Are you a professional photographer in Texas? Check your current copy ofĀ Texas Professional PhotographerĀ Magazine for an article I wrote, called “Preparedness & Optimism ā Dealing with Uncertain Times Ahead.”
Here’s what the cover looks like…
…And here is my article.
For more articles and info for photographers, see my workshop site at BryCoxWORKSHOPS.com and come see me speak in Texas for an entire week in April 2013. Details are on my workshop site.
Until next time, America.
Every year at this time, I design, layout, and print about 20,000 Christmas audio CDs for a client and friend, James Conlee. Ā I always make sure that I get some copies for myself that I can give to all my current clients and friends. Ā This yearās album is especially beautiful and I’m excited for you all to see and hear it.
With every order between now and Christmas, you’ll get your own copy (while supplies last).
This produced every year by one of my best friends, James Conlee who produces and oversees the entire album. Ā In fact it is a joint project of friends in many ways because the cover painting is by another friend of ours,Ā James ChristensenĀ (a famous painter with Greenwich Workshops).
This year, his painting used for the cover is “Cecelia,”Ā which is incredibly colorful and beautiful. I love the different uses of various types of brush strokes, the various hues, and the beauty of the entire piece, thoughĀ James Christensenās paintings are always incredibly captivating. His artwork really makes this CD artwork wonderful.
I had a hard time cropping his image for a square cover, as the entire painting is so wonderful. I did however, use some tricks with the type over the painting to make it blend in more and seem more like gold leaf embedded into the canvas.
Itās a little known fact that I design all of the CDs that James Conlee produces, and I think that this is the 13th CD Iāve designed for him. The music for this particular project was recorded with the Prague Symphony Orchestra and withĀ The Madeleine Choir of Salt Lake City.
So for all my holiday clients that are ordering this time of year, whether you get a large collection of various wall portraits or even just reorder one small 8Ć10 print, I am giving you a FREE 2012 Christmas CD! Ā The cover painting is phenomenal, the music is phenomenal, and the whole production is worth owning!Ā In fact, if you’re a current client and don’t have anything to order right now, still call me and stop by and I’ll make sure you get a copy as well.
We are getting close to Christmas as far as appointments go, so if youād like some fantastic images of yourself or your family, nowās the time to get in the studio. Ā Give me a call atĀ 801-728-3317Ā to set thing up. Ā And remember, Iāll include a Christmas CD with your order.
And feel free to check out my main website atĀ BryCox.com, and until next time, America.
Last November, I photographed Catelin’s wedding in the beautiful fall colors. While updating my main website, I posted it to display the entire album.
It was a freezing, cold day, yet the images look warm and inviting. HereĀ are some of the double-page spreads from the book. Each graphic folds down the middle in the actual album.
I loved the drama in the sky and the love these two had for each other. It was a wonderful day and a wonderful album.
This couple is really stunning together, and I love the various poses and use of color throughout the book.
As the night drew on, the sunset was surreal and magical.
The great thing about seeing an entire wedding album, is that you get to see how I work all day long. You get to see how great the couple looks and how spectacular the lighting is all throughout the day and into the night. You get to see that I don’t work by hoping to get lucky images, but rather I work to create well-crafted pieces of art created in all lighting environments ā through daylight, twilight, nighttime, inside and out.
To see the entire album, visit my main site, BryCox.com. Then go to Portfolio > Wedding > Wedding Albums. Catelin’s album should be the first one to show right now, the “Salt Lake Temple and JSMB in the Fall.”
Now is a great time to get fall portraits. I still have a bit more time with leaves on the ground here at the studio garden location. Give me a call at 801-728-3317.
Until next time, America.
The other day I photographed Sophie’s wedding. I had originally posted her bridals on her wedding day, and I thought it’d be fun to post a few images from her wedding day as a sneak peak.
The weather was amazing, the sun was shining, the canyon wasn’t too windy, and the fall colors looked so inviting, that I took the couple off to do a few fall portraits.
And here is one of them at the Draper temple, after the ceremony. Having such a bright and sunny day meant that I had to be extra careful and precise in how I lit this image. I really wanted a nice and vivid blue sky and I love how this final image looks. The leading lines all work so well, their expressions are great, they both look happy, relaxed, and the image is just inviting.
As soon as I finish their album and design, I’ll post it here as well.
So, until next time, America. š
Usually I only get to post the images I create. At this event, one of the photographers in attendance, Joanne Murray took a number of images of me working and was kind enough to provided them to me. I really appreciate that and am posting them here so that you can see another view of this workshop.
Having so many out-of-town jobs in a row, I was sporting a trip beard.
If you compare these images of me working to the previous post of finished portraits, you can see how I created the images. this one below was one that I featured on the last post. I wanted a unique angle and balanced on the tip of the bench, then held my light out at the right angle with one hand and photographed her with the other hand.
Here we are after dinner, setting up for the night shoot.
Here’s me using a reflector to help control the natural light.
You should see the image I created here too in the previous post. what you can barely see here is that the flash I’m using is off to the side. I don’t like using just pure natural light, as it is never coming in at the correct direction that I need it. I always need to correct it somewhat to get a spectacular image.
And finally, Joanne was kind enough to be my ride and escort from Seattle to Port Townsend. We had a long and lovely drive that included a ferry ride. Here is one of her images of me on the ferry.
If you’re looking to attend one of my photographic workshops, please check out my workshop site, atĀ BryCoxWORKSHOPS.com. There are new events being announced all the time. I hope to see you at one soon.
Until next time, America! š
I taught a weeklong photographic workshop called ‘Evergreen’ outside of Seattle in a small town called Port Townsend. Here are some of the images from that event.
Usually as I travel and move, I create images — it’s like a part of my brain that doesn’t turn off. I see abstract shapes in everything around me.
For a while now, I’ve created some of these images on my iPhone because it makes it extra fun. You see, the iPhone in its simplicity, doesn’t have any exposure controls, so so I have to think around its limitations. That particular method of thought makes me think differently and I tend to create different images than I normally would.
While teaching, I demonstrate various types of equipment and techniques. All of these image were created in front of the group, from the initial creation, to the workflow and the final retouching.
We also used a minimal amount of equipment, staying as mobile as possible, and used backgrounds and locations right there within walking distance. When I’m shooting at a workshop, I specifically like to focus on teaching three things:
1) Make the most of what you’ve got. For instance, instead of wondering if there’s a better place nearby, instead ask yourself how you can make a particular area work as a cool background?
2) We don’t want just good images, we want to createĀ fantastic images that have punch and emotion.
3) We want all the work to be done in camera so that we don’t have to fix anything later. The images should be perfectly exposed, have the perfect color balance, have a strong emotion and believable expression, and be lit with control from the right angles. That way anything we do to the image later will be for fun instead of to fix it.
Most of these images have very little work done to them, and what work was done was done quickly in front of the class using special techniques and some of my specific products. In fact, using these techniques it seems that it actually takes more time to pick favorites than it does to finish them up.
So these girls told us that a lot of local photographers use the area for senior shoots, so we really wanted to create unique images, find cool nooks, and use the area in new ways.
I think you can tell that the shoot was a lot of fun for everyone.
Hopefully you can see that we really created a lot of variety, and used all sorts of areas to our advantage. We wanted to create a lot of different looks as quickly as possible, and make something wonderful from each spot.
That night after dinner, we invited the girls to come meet us in town for some night shooting. Instead of the normal dark or flat images that are typical at night, instead I showed how to create depth and how to get perfect exposures while working with various off-camera flashes.
The challenge here was to show that no situation is difficult when we really understand light. Below, is a mulit-light setup using a streetlight for interest. I angled her so that the wind was working with her hair, and I really like how these turned out.
And finally we took our model Lane, out on the pier, looking out towards the water. The first image is a photograph, and the second is a painting that I created from another photograph in the series.
If you’re looking to attend one ofmy photographic workshops, please check out my workshop site, at BryCoxWORKSHOPS.com. There are new ones being announced all the time. I hope to see you at one soon.
Until next time, America! š
Today is Sophie’s wedding and I’m actually out shooting it. But I thought it’d be a good day to post her wonderful bridal portraits, created on-location at the Salt Lake City Capitol Building.
I really liked Sophie’s style and personality, and we had fun creating a number of images outside, taking advantage of theĀ beautiful sky and clouds. These were some of her and her mom’s favorites. This top image shows one side of her personality, mixed with the tall and dynamic pillars around her.
Below is anĀ epic full length, that’s just dramatic!
We did a series of black & white detail images and with those, I created this trio series.
Then on our way inside, we created another fun series by the door.
Once inside we focused on some fun yet, telling images with dramatic lighting, like this image of Sophie sitting, showing of her cute yellow shoes.
And being a dancer, we had to create something stunning with her point shoes. This was my favorite, her up on her toes, with a perfect expression, while being perfectly framed and lit to create drama and direct attention.
Then on the way out we stopped to take advantage of the beautiful sunset light, first with a close up black and white,…
…and then with these two final close-ups showing the details of her ring and necklace.
Congratulations, Sophie! I wish you a wonderful life and know you’ll have a great wedding. We’ll really create some great images!
Until next time, America.
I was interviewed by Professional Photographer Magazine, a publication that goes out to all professional photographers throughout the US as well as other parts of the world as well. That interview is now out in the currentĀ October 2012 issue.
This is the cover (image is not by me), and below are some screen shots of my article where all the images are mine.
The article is humorously titled, “The Anti-Specialist” because where most photographers need to focus on one niche or another to succeed, my particular specialty has been to focus on exquisite lighting and emotion. I mix technical proficiency with a unique style of creativity to develop images that tell a story of the person being photographed, and hopefully makes the viewer feel like they know the person. It’s a uncommon approach that allows me to photograph a mix of genres well, likeĀ families, children, weddings, and even celebrities and VIPs.
For the opening spread, the magazine chose my images of Linda Rondstadt and Olympic Gold-Medalist, Rulon Gardner.
The last image used, is of 90 year old sax player, Joe McQueen. Interestingly, this is the second time this magazine has asked to use this image. I can see why as it really is one of my favorite portraits. It shows dramatically what exquisite lighting and emotion can do to make an image unique and inviting.
I really appreciate and feel honored to have been interviewed for the magazine, and I love the direction they took with the article. I hope other professional photographers find it interesting and helpful.
Well, until next time, America. š
After my state competition earlier this month, my images went on to District Regionals where I won the High Print Case for all of Utah (usually called “Photographer of the Year” at the state level), “4 for 4” meaning that all 4 prints scored so well that I’ll receive a national Photographer of the Year award in 2013, and finally my lighthouse image, “Isle of Light” won a a special “Distinguished” award and was my highest scoring print.
This is the 2nd time I’ve won the High Print Case for Utah at Regionals (SWPPA), and the 4th time I’ll have won the Photographer of the Year award on the national level. I’ll have to wait until next summer to find out what rank I’ll be, Diamond, Gold, Silver, or Bronze. So I’ve won two Bronze and one Silver.
Earlier this month I won four more awards at the state level:Ā another Kodak Gallery Award (that makes 7 of these for me know), theĀ ASP State Elite Award (called the Best of the Best, my 2nd one),Ā 1st Place Masterās division, andĀ Masterās Court of Honor.
I’ll let you know how this print case does at nationals in the summer of 2013.
Until next time, America!
Part 2 of my trip was spent in a little coastal town called Port Townsend. I was atĀ 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 occasionĀ 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. š
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.
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), theĀ ASP State Elite Award (called the Best of the Best, my 2nd one),Ā 1st Place Master’s division, andĀ 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. Ā 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. Iāll keep you all posted.
Until next time, America.