Senior/Grads

Alex’s High School Senior Portraits

Warm weather is back again in Utah, and that means it’s time for high school senior portraits. Last year, even during the pandemic, I was photographing high school seniors. I think it’s especially important to capture these memories when schools are cancelling events, or cutting the year short. Lots of seniors didn’t get their prom dance, or graduation, or any of the other things they had looked forward to.

And though 2021 is looking much better than last year, hopefully fewer plans are cancelled. Nevertheless, it’s especially important to show high school seniors some extra love and attention. You’re only a senior once, and then life starts to change dramatically after kids graduate and go off to college or do other things in life. It’s important to capture this important time in life.

So last year I had a great time creating these images for Alex. When I photograph seniors, I like to create an over-the-top art piece to highlight who they are. I use my expertise in creating commercial ads for magazines to create something awesome for the senior.

It starts off with the question, “Who is your senior? And what does he/she love to do?” For Alex, he’s a daredevil and loves skydiving.

I created this piece for Alex by photographing him in the studio and then creating this composite for both a wall art piece and also his senior portrait album. I put him in one of my graduation robes, gave him some of my motorcycle goggles, and then posed him with a fan blowing his tassel and gown. The rest I created later as a digital composite. I really love how this turned out.

Of course with every senior portrait session, I create a variety of images that capture the senior’s personality in the studio, using a mix of backgrounds and changes of outfits. These are great for an album design and smaller prints.

These double-page spreads are just some of the layouts from Alex’s senior album. The facing pages are designed using images that work together and tell a story about the senior. I like mixing color and black & white, headshots with mid-lengths, casual clothes with dressy.

And Alex had a hat that he loves to wear, so we made sure we got it in a variety of his portraits.

Finishing up the session, we did some dressy images in a suit along with a graduation gown.

The various pieces Alex and his family ordered looked beautiful and it was great to create and deliver them to his family.

If you’re a senior, now is the time to get your portrait session booked. Give me a call at 801-728-3317 and let’s talk more about what makes you YOU! And let’s capture that in some beautiful portraits you’ll love for a lifetime.

And until next time, America.

Bella in San Jose, California

I recently had the pleasure of photographing Bella in San Jose, California. I was teaching an adaptive lighting class to photographers there, and she was my model.

We made the shoot extra hard by shooting outside at the worst time of day (noon), and also mixed in some indoor shooting using a small lighting kit. I wanted to show photographers that no matter the circumstances, we can always create great images because we should always control light. That means correctly sculpting people with that light, making them look amazing no matter what, and mixing our lighting with other lighting conditions like bright sunlight.

These images turned out wonderful. I wanted you all to see them.

Had we shot with no lighting at all and relied on haphazard results (what new photographers call “natural light”), she would have had dark eyes, muddy skin, and our background would be too bright and blown out. Instead, by teaching various techniques of light control, we got fantastic images where her skin glows, her eyes pop, and the background can be as bright or dark as we want.

I went for a darker background so that we’d have a blue sky and deep greens in the foliage behind the model. I want to control the viewer’s eye so that it immediately goes to the model.


Aside from shooting a variety of options outside, I also did some demos inside using just the lighting gear that I brought with me on the plane. And you’ll see that even indoors, we can continually get great results. Besides great expressions, you’ll notice the soft shadow on the cheek, soft skin, and eyes that pop.

Thank you to Bella for being our model, and thank you to all the photographers who both attended and also worked behind the scenes to make the workshop in San Jose, California possible.

If you’d like some great portraits, give me a call at 801-728-3317. Even though we’re under quarantine here in Utah, some photoshoots are still possible with the right precautions – particularly high school senior portraits. And others types of shoots can be booked out a bit further too.

And if you’re a photographer that would like some training, check out my training website, BryCoxWORKSHOPS.com

And until next time, America.

Ashleigh in Santa Ana, CA

I recently had the pleasure of photographing Ashleigh in Santa Ana, California. She was my model for a photography workshop I was teaching there. I taught adaptive lighting techniques for portraiture, both in studio and on location.

I taught this event for 2 days at the California Center for Digital Arts, where I used their studio for the indoor photographs. For our outdoor location shoot, we stepped outside onto the street to use the sidewalk, alleyway, and nearby buildings – continually mixing sunlight with studio flash.

I love how these turned out and wanted to share them with you.

Ashleigh’s friend Natalie was her hair and make up artist, and she looked so pretty that I thought it’d be great to include her in a photograph too. Here they are together.

For the outdoor portraits, I liked them in both color and black and white. But the black & white gives them a great vibe with the textures of the street. And they work great in b&w for this trio design.

Here they are up close though so you can see how beautiful they each are.

Ashleigh did a great job and I appreciate her being my model for this event. And thank you to all the photographers that came to this 2-day learning event.

If you’d like some great portraits, give me a call at 801-728-3317. Even though we’re under quarantine here in Utah, some photoshoots are still possible with the right precautions. And others can be planned out too.

And if you’re a photographer that would like some training, check out my training website, BryCoxWORKSHOPS.com

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.

High School Senior & Modeling Portraits of Ashton in Texas

I love photographing high school seniors because I’m able to be more creative. There’s a lot of variety that we can create in the studio in a short amount of time too. While in Texas, I photographed this beautiful model, Ashton. She was great and we got some killer images.

This shoot was part of a longer weeklong photographic workshop where I train photographers in Texas on lighting, expression, posing, and more. I’d demo specific concepts for a few moments and then let the other photographers shoot. So in these training/demo shoots, my actual shooting time is short – only segments of 5 minutes here and there. I set it up so that the photographers taking my course to try things for themselves with real models.

But when I combine all the concepts that I teach into any shoot, even short segments like this, I end up with powerful images with exquisite lighting, perfect exposure and color balance, that also incorporate real and genuine expressions. So yes, even in that short amount of time I have a lot of images to choose from, all great. Here are some of my top favorites.

In the image above, I created a custom art piece by mixing textures with some creative editing. Those techniques mixed with her expression makes for a very captivating portrait. Then below, I did some custom color toning for another unique image.

These were part of my first quick shoot with Ashton, were I photographed her on deep blue with a variety of lighting styles. Notice that we have a mix of poses and expressions while the lighting and technical details all remain perfect.

Then before she left, I did one more quick shoot of her in a new outfit and on my fashion grey background. These images were strong individually, but I also liked them in sets of three to show movement and personality.

I love training photographers to do better, teaching creativity mixed with solid techniques. Ashton was a great model and I love the images we got.

If you’re a high school senior, it’s a great time to do some cool photos for you. And here at my studio, I’ll typically do even bigger shoots than this for seniors. I love creating a variety with clothing changes, location options, plus over-the-top art pieces that really show your personality. Give me a call at 801-728-3317 and let’s set something up for you.

And if you’re a photographer looking for more training like this, check out my online courses or in-person workshops at BryCoxWORKSHOPS.com.

And until next time, America.

Wil’s High School Senior Portrait Order

It’s back to school and time for High School Senior Portraits. We can be super creative and pull out all the stops with seniors, creating variety and personality in photographs that look like magazine ads. Seniors love the creativity and parents love how their child’s personality is captured at this milestone and time of life. 

I’m excited to share with you Wil’s senior photographs because they really show his personality in a creative way. It’s delivery day and here’s a video showing his order and products ready for delivery.

Here’s a close up some some of those images shown in the video, starting with this pool collage of Wil as a swimmer. As Captain of the swim team, we really wanted to show off this particular accomplishment and time in life. So I created this collage using the same techniques I use on high-end commercial shoots and ads. The result is a sharp and cool image of water splashing around Wil as he stands by a pool.

I love going overboard like this for seniors and creating epic art pieces for their home that they can look back on with nostalgia for many years to come.

And here’s his 9-up wall collage design. These are a great way to show various sides to your personality.

Here are some of the pages from his album, starting with some portraits in his suit, representing his upcoming LDS mission.

And here’s some portraits in casual clothing using various backgrounds to accentuate the colors and mood.

 

 

Near the end of the album we have some workout portraits that show the Captain on his sleeve. We used different backgrounds including the empty street.

 

 

You really have to see how cool these albums and wall collages are in person. Give me a call if you’d like to meet in person and talk about options for senior photography. And if you’re a 2020 senior, now’s the time to get in for your portrait session. We’ve got some warm weather and options for inside and outside portraits before the late summer rush. Give me a call at 801-728-3317 and let’s create some really cool photographs of you that capture your personality with variety.

And until next time, America.

Modeling and Senior Portraits of Summer in Texas

I had a great time getting to know Summer and photographing her as she modeled for me. I was demonstrating lighting and client interaction while teaching a weeklong photographic workshop in Texas. She was a beautiful girl and a lot of fun to hang out with, and as you can see, we got a lot of beautiful images in a short amount of time.

I start with teaching a primary focus on perfect exposures, perfect color balance, and exquisite lighting that sculpts and flatters the model. From there as a photographer we must interact and connect with the model in order to get real and wonderful expressions instead of the typical fake smiles that are all too common.

And as you can see from this shoot, Summer’s personality made all of this easy. We had a great time and created a lot of beautiful images with genuine and captivating expressions, despite our actual shooting time being very short. Because I’m training and getting other photographers to shoot and practice these concepts, it means I only step in and photograph models like Summer in small chucks of 5 minute intervals here and there. But even with small 5 minute intervals, you can see that we’ve got a lot of beautiful images of her. Here are some of my favorite images.

Starting on a fashion gray background to go along with her black outfit, and as if she was a high school senior in my studio, I shot quickly for variety of styles, expression, and poses. You can see that we have smiles, but also thoughtful and serious images. We have close ups, mid-length, and full-length. We have a lot of variety in a lot of ways, and all of these are very beautiful of her. These would make a wonderful album or even a great series of images in a wall collage.

To demonstrate location lighting, I took her to the end of the hotel’s bar in her beautiful gown, and balanced auxiliary lighting with the bar lights to create a warm mood.

Later in a new outfit, I created these portraits of her on my deep blue background, again shooting for variety. And again, all looking beautiful.

And before sending her home, we ended the shoot with a quick selfie together.

And a few days later I had a night demo and again was able to photograph Summer. That demo was 30 minutes long, and with talking, setting a groundwork of what I’d be doing, and showing how to light with minimal equipment anywhere, we only shot for a few minutes. But even still, we got some beautiful images. And here is one of my favorites from that quick shoot.

This was a really fun shoot and I’m grateful for Summer coming and modeling for me. She was a joy to be around and I’m excited by the images we created.

If you’d like some great portraits done of you, give me a call at 801-728-3317.

And if you’re a photographer looking for more training like this, check out my online courses or in-person workshops at BryCoxWORKSHOPS.com.

And until next time, America.

Abbie’s High School Senior Portraits

It’s high school senior portrait season, and I wanted to share Abbie’s gorgeous shoot. Seniors appreciate and love my extra creative shoots that show their personality, and that’s why I love taking their artwork even further by creating pieces like this multi-image collage.

I individually photographed Abbie, her scoreboard, even the “D” in the grass at the Davis High Field. I then created dust for the background and put this all together digitally, creating custom shadows and other effects to make it all come together perfectly. These custom art pieces are great on the wall.

Here’s a short video showing behind the scenes of the entire shoot. Notice how nothing is haphazard. The lighting, the angles, the details – they’re all measured and carefully controlled for the best possible photographs.

Here’s a shot video showing Abbie’s album and collage.

Abbie’s wall collage is stunning with this mix of wonderful images, all showing different parts of her personality.

These action shots on her field really add to her album design and collage. These deep blue skies, wonderful skin tones, are all created on the spot with custom lighting that also make her eyes pop.

The dramatic lighting and angles in these make them look straight out of a magazine or national ad campaign.

Adding a mix of studio images is not only a great look that adds variety to the album designs, but these images also allow for custom art pieces like this below.

 

And here at the studio location, we have a half acre of gardens specifically designed for outdoor shoots. These layers of green are unusual for Utah, and can’t be duplicated in images anywhere near here. It’s the perfect location for creative fashion shoots like high school senior sessions.

If you’re a high school senior, now is the best time to get in for a shoot for both weather and pricing options. Give me a call at 801-728-3317. I’d love to talk more about your dream portraits and to set up an appointment.

And until next time, America.

 

Creativity and Fashion Shoots in Texas (Part 2)

Here’s some more images I shot while teaching creativity and fashion for a week in Texas at the biggest photography event of it’s kind. I specifically teach photographers how to connect with people to pull out genuine emotion, while at the same time nailing lighting and everything else technical. That way when you start adding complexity (like movement under studio lights), you create some uniquely magical photographs.

And this cute model with the red hair was terrific to demo these principles because she followed directions and moved instinctively well. And her personality worked well under the studio lights so I was able to push the creative bounds and shoot a lot of movement with her. I love all of these with her hair in motion.

And she really jumped well in high heels. At first I wanted her to jump barefooted because I worried about her landing and getting hurt. But she insisted that she could jump in high heels and they make these photographs even better. She had great positioning in the air, and photographers should note that even when jumping, the lighting is still perfect on her face and waist.

My shoot with her was very quick because I wanted other photographers to try what I was teaching. I’d do a quick demo with her then allow everyone else to shoot. But even in our short demo shoots, we created a huge variety of photographs. This set of mid-lengths on blue really show personality and make her eyes pop.

If you’re a high school senior, a model, or otherwise need some creative images that grab attention, give me a call at 801-728-3317. And if you’re a photographer wanting more training in lighting, creativity, or technique, visit my training site at BryCoxWORKSHOPS.com. I have live seminars around the country and lots of online courses as well.

And until next time, America.

Matthew’s Wakeboarding & Senior Portraits

I love photographing high school seniors. I always try to make every photoshoot extra creative, but high school seniors appreciate the ultra creative shoots even more allowing me to push things even further. That means I can photograph seniors with a commercial fashion ad look, and Matthew was the perfect subject for this wakeboarding collage project.

Instead of just shooting seniors in a simple, minimalistic way, I in stead do big over-the-top shoots. We do high-end studio work at my Utah location, sometimes mix in outdoor portraits in the studio gardens, and can even go on location to relevant places that mean something to the senior. And I always try to design up a cool collage that tells a story about who the senior is at this point in life.

This video shows more about how this collage was created, as well as how it looks framed and ready to hang.

And here is the final wakeboarding collage.

Here are some of his other favorite images. We did a variety of clothing changes, along with a mix of lighting styles.

Matthew will be serving a religious mission for the LDS Church and so we also mixed in some cool pictures of him in his suit.

If you’re a senior, now is the time to get in. We’re finishing up with the class of 2017 and getting a head start with the class of 2018 who want to beat the rush. Give me a call at 801-728-3317.

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.

 

Kiley’s Senior Portraits

Before Kiley moved to Hawaii with her family, we did her high school senior pictures here in Utah. And now that school is ending, it’s a great time to share these gorgeous images of this gorgeous girl.

Of every thing I shoot, high school seniors are one of my favorites. I often feel like a big kid and I love working with young people, chatting about their lives, and really creating lots of fun and creative images that tell a story about who they are. And Kiley’s photo shoot was even extra fun. She’s a joy to be around and being a dancer, we wanted to capture that side of her and get a lot of variety, images that really capture who she is right now.

Kiley started off her year going to Davis High here in Davis County, Utah. And before her family moved to Hawaii, we did her senior portraits here at my studio, and I am really excited about how everything turned out. This first image was one of my favorites, and we used it on her graduation announcement cards.

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I love doing fashion lighting on seniors, and from this series of images I also designed a trio. It looked great once it was finished and framed.
BryCox_Kiley_Senior_06And being a dancer, we created some action shots of her dancing in the studio, and I used those to create this collage. She really looks beautiful in every single one of these images, and the entire design really flows and looked great finished.
BryCox_Kiley_Senior_07And of course for high school seniors, I like to do big sessions that include indoor and outdoor setups, plus multiple changes of clothes and backgrounds. One of our favorite outdoor images was this one of her dancing in the road.

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She had a lot of beautiful outfits, and it was hard to pick favorites, but this one really stood out.
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And I love doing 9-up collages for seniors. It’s a great way to show a lot of variety, and here are some of our favorites that made her collage.BryCox_Kiley_Senior_01 And here are some of those closer up.
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It was a real pleasure to spend time with Kiley and do these portraits for her. I hope they all made it to Hawaii safely, and that her and her family enjoy these for many years to come.

And if you’re a high school senior and would still like to get some portraits done, I know school is ending for most seniors in Utah right now. And maybe you want some great images still, or perhaps you did a shoot elsewhere and regret them and would like something much better. Whatever the reason, give me a call and let’s get you something great that you and your family will love for a lifetime. Spring has sprung here at the studio and the outdoor gardens look great, plus I’ve been re-vamping the studio gear for even more fashion lighting and options.

Give me a call at 801-728-3317, and until next time, America.