Utah

Anna’s Winter Outdoor Family Portraits

It’s winter here in Utah, and that means it’s cold and the trees are bare. My clients needed a new and updated portrait and wanted it outdoors. Showing bare trees in the background would have been the wrong look, so we used a location right here near my studio. It has lots of wide open space, and mixed with my studio lighting on location, everything turned out perfectly.

Here’s a video showing the finished and framed images before delivery.

With families, I like creating and offering a few variations. One particular image may move you the most, and that’s the best one for the wall art. Other groupings can always be ordered smaller for other parts of the home. This fist image was the favorite as the larger image for the wall, while the second was ordered for a smaller spot in the home.

When the kids and everyone smile and look great in every image, it’s often hard to choose a favorite. The colors, textures, spacing, depth, and overall feel of this first image made it stand out as the overall favorite.

With every family portrait, I love creating individual portraits as well. These can be finished in a number of ways, depending on need. For this family, we choose similar images of each child to be finished as square standouts. They look gorgeous!

Standouts are shown better in the video above, and can be displayed as sets in either a straight line trio, or in diagonals, or in other configurations. Here’s one idea for the three girls in a trio.

The first is of the youngest girl. She’s so cute and adorable, with the flower in her hair, hands on her knees, and smiling so perfectly.

Second, the middle girl sitting so beautifully. I love the light coming in from behind, lighting up their hair and the beautiful colors all working together.

And the oldest, looking mature and smiling beautifully with her long hair.

Of course we did a stand out of the three girls together too, as well as one of the parents alone.

As you can see, this family has changed a lot over the last few years. I think the parents look about the same, but the kids have really grown. Kids grow so fast, and it’s important and inspiring to have new and update family artwork on the walls.

Years ago, I also created this painted portrait of the girls walking. It’s amazing how much they’ve grown since.

I love delivering finished images to clients and seeing the portraits hanging in their homes.

I know it’s time to update your family portrait. I make it quick and easy, and I’ll help design it so it’s something you absolutely love! Give me a call at 801-728-3317 and let’s create something beautiful for you.

And until next time, America.

High School Senior Portraits of Shannon

I love photographing high school seniors. I can really be creative and the seniors love the fun images we get.

And you have to see these high school senior portraits that I did for Shannon while I was training photographers in Texas. While teaching photographers around the country at an event in Texas, I did a quick lighting and posing demo with Shannon. She was my model and I created some gorgeous high school senior portraits of her.

I have lots of wonderful choices and all of the images look amazing. But here are some of my favorites. I love images that show flow and movement, especially as a series. These four images are great as a collage for the wall as a set of 4.

Even though for this shoot I’m working on location in another state, I still like creating studio portraits when possible. Studio images look sharp and professional, and they separate you from the photographers who can’t or don’t know how to create studio images. Plus mobile lighting and setting up studio gear is possible anywhere.

However, with seniors I prefer to do mix sessions of both studio and outdoor locations. Here at my Utah studio, I have easy options for both inside and out, right here. Plus we have lots of wonderful outdoor locations very close by for more variety too. But for Shannon, because I was doing a lighting demo, we did everything in one studio location.

I have a lot of wonderful images that are great as standalone images. When I photograph a a high school senior, I want a lot of variety quickly with one outfit before changing outfits and backgrounds. This series of Shannon on gray would be just one of the sets I’d do with a senior here at my studio. We’d start with one color and outfit, then keep moving to more outfits and backgrounds. That gives us a lot of variety for the album design to come later.

But as you can see, in just a short amount of time and with one outfit, we have lots of wonderful images of Shannon for her wall portraits and album pages.

Throughout the shoot I like to increase the motion and action of the photoshoot. Here I’m having Shannon spin around, having fun with her hair.

High school senior shoots are fun, and you can bring your friends and family to the shoot too. In fact, adding close friends to part of the shoot is always fun for a few images – though most should be of just you.

If you’re a high school senior and would like some wonderful new images, this is the perfect time of year to get you in. Give me a call and let’s talk more about your personality and what would make for some creative portraits. 801-728-3317

And until next time, America.

Mark & Kendra’s Airport Engagement Portraits

My friends Mark and Kendra recently got married and I wanted to share their gorgeous engagement photos. Because Mark is a pilot, this couple wanted some fun engagement portraits at the airport. It was the perfect location and very creative, even down to the details of their costumes.

I love how these turned out. and always love to do location photo shoots, especially when the location incorporates something about the client’s personality. Everything in a photo should tell a story about you, and not be random. So being at the airport was the perfect choice for these two.

It was a cold winter day and they were short on time, so we had to work fast. To compensate for the difference in elevation with the couple standing on the wing, a ladder was needed to get the angles just right. And being winter, the sky, coloring, and natural light of the air was gray and drab. So a studio light on location was needed to really make the colors and the sky pop and create shadows and dimension. The results are wonderful skin tones and gorgeous colors.

 

We had a lot of great choices and I love them all, especially this one of these two running off together. One idea for their invitation was to have the images as old snapshots. So I cropped them square and treated the images so that they had a faded film look. Here was one idea of them as a trio.

Here are those squares close up.

Their final invitation design was an airline ticket, and this was the back of the design. I shot this using the old wood on my coffee table.

Before ending the shoot and entering the hanger, I did a couple individual headshots of these two as well. Here are my two favorites of those, cropped as squares with an old film edge.

I’m so excited that these two are married. They’re both fantastic people individually, and both incredibly accomplished in so many ways. They’re really good together, and they both compliment each other as a couple. I know they’ll make a great team and I’m glad they’ve moved forward with engagement and marriage.

Engagement Proposal Video

Mark also had me come photograph their proposal too. They love to rock climb together and he’d arranged to have a ring at the top of the route for her to get and bring back down. He told her that she was going to help him in a high-level training exercise and that she was to retrieve the “objective” from the top. She had no clue he was proposing and when she repelled down, he was on one knee.

To explain me being there, he told her that I was just in the area doing a shoot and thought it’d be fun to get some climbing photos. But I was really there to capture video and some photos of the proposal. She was completely surprised and you can see the immense sense of joy, relief, and surprise.

If you got engaged over the New Year and need some fantastic photographs for your engagement, bridal, and wedding, give me a call at 801-728-3317. I’d love to create something wonderful for you too. And here’s a link to some wedding info too.

And until next time, America.

Elyse’s Wedding Album Design, Salt Lake Temple & Utah Capitol Building

The Salt Lake Temple is closing this month for a massive 4 year renovation. Plus this is the time of year when many people get engaged, so I thought a Salt Lake Temple wedding would be perfect for my blog right now.

I’ve had people ask about this album because I originally shared a few early favorites from this wedding on my blog, but not the entire wedding album. So here’s the entire album, in video form.

I love sharing entire albums because then people can see how wonderful things look from beginning to end. I don’t rely on “lucky” shots, but rather custom light every photograph to create an amazing set of images for the final album. To really see the story of these images and how it all flows in the album design, watch the video above.

And here are just some of the album page spreads that you see in the above video. As you can see, these two look like models. The portraits are romantic, fun, and flow together in a gorgeous album design.

I love creating these albums for my clients. If you’re engaged, let’s talk more because I’d love to create something like this for you too. My phone is 801-728-3317.

And until next time, America.

It’s my Birthday & Time for an Updated Portrait

After years of being a photographer, one of the biggest hurdles I’ve noticed for clients is that they stress about getting new portraits done. I understand that. Everyone has the same excuses to put off professional photos: I’m getting older, I don’t like how I look right now, I don’t have time, it feels vain, I’ll do it later, etc.

So to set the example, and for the mental exercise of doing it, I update my portrait each year. I use my use my birthday as the reminder and catalyst to create something new. I think it’s important to keep your portrait up to date, no matter what.

Many times a client will show me their website, and their business headshot is 5-10 years old. It looks dated, and nothing like them. And I speak and train photographers around the country as a PPA Master Photographer / Photographic Craftsman. Even amongst photographers, it’s not uncommon to see them using old headshots. So of all people, we as photographers should get and show updated portraits.

So for my new portrait, I wanted to try something new this year. I decided to do everything the opposite of my last one. Normally I’m smiling in my images, so I instead I’m serious. Normally as people get older, I photograph them with softer light to hide wrinkles, so for this I did sharp specular light to highlight wrinkles, lines, and textures. Normally headshots are close up, and so this time it’s full length. And normally I do a clean white or fashion gray for headshots, so this time I used a dark, hand-painted, Oliphant-style background that I got in California from DBC Backdrops. Normally a headshot is bright and airy, this time it’d be darker tones and moody.

After setting up the equipment and metering the lighting, I shot a few options both standing and sitting using a hand-held remote to fire the camera. These were my favorites. The artistic side of me often has to live with something for a bit to see how I like it, and so far I am really liking these. They are completely different from my last ones.


And I have another self-portrait to reveal on my birthday. I wanted to do a fun image of me, riding my motorcycle by standing on it, while driving through an exposition, shooting a gun, and waving the American flag. It would be over-the-top enough to be funny and entertaining, but also artistic and well-done down to the tiniest details. I’d do it just like a commercial art piece for a client.

For commercial work, sometimes a shot is impossible to get. In those cases I’ll create illustrative composites – multiple images combined into one impossible-to-create image. These digital composites are surreal worlds that don’t really exist. It’s a complex process, but first the idea is mapped out, then a series of photographs are created of each piece matching lighting throughout, then those parts are painstakingly blended together into one final art piece.

I love how it turned out. It’s comical and fun, but the attention to detail (like the shadows, lighting, and blending) all look great, especially up close.

Portraits should be fun. The creation process should be enjoyable and memorable. If you get them as custom wall art that you see every day, then those portraits should make you happy when you see them. We shouldn’t put off getting portraits either. I’m a believer that we should have current portraits that we love, whether you’re single, married, have kids or not, you should have a portrait that represents this time of life in a beautiful, artistic, and uplifting way.

If you’d like a new headshot or even some new family portraits, it’s a great time to come in. The studio gives us a lot of artistic options, but there’s still some fall left to do something outdoors too. Give me a call at 801-728-3317.

And until next time, America.

Eliza’s Gorgeous Bridal & Pre-Wedding Portrait Shoot

I’m very excited to share Eliza’s gorgeous bridal and pre-wedding shoot. These two are a great couple, and so good together. It makes me excited to photograph their upcoming wedding.

This portrait session started off on a cold and rainy spring day here in Utah. While waiting for an opening in the rain, we started photographing inside my Davis County studio where it’s both warm, and where we have full control of lighting for a variety of looks and styles. And because the groom had not seen Eliza’s dress yet, we started with a “first sight” series.

Look at how he glows with excitement, seeing his bride for the first time in her beautiful dress, spinning her around to see her all the way around, and hugging her tight.

Feeding off these two’s glowing faces and excitement, we moved into some color couple portraits on a fashion gray background with some soft studio lighting.

And then some of just Eliza alone in her dress, doing a high-key bridal set, white on white. The simplicity, color harmony, and dramatic lighting really make this image. She look absolutely gorgeous in it, and I love the details in the back of this dress and all the lovely lines.

I love shooting a variety of lighting styles and looks, so we then moved to a set of snappy, high-contrast black-and-whites on a dark background for a modern yet classic feel. We made up this framed wall collage to tell a story between the images, and to showcase their personalities in a finished portrait display at their wedding reception. This will look beautiful displayed on the wall in their new home together too.

Here are some of those images up close so you can see how happy and great these two look to be together.


After finishing the studio part of the shoot, I checked the weather and saw a clear spot in the clouds and rain. We took advantage of that opening in the storm and quickly drove to an outdoor open area near my studio. We worked quickly in order to beat the cold, while using the wind and stormy sky to our artistic advantage. Using some powerful auxiliary lighting on site to sculpt the couple and bring depth into the terrain and sky, we got some breathtaking panoramas.

In this series of three images, notice the storyline as the groom pulls his bride closer for a kiss as she dances towards him.



Of course the bride alone looks fantastic and stunning throughout the shoot. It was hard choosing the best images from this shoot because everything looked spectacular.

As the outdoor wind got frigid, we decided to end the shoot with one more dramatic portrait utilizing the rocks, storm clouds, and wind. In this final portrait, these two look like they’re straight out of a national magazine fashion shoot. Their expressions, body language, all perfect, the wind blowing her veil softly, and custom, dramatic lighting to make the sky and clouds pop.

I loved seeing these two interact on this shoot, and how much the groom helped and protected his bride from this outdoor environment. He carried her over boulders, hugged her, warmed her arms, and continually made sure she was taken care of. I know that these two will have a wonderful life together. And I have loved working on this order and framing and delivering these beautiful portraits. They are seriously breathtaking in person.

If you’re getting married, I’d love to create some amazingly gorgeous images for you too. Everything is custom and there are a lot of things we can do, but here are a few links for some early info…

  • My main portfolio website: BryCox.com
  • My mini site for wedding info
  • Lots of real wedding samples (no fake brides) here on my blog
  • And of course because of the custom nature of what I create, it’s best to give me a call at 801-728-3317 so we can talk more about what you’d like.

And until next time, America.

Two Siblings Get Adopted, Featured KSL News, & Get New Family Portraits

These two siblings get adopted, featured on KSL News, and get new family portraits — all on the same day!

Photographing families and relationships is probably the most important thing I do. I love that we can capture in a single art piece, the feelings of love and deep relationships. And this portrait shoot is extra special because it’s of a new family because two siblings were adopted.

But initially, this brother and sister were in the state foster care system and needed to be adopted. I photograph a number of children each year for the state that are in foster care. It helps them to have great professional portraits that are beautifully lit to show prospective parents, rather than the basic iPhone snapshots that would otherwise be taken by social workers.

That’s when I first met these two, and here’s the image I did of them when they came into my studio. Being brother and sister, I wanted too show the love and affection they have for each other, and how the big sister looks out for her younger brother.

Soon after, the local news station KSL News, featured them on ‘Wednesday’s Child.’ In that interview, the older sister’s leg wiggles nervously and she admits that they may never get adopted.

(Here’s a link to that story and the video of its broadcast.)

Then sometime later I got a call saying these two siblings were going to be adopted. I was invited to the courthouse to photograph the event and do some new family portraits. From those images, I created this gorgeous family album. And this young lady made be a beautiful handmade gift in return. It’s very thoughtful and you can see it near the end of this video.

Here are some of the portraits from the album shown in the video above.

On the evening of the adoption, we had coincidently the big yearly gala for the Utah Adoption Exchange’s Heart Gallery. It’s where the new portraits taken of foster children throughout the year are displayed and revealed to the children. Each portrait is framed and hung on easels around the Utah State Capitol’s rotunda, and the kids get to eat refreshments and see all the photographs.

Again, KSL News was there along with these two newly adopted siblings to showcase their story.

(Here’s a link to that story and it’s news clip below.)

Here are some stills from the broadcast showing my portraits on the monitor behind the news anchors.

Throughout the story, they showed a number of my portraits.

But the heart of the story was this new family.

And there’s a quick glimpse of my profile, as I sit waiting to present my portrait to the family.

It was a great evening and event, and a wonderful time to see families come together, and how portraits are meaningful in that process.

If you’d like some wonderful, updated family or children’s portraits, give me a call at 801-728-3317. I’d love to create something inspiring for you.

And until next time, America.

Travis’s Fall Family Portrait Canvas and Standouts

At the end of fall, I photographed Travis and his beautiful family here in my outdoor studio gardens located right outside my Utah studio. Then later for Christmas I had everything finished and delivered their final order. The morning of the delivery, I made this video showing how gorgeous their finished products looked.

It was great seeing Travis and his beautiful family again. His children are adorable and are growing so fast. I always like to photograph a few options for the large family group, and this was our favorite of everyone. Here at my Utah studio we can do either in-studio images or we can step out into the studio gardens and do outdoor portraits too. For this shoot we choose to shoot outside and take advantage of the last of the good fall weather. And having everyone sitting together on the ground close, was our favorite grouping of the entire family. Hopefully you see how beautiful this looks in the video above.

We also took time to photograph each child and then made up square standout portraits of each one. Doesn’t this little girl make you smile? She’s so cute with her long hair, crossed knees, and feminine pose? The rock stairway was the perfect spot for her individual portrait.

And each child has a perfect and genuine smile, each custom lit, each looking fantastic. These looked beautiful as finished, glazed, square wall pieces.

And to close the shoot, we did one wall portrait of all the kids together in one photograph. There’s a lot of personality in this image. And it’s a piece that they can all look back on for years to come and remember when they were all this age.

It’s always a wonderful thing to update your family portrait. And I know you probably need an updated portrait. We can mix it with larger family groups, or alone with your immediate family, then taking time with your children.

Give me a call at 801-728-3317 and let’s talk about your new family wall portrait.

And until next time, America.

Headshots for Comedian Keith Stubbs

Winter is a great time to update your business headshots and website. A while back I photographed comedian Keith Stubbs because it was time to update his business headshots and we had a great time during the shoot. He’s a standup comedian and you’ll often see him online in photos with all sorts of famous comedians. And when he’s not doing standup, he’s running a comedy club in Utah with three locations, called WiseGuys. If you enjoy comedy and live shows, you should check him out and his clubs. He always has a number of big names coming into Utah to perform.

We shot for a high contrast black and white look, and got a lot of personality in the images. I love how these turned out. They’re tack sharp and have a modern, edgy look.

Here are some of the favorites, all uniquely different and interesting.

Here’s an example of how these images are being used by Keith online. I really like this blue texture behind him. It makes for a great banner on social media.

I’m a Utah based photographer, and depending on the number of people at your business that need headshots, I can often come to you. But you’re also welcome to come right here to my studio here in Davis County, Utah.

If you’d like some new headshots for your business, give me a call at 801-728-3317. And check out my commercial website BryCoxPro.com, for more examples of headshots and business images.

And until next time, America.

Kara’s Bridal Portraits

I just featured Kara’s engagement shoot and I thought I’d continue featuring Kara for another post because her bridals are so beautiful! You have to see these.

I love these of her. She glows in these portraits, and they looked fantastic framed and on display at the wedding reception.

We spent the bridal shoot laughing and having a great time here at my Utah studio, and ended up with lots of favorites. I especially love these two images though, one with a light background and one with a dark background – both dramatic, both gorgeous, and both with a different mood and lighting style.

And of course they looked especially great printed and on display. I’m now finishing the design for her winter wedding album, and I’m excited for her to see all of her gorgeous wedding day images. It has been a joy to work with her and her family.

If you’re getting married, I’d love to photograph your wedding. Here are a few links you’ll like…

I’m a Utah based photographer, and do work all over the USA, and sometimes abroad. My studio in Davis County, Utah is a great place to start if you don’t have a location in mind. It’s especially great for bridal portraits in the winter, but I can always travel to create images on location too. Give me a call and let’s talk about your dream portraits.

And until next time, America.

Kara’s Engagement Portraits

I just photographed a beautiful winter wedding for Kara which I may share later, but I first wanted to share a couple of her gorgeous engagement portraits. Winter is a great time to shoot inside in the warm studio, but the studio is also a great option any time because we have full control of lighting. It makes it easy to change clothes and shoot in multiple outfits if you’d like, we can quickly setup to shoot in both color and black and white, plus studio engagements are especially classy in black and white.

Kara and her husband are great together, treat each other beautifully, and they look beautiful in these engagement portraits. These were the favorites, and we used these in her wedding announcements, as larger wall prints to be displayed in their new home, and on display at the wedding reception.

This was such a fun shoot and I’m so happy for these two finding each other and getting married.

If you’re getting married, give me a call at 801-728-3317. I’d love to photograph your wedding and create some amazing portraits for you to be enjoyed for years to come. I’m a Utah based photographer, and do work all over the USA, and sometimes abroad. My studio in Davis County, Utah is a great place to start if you don’t have a location in mind. It’s especially great for engagements or portraits in the winter, but I can always travel to you too to create images on location too. Give me a call and let’s talk about your dream portraits.

And until next time, America.

New Headshots and Fitness Portraits for Addie

Winter is a great time to update headshots for your business. And I just had the pleasure of photographing Addie for some new headshots and fitness images that she needed for work. Addie travels the globe running marathons (like Boston, London, Germany to name a few), and when she’s in Utah, she trains runners for Life Time Fitness.

We needed to create some beautiful headshots with a commercial white background, and also some fitness images that could be used for banners or social media. So we started here in my studio and got a lot of great headshots. Here are some of my favorites.


Then I had some fun shooting some black and whites with selective focus, like this image.

Then before going outside, we shot a few full body images in the studio. I think these look great.

For the outdoor images, we used a long empty road near my place and set up some lighting to give us a deep blue sky and to overpower the direct sun so we could shoot the directions we wanted.


If you’d like to follow Addie or run in her Run Club, she’s on Instagram as @addielillian. And you should also check out her health-food blog where she cooks new things, beautifully photographs the meal, and posts the recipe. It’s called Addie’s Pantry.

And if you or your business need some new headshots, give me a call, 801-728-3317. I also have a separate website for just headshots and commercial images at BryCoxPro.com.

And until next time, America.