.

The last stop was Grand Turks. It had one of the prettiest beaches. It was a very small island, only 1 mile wide and 7 miles long. The port is at one end, and I paid a local guy to drive me to the other end to photograph a lighthouse. I love searching out and photographing lighthouses when out of town.

The lighthouse was not the typical lighthouse, set on a rocky ledge. It was set back quite a ways and surrounded by odd buildings, trees and wild donkeys. With the time of day also not being ideal, I decided to photograph this lighthouse in high-contrast black and white. I also shot some with a shift-lens to blur out areas I didn’t like in the image. Here is a pirate statue that guards the door of a building right next to the lighthouse.

By then it was time to get back on ship. This is a look towards our boat on the right, from the Grand Turk docks. The sun was setting so I hurried on board to photograph the sunset from the boat. Once on board, I hustled up to the top deck to finish photographing the sunset.
And one last image of this man undocking our ship, shot through the guard rail, creating a cool ‘Z’ shape in white.It was a great and relaxing trip, but it is good to be home. Let me know what some of your favorite images are. I’m curious what others like. I will add some to my art site soon, once I narrow them down a bit.

Until next time, America.

Black Weekend: 35% Off ALL Art at BryCoxART.com This Weekend!

Posted November 21, 2012 by BryCox (Admin)

This is the best weekend to get some beautiful and inspiring Bry Cox art pieces. Because of Black Friday and because I have completely revamped the entire BryCoxART.com site, I’m having a huge sale where everything is marked down 35% off through this weekend only. These are the best prices I’ve ever had on these, and there’s even more images to choose from than before.

Because of Black Friday, many people stand in terribly long lines at stores to get some deep discounts on things they won’t even care about in a year or two. But if you’re somebody who enjoys and is inspired by great art, you can instead avoid the lines and browse the BryCoxART.com site in the warmth of your home, save big money, and enjoy your art pieces for many years to come.

NOTE: The discounts will be applied after the pieces are added to your shopping cart. So see what you like, add it to the cart, and see how much you’ll save.

For example, 35% off means that you will save over $200 on twenty inch canvas gallery wraps and save about $350 on thirty inch canvas gallery wraps. I even have my art books, Impressions of Italia and Impressions of China books marked down. And every image is completely unique and different from anything you’ve ever seen.

I have serene and inspiring art pieces from Italy, China, and the US, including seashores, lighthouses, and LDS temples.

So this weekend, get something for your home or your office. This is the best sale on these items that I’ve had. Happy Thanksgiving!

Lighthouses of the Seattle Washington Area, Part 2

Posted October 5, 2012 by BryCox (Admin)

Part 2 of my trip was spent in a little coastal town called Port Townsend. I was at Fort Warden which had it’s own lighthouse about a mile down the beach. I made it my goal to get some amazing shot of it, and I woke up most mornings that I was there around 4:30 am in order to walk down the beach, set up, and wait for sunrise. On this particular morning the sky was so socked in that I never got a sunrise, so I did a self portrait before going back and getting a quick nap before work.

Even though there wasn’t a directional sunrise, I still really liked the look of the Port Wilson lighthouse in the foggy mist. I photographed it various ways each morning.

One morning I also photographed this ship wreck on my walk back. I really liked the detail in this image, and split-toned the final piece so that the white would really stand out.

Each walk back was quiet and serene. Sometime there would be a sailboat out in the water, anchored for the night, and other times there would be a few fisherman out in row boats. On one occasion I ran into someone on a morning walk, but other than that I never saw anyone else on these early mornings.

On my last morning, I caught the sunrise. Once I could see the sun peaking, I set up in a different spot than in other mornings, and began to work trying to capture all the detail, watching for the sun rays to come shining in the image.

Once the sun peaked, all the little rocks on the sand lit up. It was really exciting to finally see the warm directional light and get something different than the other mornings.

I had to hurry and get different angles quickly, as the sun really travels fast. I really liked this one below, with the grass blowing in the morning breeze.

And here’s one last one from set up from the far side, with me very low in the grass. I wanted one with the sun lighting up the lighthouse with the warm morning light without any sun flares.

So which images are your favorites? All of these have such different looks and different feelings, it’s hard to pick a favorite but I’m curious what you all like.

In my next blog entries I’ll talk about some of the work I did while I was out there, but before I got to that, I wanted to first show you some of these images that I created during my free time. I really like to find lighthouses and photograph them. They’re beautiful and inspiring, and a real challenge to photograph in interesting ways. I hope you enjoyed looking at these.

Until next time, America. 🙂

Lighthouses of the Seattle Washington Area, Part 1

Posted October 2, 2012 by BryCox (Admin)

Coming home from the east coast, I went straight on over to the west coast to do a job in the Seattle area. I got there a day and a half early to relax and take some photographs. Upon arriving, I caught this sunset behind the Space Needle.

The next day I went into town to hang out at Pike Street Market and eat some fried fish and chowder.

I then took a ferry out to Vashon Island to find and photograph the Point Robinson lighthouse that I had read about. I got there early in the afternoon, and the sun was already setting on it. I made it just in time. It’s not just enough to photograph it, I really want to create something amazing and that means lighting it just the right way. Since I can’t move the sun I have to time my schedule around the sun to shoot it when it’s lit the best.

Here are some of the images I created that late afternoon, starting with this panorama with the shadows touching the bottom of the building.

By the time I set up for a straight-on shot, the shadows were already half-way up the lighthouse.

After getting that I just worked quickly to get a few more options. I switched to a Lens Baby tilt-shift lens and set up a shot with the tip still in the sun.

And then to another lens from the side catching one more with just the tip still in sunlight.

After that I hiked back through the woods back to my car, packed up, and called my girlfriend to chat while making my way back into the main part of Vashon to find some dinner. After eating I caught one of the last ferries off the island and headed back to my hotel to get ready for work the next day. Spending time on Vashon was amazing. It was a very fun and cool night. The air was perfect, the island was serene, and I met some very nice and colorful locals along the way, and the ferry ride in the cool dark air was invigorating.

Coming up in part 2 of Seattle, more images of another beautiful lighthouse. See you then.

4 New Awards at the IPPA State Convention

Posted September 29, 2012 by BryCox (Admin)

I just won 4 more awards this week at the Intermountain Professional Photographers Association yearly convention. This was the image that won all four awards, the light I photographed when I was stuck in Maine. I just mentioned it actually in my last blog post. It’s titled, “Isle of Light.”

The awards it won were a Kodak Gallery Award (that makes 7 of these for me know), the ASP State Elite Award (called the Best of the Best, my 2nd one), 1st Place Master’s division, and Master’s Court of Honor.

The level of competition is very difficult in the Masters, because the skill levels are all so high. I like competing though, because I like knowing that I can continue to create great images year after year and am always doing better.

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. As expectations and competition rise, I hope that clients see these awards as a sign that my quality and commitment to great images also rises each year.

Well now my print case has been shipped off to regionals and I’m anxious to see how they do. I’ll keep you all posted.

Until next time, America.

Stranded in Maine and Photographing the Nubble Lighthouse

Posted September 27, 2012 by BryCox (Admin)

On my way home from New Hampshire, I had trouble with my out-going flight at the Boston Airport and got stranded for the night. They said I needed to fly out the next morning so I took the extra free time to rent a car and drive up to the Cape Neddick or “Nubble” lighthouse. I love lighthouses and this one was new to me. I arrived by late afternoon went up to scout out the place for later. While there I immediately created a panorama, then came back later at twilight, then the next morning at sunrise as I drove off to the airport.

This first one was when I first arrived. I really loved the blue sky, green grass, and the beautiful waves and color of the water. Having a bit of a trip beard, I did a self portrait of myself as well.

I then left the lighthouse to find some food and get a place to stay for the night, but I returned at twilight to create this image below – my favorite from the trip.

Then the next morning I got up at around 4:30 am to get the sun rising in the distance. I shot it a few different ways, first with nice sharp edges…

…and then with soft blurry edges. I really like them both for different reasons.

As I was heading back to my car I created this image of a bench with my same soft lens.

Here’s the place where I stayed the night. I talked to a local who recommended it. They had small one-room cottages in the woods that were quiet and perfect. They also had a very tiny and amazing ice cream shop across the street as well located in the town’s old post office.

My cottage was elevated and up a short hill. It made for a very quiet and quaint night. I wish I had more time to stay there. The place and the entire town was just cool, calm and relaxing with a very fun main street. There were plenty of things to do at night just walking around. Next time I’m out that way, I’ll be sure to go find my way to this fun town.

After leaving the east coast I immediately went to the west coast and found more lighthouses. I’ll post about them in upcoming blog entries.

Well, until next time, America. 🙂

Invest in Forever. Art is Forever.™

lighthouse

My “Isle of Light” Lighthouse Image Featured in Professional Photographer Magazine, April 2014 Issue

Hunting Lighthouses on Vancouver Island, Canada

My Lighthouse Image Featured in PPA Loan Collection Art Book

Caribbean Art Images Created Mostly with Point-And-Shoot Camera

Black Weekend: 35% Off ALL Art at BryCoxART.com This Weekend!

Lighthouses of the Seattle Washington Area, Part 2

Lighthouses of the Seattle Washington Area, Part 1

4 New Awards at the IPPA State Convention

Stranded in Maine and Photographing the Nubble Lighthouse

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