Author: BryCox (Admin)

Every year for many years now, I’ve been asked to speak at the world’s biggest weeklong workshop in the world, Texas School!  It’s for professional photographers who want to learn sharpen their saws and do better in all areas of their business from creativity to technical to business.

I create images right in front of people and show how things are done, as well as take classroom time to delve into deeper concepts.  It’s a way for photographers to spend a whole week with me and really learn a lot.

Here are some images I created while teaching there this year.  I created these first few images while talking on fashion lighting, posing, and creativity.  I was how to do a fashion shoot and make the most of the model and the local area.  This particular model was a lot of fun with her funky clothing and pink hair.

These images are un-retouched too, straight out of the camera.  I speak a lot on getting images that look great right in the camera — nailing the lighting, the exposure, the white balance, the expression, and the positioning.  Everything should look great without any computer work and images should not need lots of retouching.  One of my big pet peeves actually is when I see photographers over-retouch their images.  I don’t like to see “plastic” people.

These next images were how to light and photograph women in a studio setting, and and make them look good and real.  Because she was a young girl (senior age), I also showed how to create and use fun effects like special color toning and edges.

This series of images below were on how to photograph couples.  As is the case in each of these shoots, I meet the people I’m to photograph for the first time as I actually photograph them.  Unlike working with actual clients in my studio where I get to first meet people at least a few times before photographing them and build a rapport, these people I meet just as it’s time to photograph them.  It’s a fun challenge to take complete strangers, and in front of a watching crowd of photographers, create images that bring out these people’s true personality.

Then I took some of their images and made up a design trio.

I love to tell stories in three images.

So the Texas School workshop is not just about intense training every day for a week, but they do a great job of making things fun at night too.  On one night, the Texas group hired a band, on another, they had a massive image shoot-out, and on another, they had a Mardi Gras party.  I didn’t have a costume for the Mardi Gras party, so my assistants made me one.  It consisted of a purple cape, crown, and feather boa.

And one of my favorite things about going to Texas is seeing a lot of my favorite friends.

If you’re a photographer and would like to attend one of my events, please check out my speaking website for an updated schedule,BryCoxWORKSHOPS.com.  Also, if a big event isn’t your style or if there aren’t any events in your area, you can host a small and intimate event at your place as long as at least 8 photographers attend.  If you can get 8 or more there, you can attend for free!  Call me for more details.

Well thanks for looking and please browse my main website at BryCox.com(or my entire blog if you’re reading this in a separate feed reader BryCox.com/blog).

Good news about Iceland! So Einar who is the man in charge of the Iceland photographic expedition contacted me, and he’s really upped the ante quite a bit to help me fill my workshop in July!  I am so excited by this.  He said he will offer you an additional 10% off by signing up a friend, who will also get 10% off).

This discount is in addition to the 10% off you get already by signing up before the end of May!  That’s 20% off your total, and you will share a double room with your friend.  So cool!

That means get the word out to your friend and you will BOTH save some money!

What’s great about Einar is that he does everything top notch!  These images are from his facebook today, of him taking an expedition up to check out the volcano that erupted recently.  He always takes professional vehicles driven by professional drivers on any expedition.

When we go, it will be no different.  We will be traveling with Einar and his elite team of locals who know all the nooks and crannies — the most beautiful hidden spots.  We will be avoiding the people and the popular tourist places, because his team really knows where each photographic oasis is.  And they require special vehicles to get there!  Click here for more info on our Adventure in Iceland.

Look at this amazing image, with the volcano going off in the distance!!  Wow!  So maybe you heard about the volcanic eruption in Iceland.  Know that it won’t affect our workshop at all.  In fact, it may actually make some scenes more dramatic!  Einar says that Iceland has regular volcanic eruptions and this is the 36th or 37th one since 1902.  This is not news to them, and is very common, similar to living in Hawaii I suppose.  He sent me some facts about volcanos in Iceland, and they are listed below.

One of the things I’m excited most about for the Iceland adventure, is that all the extra costs, the hotels, the travel, the professional drivers, the elite team of local guides, the weather team we will have watching things for us — everything is included!  There is no way you will ever find another adventure like this ever.  And on top of it all, we will be creating some of the coolest photographs ever!  Please pass this info on to anyone you think is interested.

I’ve created a flyer that you can print out, show, or even email around.  Click on it to see it in a full printable view.  Or send people this address so they can see it or print it themselves (https://brycox.com/iceland/BryCox_Iceland_Flyer-200p-web.jpg)

And you can always go here for more info too:  https://brycox.com/iceland

Some facts about Iceland and Volcanos from Einar:

• We here in Iceland are experiencing mother nature blowing out a little once again. It is like her house cleaning. It is the 36t or 37th volcano eruption since 1902, so it is no news to us.
• This time the eruption is in Vatnajökull, the largest glacier in Europe, approx 8,100 square km. It is in a place on the glacier called Grimsvotn or the “Waters of Grimm”.
• Eruption in that areas are common and tend to be in a wave frequency. But there is an active volcano there and regularly there is a flood from underneath the glacier, like an outburst flood of melted water which comes flowing from under the rim of the glacier on the south side and floods down to the sea over a sand desert every 2nd or 3rd year.
• Last autumn was a outburst flood from Grimsvont. So now when there is an eruption there, there is little ice or water to stop the eruption going through. But it is still all in a wet area so the eruption gushes up in the form of ash. It was estimated about 12 million tons of ash was gushing up in the air each second y’day.
• That is enormous amount of ash going up in the air. Some of it falls down on land on the south-east of Iceland, but a lot of it goes high up in the air, as far as 12 – 15 thousand meters and the blows with the high wind over to the East and South East of Iceland.
• Some times when we hear figures like 12 million tons of ash pr. second they are beyond our imagination. But then we are often not aware of that 2-3 inches of rain falling on to 10.000 square km area is enormous amount of water.
• I just spoke with my uncle who is a farmer on a farm close to Vatnajokull where my mother was born and where I used to work during summer holidays when I was young. Visibility y’day was no more than dusk, but it is little bit better now. All his sheep and animals are in house or by the barns where they can get hey and fresh water. So there is no one that has been effected by this eruption in other way that some people have to work long hours to look after their stock.
• In Iceland we have excellent public rescue and safety system. There is a fully computerized high technical central in Reykjavik linked to stations around the country which are activated under those circumstances. They use special vehicles, even water and ash tight, to drive between places to assist people, hand out breathing masks and be sure everyone has fresh water and enough food, etc.
• The news people tend to make the most of this. Armageddon or Ice age is beginning or what ever, but then within two to three days they have found something else to sell.
• Basically I want you all to know this will in no way have effect on our FocusOnNature workshops. It might make some scenarios more dramatic, but in other way it does not have any effect on our program.

Thank you Einar, for that great information.  Don’t forget to pass around the poster on my Iceland site.  Link to it, pass it around, or even print it out.  Check it out above or get it and any other info you need at https://brycox.com/iceland

Also, feel free to browse my main website at BryCox.com or more from my blog if you’re reading this in a separate feed reader BryCox.com/blog.)

For the next two weeks (until the end of May), get 10% off my Iceland photographic adventure workshop!!  This is not cheap because it costs to put on such an event in such a wonderful part of the world, but it will be the photographic adventure of a lifetime!  It covers all the hotels and travel throughout Iceland for our group, as well as personal and group instruction from me.  I’ll be talking, teaching and helping everyone get the absolute best images possible as we move and travel to the best places possible.

Twilight is one of the most beautiful times of day for me for light.  But in Utah, it only lasts about 10 minutes at the end of the day. But in Iceland, the sun rises and sings on an angle so twilight lasts 4 to 5 hours each day!  We will utilize this amazing time of day to create fantastic images all over Iceland.  We will travel during the down times, charge equipment, and critique images, then get set up so that we can shoot again when the light is amazing!  We will have local photographers guiding us through their terrain and country, constantly watching the weather for us so that we can be in the right places at the right times.  We will adapt, change directions, and go where we need to create the best photographs possible. This is not a trip you could ever do on your own.

Have you ever been on a trip with non-photographers and you see something you want to stop and photograph?  Perhaps you are able to talk everyone into stopping once or twice, while you set up and create a few images, and perhaps you need to wait for the light to move and get better.  But no matter what, your constant need to stop and look, and feel your surroundings begins to anger your group and you feel them grow restless throughout the trip.  Eventually you either give up and just travel alone or you stick with the group and give up on creating great images.  Sadly, the photos you do end up taking simply become ‘documentary’ images of your trip — but they’re not fantastic.

Well come have the photographic adventure of a lifetime!  Come travel and have fun with a small group of photographers who think like you and want to stop and create great images. Come travel for the sole purpose of experiencing Iceland and the wide gamut of photographic opportunities that it offers: the shores, the mountains, the villages, the meadows, and everything in between, and do so with people that think and feel like you.  There is no set agenda because we’ll be moving as we need to, to get to the right places for the week we’re there.  We’ll be making the absolute most of our time there.

During our down times, we will review what we’ve each created and then critique and fine-tune our images so that we can create even better images at the next spot. We will constantly be looking for composition, point of view, and impact.  I will even show you some tips and tricks for digital workflow as well as digital enhancement so that your images look their best.

This workshop is limited to a small group of people, and we already have someone signed up from Egypt as well as others from around the country.  I love knowing that we will work and create art with people from all over the world, each with a different way of looking at the world with their lens.  Yet we will find commonality and camaraderie in being artists working together to create wonderful and inspiring images.

If you know someone that would be interested, please pass this info along.  The 10% off is good for bookings through the end of this month.  This is for photographers who love adventure, but it’s not limited to professionals.  This is open to anyone who loves photography and adventure and wants to come with me, learn, and create some of the best photographs of their life.

For more info go to the official Focus On Nature website.  To book your slot on my tour, click here, and check the box next to my name and workshop (Bry Cox).  And contact me with any questions you may have.  I’d love to see you in Iceland with me!!  Come get lost in Iceland with Bry Cox!

(Also, feel free to browse my main website at BryCox.com or more from my blog if you’re reading this in a separate feed reader BryCox.com/blog.)

[The photographs in this post were created in Iceland and are used by permission.]