Children, Babies, Maternity

Trajan & Micaela’s Baby at 4 Months

My good friend Trajan and his wife Micaela have a new beautiful baby boy. He’s has the best smile and I had the blessing of photographing him at his 4 month mark. Here’s a video showing the shoot.

I love photographing babies, and having this baby in the studio was extra fun. He laughed, smiled, and gave me a bunch of cute expressions, and was a good sport throughout. Lighting is always key to making baby’s eyes, skin, and coloring pop, while also keeping them in constant focus. And here in my Utah studio, I have a ton of equipment to make the lighting perfect.

I hope you notice that every one of these baby pictures is tack sharp. That’s not always the case with most photographers. Often they have one eye out of focus, or the nose or outfit is in focus, but the eyes aren’t. And often when they have parents holding the baby then mom or dad or even even all three are all out of focus. But you won’t have those amateur problems here with me. Every picture is perfect, which means they can be printed any size, even enlarged and hung on the wall – no problem.

One idea I love for home art installations for baby portraits are my collages. Here’s one I designed up showing a variety of expressions, along with closeups of his tiny hands and feet.

We had so many great photos of him. The shoot went wonderfully and he just smiled at me over and over. Here’s one of my favorites of him smiling, making a great stand-alone photograph or as a trio.


He was already getting big for my wrap, but I thought it was cute with his feet sticking out. 

And this shoot made for a fun excuse to get out my little knit hats and try some of them on him. He placated us by just sleeping soundly during this process.

But then when we changed the studio up for another set of photos, he laughed and played which was perfect for showing his tiny hands and feet. 

This little baby was so fun to work with. His personality really showed through and we got a lot of variety. If you have a new baby, give me a call. And if you have a friend that needs some beautiful baby portraits, send them my way. It’s always fun to have babies in the studio and I am a master at lighting them. My number is 801-728-3317.

And until next time, America.

Street Shoot in Carlisle Pennsylvania, Part 2

While teaching a photographic workshop in Carlisle, Pennsylvania we did a shoot on the beautiful street in front of our hotel. I had previously posted the high school senior that I’d photographed, but I shot a cute little girl who was the daughter of the photographer who organized the event. I wanted to share some of those images as well with again, no retouching. We have great expressions, great skin, eyes that pop, and our color is nailed throughout the shoot. I taught systems for doing all of this on a shoot and these images show how great it works throughout a portrait session.

This little gal had such a variety of expressions, that I thought a composite design was best to show them all off. I can imagine her older in a few years, looking back on this shoot, loving this design, and enjoying her young personality.

And this trio shows off another cute outfit of hers. I really liked her boots in this and wanted to show them off.

If you’re a photographer and want to learn more, check out my live workshops as well as online training at BryCoxWORKSHOPS.com. And if you’re in need of some great photography, give me a call, 801-728-3317. Spring is here and I’d love to create something amazing for you.

And until next time, America.

Free Christmas Cards & Fun Ornaments and Gifts

It’s time to order Christmas cards, and for the next while any wall portrait includes free Christmas cards. Get any wall size (like a 16×20 or larger) and get 25 free custom cards designed using a photo from your shoot.

Photography I believe is one of the absolute best gift ideas. A photo of a loved one is cherished for years, and I have some fun ornaments and gift ideas that you’ll love. You may want to get some of these for yourself as well as for loved ones, like these fun Christmas ornaments.

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These first type of ornaments are printed on metal and are great for children or family portraits. They are $45, or free with qualifying portrait orders.

My second type of ornaments are small boutique framed images, ready to hang with a brown twine loop. These are great for your tree but also are good all year round, hanging on a wall. These are $69, or free with qualifying portrait orders.

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Call me at 801-728-3317 and I’ll get your order going. We can use images from past shoots or current shoots, and I can also ship orders directly to you too.

 

He Is Risen, Sun over Death Valley in Color Infrared for Easter 2016

Being Easter, I wanted to post something and it hit me today what to share. I have been working on this image and many others as part of a big commercial project I did in Death Valley. This image was shot in color infrared, a light spectrum invisible to the human eye. The bright colors are real, they are just not the colors or type of light we see.

So aside from the candy Easter colors, I like this for Easter because the sun is dramatically shining over Death Valley from the horizon as if rising. It says symbolically, “The Son brings light and life to Death.”

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And for a little more Easter spirit, I want to share a video with my little 4-year old nephew narrating it. He was an early reader and last year when my family showed him an Easter video he started reading the captions. My sister and brother-in-law stopped and recorded him and combined his voice with a new version of the video. They did it again this year, and this is it.

And here is last year’s video. More backstory on this in last year’s post.

Plus, here are some photos I did of him in my Utah studio to go with his cute voice.

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Happy Easter, everyone. And until next time, America.

Mayzee’s One-Year Old Portraits

One of the fun things about being a professional portrait photographer for so many years is being able to see my clients grow and change. Many times I’ll photograph families, then the children’s engagements and weddings, then maternity, then baby portraits, then kids and new family portraits. It’s rewarding to see people come in again and again and see how they change and grow over time. It makes many of my clients feel more like family than customers as I’m a part of some of the big moments in their lives.

This particular family portrait has been a favorite of mine and has been a sample canvas on my wall for years. I’ve done a lot of portraits for them over the years and now the second to youngest son (two in from the left side) who is a young man in this family portrait, is much older and married. His wife recently called me.

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They have a beautiful sweet baby that just turned one years old. Her name is Mayzee and she came in for her one-year-old portraits.

She was a joy to photograph and warmed up to me really quickly. She would smile and laugh at me, and was cheerful throughout the entire shoot. Her personality had me laughing most of the time too, and she really responded well to all of my antics.
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Here is a wall collage using a b&w family portrait in the middle and two smaller wall images on the sides.

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And here are those images bigger.

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With her cute clothes and happy personality, we were able to do a variety of backgrounds and options. But no matter what prop I’d bring out to keep her in place and steady on her feet, she really loved my little blue chair the most. She’d push it around like a lawn mower, would sit in it, spin and turn in it, and if I brought out something else, she’d go get the chair and bring it back into the shoot.

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© BryCox.com, Bry Cox

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For this outfit and background I tried my little leather ottoman, but she quickly pushed it away and brought back the chair, as you can see in this trio design below. Another thing to note is that these photographs in these collages below have had zero retouching and no effects.

My specialty is exquisite lighting and emotion. That means that even before images are retouched that they should have the creative side of great expressions and personality, as well as the technical side of perfect skin tones, smooth skin, and sparkly eyes that pop. I don’t fake those things with software effects, filters, or painting afterwards. And the results are images with more emotional impact that I think people can see whether they’re trained in portrait photography or not.

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I really love this shoot and I’m excited to share it with you. There were so many favorites and such a variety of this little girl.
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If you would like some baby portraits that capture personality with a focus on emotion and exquisite lighting, then give me a call. 801-728-3317. Let’s talk about how easy a baby portrait shoot really can go.

Until next time, America.

Happy Mother’s Day (My Two Nephews)

For Mother’s Day, I wanted to honor my sister and mom by posting these two collages I did of my two nephews, ages one and three. We did this shoot because my smallest nephew had just turned one. I had previously posted about my older three year old nephew, but my little one year old nephew is so tiny and cute, I wanted an excuse to feature him as well, and Mother’s Day is perfect for that.

And since these little boys come in quite a bit for photographs, I thought it’d be a fun change to light these little boys with a completely different lighting setup, one that I use for adults because of the exactness of the lighting. Kids move around so much that I need more leeway in my lighting and tend to light them a different way, but these kids are familiar with me and my studio so I tried this fashion style of lighting that I use for my high-contrast black and white series, and it worked great. They were so fun and expressive, it was hard to stop shooting them.

I like the results so much, I am going to have to try this now with other kids that come in to the studio.

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Yesterday was also my brother-in-law’s birthday, and I presented him with these collages as a gift. My older nephew looked at the images and got really happy and proud saying, “That’s when I was laughing, and when you had the pig on your head.”

He’s a smart kid and can replicate my pig puppet routine I do for kids down to the last nuance even weeks after a shoot. In fact, I had just featured my older 3 year old nephew at Easter because he’s reading like crazy, and read a beautiful Easter message I wanted to share.

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So thanks to the women and moms in my family, and thanks all the women and moms out there. Happy Mother’s Day!

And until next time, America.
– Bry

Easter Message & My 3 Year Old Nephew

When my first nephew was born, I bought him the Baby Signing Times video series. Ever since his communication skills have been crazy good. He’s now 3 years old, and I tested him last week by writing out the sentence, “The garbage truck is big and loud.” He read the whole thing but needed help with the word, “loud.”

So this week my sister and brother-in-law showed him the recent LDS Easter message video for Family Night, and he started reading the captions out loud. They thought it’d be a fun family project to record him and combine his voice with the original video. They shared it with me and I thought it’d be the perfect thing to share with everyone as part of my Easter message to all of you.

I also just did this photo shoot of him and he was a blast, giggling and laughing the entire time. And afterwards he mimicked me and my entire pig puppet routine that I’ve used for years to get kids to smile. He reenacted my routine down to the last detail. He’s a very cute and fun kid and I’m a proud uncle.

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Happy Easter, everyone. And maybe soon I’ll share some more images of my family and nephews.

And until next time, America.

Winning Over Deborah’s Cute Kids

When these kids arrived, it was a typical scene where one of the kids (in this case the young boy) didn’t want to be photographed. He cried and carried on about it, and didn’t want to change into his gray sweater and in fact he wouldn’t stand anywhere in the studio without collapsing and crying. But my specialty is exquisite lighting and emotion, meaning that I’m not just going to nail the lighting and technical aspects, but I will also draw out real expressions. I love winning kids over and have worked on it my entire career. In fact I have an entire routine now from years and years of playing with my pink pig puppet in the studio. One of my friends who has moved away, has a few times called me by FaceTime just so I could do my pig puppet routine for her little girl again.

So when this cute, sad guy wouldn’t cooperate, I told him he could keep his white shirt, he could be as sad as he wanted, and he could even have his mom by him. I just needed him to stand here so I could show him my pig puppet.

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This was just the warm-up. Within three images I had him laughing, all that’s all I wanted at that point, was for him to relate standing in my studio to fun and laughter. So at that point I let him go and continued to photograph his sister. She was adorable and cute, and really held her poses well. She was a young model and was warmed up before we started.© BryCox.com, Bry Cox

When it was her brother’s turn again, he was a breeze. I had him won over. We got him in his sweater, he sat in his chair while I moved around the studio adjusting lights and getting things set for him, and when I started my pig puppet routine, he laughed and laughed right on cue. From that point on, he never stopped laughing. I changed setups, I shot black and white, I changed backgrounds, and each time it was his turn, I would start my silly puppet routine and he would laugh. Notice how he’s almost falling out of his chair laughing in some of these photos.© BryCox.com, Bry Cox © BryCox.com, Bry Cox © BryCox.com, Bry Cox © BryCox.com, Bry Cox © BryCox.com, Bry Cox

When it came time for a family group portrait, both of the kids did a great job and we were able to get a great image of everyone. And when everyone left, this little guy was drunk with laughter. He could hardly stand straight. It was so funny, and completely opposite of how he arrived.© BryCox.com, Bry Cox

I love photographing families and children. If you need some great family or kids portraits, now is a great time. The Christmas rush is over, and I can fit you in quickly, 801-728-3317. My studio is located just north of Salt Lake City, Utah, and no matter what the weather is like outside, I can get great images in the studio. And many times you can view them right after the shoot too.

And make sure you check out ideas on my main website too, at BryCox.com. Happy New Year, and until next time, America.

Utah’s Adoption Exchange Heart Gallery on KSL News

Utah’s Adoption Exchange had it’s Heart Gallery opening Wednesday night at the Utah State Capitol. I wasn’t going to post about it publicly, but since it was on KSL News and people have been messaging me about it, I’ll mention it briefly here and then let you read more about it on KSL if you’d like.

For the last few months, some professional photographers including myself have been photographing kids in the Utah foster care program who tend to be older and often overlooked for adoption. It is a wonderful cause and especially good for the kids.

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Having been a portrait photographer for so many years, I really believe in the power of a great portrait. People need great portraits of themselves, and it’s not about ego or esteem or being in love with yourself, but instead it’s about seeing your self-worth.

It is good to regularly see a great portrait of yourself, something that isn’t overly retouched or covered in effects, but instead is real and honest. A great portrait should capture the sparkle and light in you and make you feel good about who you are when you see it. That’s why I said yes to this program. I especially love to photograph children, and this was a great opportunity to share with some specific kids at a very formable age, a new perspective as to who they are inside.

There are many ways to help, and I think this is a powerful one. Imagine a child for instance that usually avoids eye contact and rarely smiles, but then is given a powerful photograph of themselves that they see every day. And in that photograph they see a different perspective of themselves and they know on some level is a true version of who they are. They know nothing is fake about the photo, and looking at it they see a version of themselves looking confident, have unwavering eye contact, and smiling with a glow and sparkle in their eye.

I know seeing an image like that speaks volumes to the subconscious and helps with identity and self-worth. I’ve had past clients tell me this very thing for years, sharing stories about their child I photographed, sometimes a high school senior who came out of his/her shell after our photo shoot, or of girls who had gotten married or their dating life surged because of the new-found confidence and new way of seeing themselves after our shoot.

I hope that that these kids we photographed for this adoption project will see themselves in a new light too, and that the families looking to adopt can see them in a brighter light as well.

I’m grateful to have been able to help with this project. If you’d like to see more about it, here is a link to the KSL news story, and here are links to the Utah Adoption Exchange and specifically the Heart Gallery photographs. (And above is the video clip from KSL’s news broadcast that should play by clicking on it.)

Until next time, America.

Shasta’s Engagement & Family Portraits

We had such a fun time creating these engagement portraits of Shasta and her fiancé. We did a mix of outdoor and studio portraits and some of our favorites were high contrast black & whites from the studio.

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I took some of the favorites and created this 9-up collage. It looked so beautiful when it was finished and framed.

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Shasta also has 3 adorable little kids and we took the opportunity to create a new updated family portrait.

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Her kids were so cute and fun, that we did some individual portraits of them as well. I spent most of the shoot laughing with them because they were so funny. I think you can see that in the photos. They each had so many great images and each showed different sides of their personality, that I ended up using a few images of each child to create this collage.

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I am excited for this marriage and hope these guys all have a wonderful new life together, and I can’t wait to photograph this awesome family again.

If you’d like some new family portraits, children’s portraits, or even some engagement portraits for your upcoming wedding, give me a call. It’s a great time to come in before the fall rush. 801-728-3317.

And until next time, America.

New Baby Isabelle’s Portraits

I always get excited when someone calls me to photograph their new baby, especially when the baby is brand new. Baby Isabelle came in for her first photo shoot during her first couple weeks, and she was a joy to photograph. She was so expressive and so pretty, that it was hard to pick our top favorites.

This first portrait is definitely a favorite because I love creating images like this, of a mom holding her new baby. However these images are the hardest to create on a first baby shoot. But looking at this image, you’d never know how hard these are to do because this looks stunning and effortless. I love that both are looking at each other and interacting, and the emotion in it is wonderful.

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Next is a trio that captures the essence of everything I want in a newborn’s first photo shoot. It shows how little and cute Isabelle is, how pretty her eyes and expressions are, and how tiny her hands and feet are. It is something that will look gorgeous on the wall and for years to come, will bring joy when the family looks at it. Babies change and grow so fast, that it’s fun to see how tiny and little they once were, and to have some perspective with the loving hands of mom in the image as well.

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I really appreciate the opportunity to meet and photograph baby Isabelle. If you are expecting or would love some new baby portraits that are artistic and beautiful and completely different from everything else out there, then give me a call. I’d love to create something amazing for you. 801-728-3317

And until next time, America.

 

Paul and Mandi’s Fall Family Portraits

I say this a lot, but I love photographing families and children. It is so fun to capture and create art pieces that preserve the ages, emotions, and feelings of a family at a particular time in life. And this family was a blast to work with, and the kids were so adorable and fun. It was a great shoot and I wanted to share it.

First, one of my favorite family paintings I’ve created in a long time. For those unfamiliar with my process, I start out creating a photograph, in this case in my outdoor studio gardens, and from there I use it to create a painting. And this one is so amazing. I’m going to have to make one up for my studio as a sample. It has such great emotion, the family walking together, the children’s cute faces looking up, and the great textures throughout. This is going to look amazing when it’s hanging in their home.

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And here is their family grouping in the leaves. Everyone looks so good, and the children’s faces just shine.Cox_Lei-F-115

 

And to create a nice wall grouping in their home, to go on either side of the above family group are two squares, one of each child that will be framed the same.

I love how she is sitting so cute and feminine, keeping her hands so perfect…Cox_Lei-F-145

…and he is sitting like a little man, with his knee up and shoulders out. Cox_Lei-F-177

Finishing up the session is this final couple portrait of Paul and Mandi.Cox_Lei-F-202I had a ball with this family and am loving working on their order right now. I can’t wait to deliver it all and see it hanging in their home.

November is a great time to get in and get family portraits for Christmas, cards, and family gifts. Check out the November special right now and call now for the best availability.

And until next time, America.