Photography Workshops

Great Smoky Mountains

Posted by BryCox (Admin)

I just got back from speaking to photographers at the Tennessee Professional Photographers convention outside of Knoxville. Before I flew out, a few of us got up at 5:00 am to drive to the top of the Smoky Mountains to photograph the sunrise. Because of the rain storm, the sun didn’t rise as expected, but I did get some great moody images.

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It was a beautiful morning, but I wasn’t prepared with gear for rain or scenics. I only had my sport coat and a small travel tripod. I used the rain cover for my camera bag for my head. I was happy to later see that one of the photographers with us, Al Gordon, shot this image of me. I really appreciate it because I never get images of myself working, and I like this image.Me-in-the-Smokys-700p

On the way down the mountain, the sky started to clear a little and we pulled over to get this series of mist and fog rising in the distance. Cox_SmokyMts-172-Pano-b Cox_SmokyMts-152-Pano

It was a great group in Tennessee, and I loved the area we were in. It was especially nice to get out and take these scenics before I ran off to the airport to fly home. Thanks to everyone who came to the event, and for everyone else, I will soon have these up on my art site, BryCoxART.com.

Until next time, America.

 

Scouting Scenic Locations for Adobe Event

Posted by BryCox (Admin)

Sometime soon I’d like to do a workshop for people who want to photograph scenics in Utah. In thinking about this, I thought I’d post some images I created while exploring and scouting locations for Adobe’s event that I posted about  previously. While exploring, I shot some really fun scenics and wanted to post them here. They really get me excited for warmer weather and for doing a workshop sometime soon here in the beautiful state of Utah.

Cox_Heber_121_Pano Cox_Heber-139-panoWhile I was driving, the time of day was perfect, the sun was setting and these meadows and aspens really glowed with the low angled light. Plus it was fire season, so there was a lot of smoke in the air which added to the dramatic look of the setting sun.

Cox_Heber-150-pano Cox_Heber-152 Cox_Heber-157This black and white was particularly fun and probably one of my favorites from the day. I’d really like to make this up large and have it in my home.

Cox_Heber-160-4And this last image shows a real teepee off in the distance, used by a rancher. The warm smokey air in this image really makes it for me.

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It’s amazing the kind of scenery we have here in Utah and it was a fun adventure looking for routes and places to visit. Again, I hope to workshop here in Utah sometime soon, specifically on travel photography and scenics. If you’re interested in coming, let me know.

And until next time, America.

Scenics in Banff, Canada (part 2)

Posted by BryCox (Admin)

While in Canada and Banff, I took a number of images on my point-and-shoot camera and iPhone. Part of being creative I think, is just taking photographs everywhere, and using any and all tools, including small cameras.

Many times I’ve looked back on my life and have found that I have beautiful images of the places I’ve been, but no images of myself. As we get older, we wish we had images of ourselves at certain times, so I’ve made it a goal to try and include myself in more photos, even if I don’t like them at the time. It’s always good to have photos to look back on.

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I particularly love my point-and-shoot, because it is a professional version with full manual controls, dials instead of menus, and it captures in RAW so I can edit it or convert images to black and white with more clarity. I have it rigged with an extendable stick so that I can get photographs of myself when I go places, without having to rely on strangers for focus and composition.

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Below is a panorama created with the new iPhone 5. It does a fast job of panos, and in this image you can see my main camera around my neck and my point-and-shoot camera on an extendable stick in my hand.

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The rest are some iPhone images of my trip. I like shooting for fun with the iPhone, because it’s a challenge. There are no controls, so you have to think differently when using it — you have to think around the fact that you can’t control some things, yet you still have to make the image artistic and work.

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These first two images (above and below) are me flying out of the inversion and bad weather of Utah and seeing some blue sky again.

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This is me flying into Calgary. I dragged the exposure for motion blur.

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While shooting scenics in Banff, I shot some on my iPhone as well. I really like this image in black and white.

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Here is some close-up details of frost on some grass coming out of the frozen lake.

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My friend Cam took me to see the Banff Springs Hotel, and inside was this old ad.

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Here it is from the outside.

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And finally, as I was leaving Calgary very early in the morning, I found myself alone in the airport. I really liked the lines in this image, along with the 70’s looking multi-colored chairs.

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Once on board, the flight was delayed due to a storm. I took this looking out the window of my airplane, waiting for takeoff.

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Well, that’s it. I hope you enjoyed seeing these images. Make sure you check out the previous post (part 1) to see the scenics I took while there.

Until next time, America.

 

Scenics in Banff, Canada (part 1)

Posted by BryCox (Admin)

After speaking at the Alberta Professional Photographer’s Convention this month in Calgary, I took a free day to go to Banff. Here are some of the images I created that day.

I was taken there by a long-time photographer friend of mine, named Cam Colclough, that I met over 10 years ago in Oregon when we were both speaking at the same convention. We’ve stayed friends ever since, and he was kind enough to take me on a tour of some of his favorite places in Banff.

And here are some of the images I created in this area. I really loved the slanted mountains and awesome clouds in the background. It helped give me some contrast and directional light on the mountains, so I worked to create a variety of images by changing the foreground. A good foreground helps create depth, especially when there’s great depth created naturally by the lighting.

I was lucky to shoot these when I did, because right soon after, the weather changed dramatically, everything became foggy and overcast, and shooting scenics was no longer an option.

I really like all four of these scenics for different reasons, but I am having a hard time deciding which one is really the best. Which are your favorites? I’m curious as to what others are drawn to and why.

As part of my Banff Part 2 post coming up, I’ll show a completely different set of images — fun images I created solely on my iPhone and point-and-shoot camera.

Until next time, America.

Bry Cox, Featured Article in Texas Professional Photographer Magazine, Oct-Nov 2012

Posted by BryCox (Admin)

Are you a professional photographer in Texas? Check your current copy of Texas Professional Photographer Magazine for an article I wrote, called “Preparedness & Optimism – 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.

Shooting Model & Seniors in Washington (Evergreen Workshop part II)

Posted by BryCox (Admin)

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, at BryCoxWORKSHOPS.com. There are new events being announced all the time. I hope to see you at one soon.

Until next time, America! 🙂

 

Shooting Model & Seniors in Washington (Evergreen Workshop part I)

Posted by BryCox (Admin)

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 create 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! 🙂

Lighthouses of the Seattle Washington Area, Part 2

Posted by BryCox (Admin)

Part 2 of my trip was spent in a little coastal town called Port Townsend. I was at 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 occasion 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. 🙂

Lighthouses of the Seattle Washington Area, Part 1

Posted by BryCox (Admin)

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.

New Hampshire Shoot

Posted by BryCox (Admin)

I recently got back from speaking on the East Coast in New Hampshire. While teaching, I demonstrated some various techniques on making women look great in photographs. Here are some of the images I created that day.

These images don’t have any finishing touches on them yet, and that’s because I was showing that they should look great right out of the camera. Any final enhancements later should only be slight as the images should be ready to print without them if you did everything correctly.

Some people think that great images come from having a good camera. That’s like saying  good songs are only written on good guitars when the truth is it’s the artist using the camera or guitar. Any good musician can write a great song on any guitar, and any great photographer can create great images on any camera.

Another misnomer is that that great images come from having beautiful models. This is also incorrect. A great photographer understands exactly how to make everyone look better and an average photographer will make even the prettiest person look worse.

I love teaching workshops because I really like helping photographers do better, plus it helps to raise the level of quality in the industry.

 

In New Hampshire, I was teaching how to create great images with any camera, and how to make all women look better using specific lighting and posing.

Here are two portraits of the same pretty girl in the same beautiful location. I shot her two different ways to show that a camera in the right hands will make her look better, and in the wrong hands she will look worse. Look at the two images and see if you can see all the differences.

In the first image, I used custom lighting and posed her specifically in a way that would be more flattering for her and her outfit. I took control of all aspects of the exposure which means her skin tones have great color right out of the camera. I separated her from the background and sculpted her using directional light at particular angles. Everything was set up and shot manually, nothing left to chance or to Auto functions.

Then I did another image of her the way most photographers would, with no specific poses, no control of light, and shooting the camera on Auto.

Notice how flat this second image looks. Her skin tones are green, the light on her face is coming from the sky rather than from any controllable or directional source, her eyes are dark, the background is too light, and the wrong camera angle and lack of posing and lighting make her look thicker. Again, NO woman wants to look thicker or heavier, and fixing it later on the computer isn’t the same as shooting it right.

This is why most photographers shoot so many images – they hope that with the law of averages they’ll get something decent that they can then spend tons of time on the computer fixing and covering with various effects.

This is why you need to hire a really good photographer with credentials – and why photographers need to get continual hands-on training from Master photographers.

So with a change of clothes, I continued to teach and shoot this model, walking around the town, making sure that each pose and lighting set up made her look great.

We ended up at this cool bridge which gave me some cool leading lines.

Well, if you’d like some great portraits, I know just how to make you look great, plus now is the perfect time if you like the fall leaves. Give me a call and book your appointment at 801-728-3317 and lets create something amazing for your wall.

Bry Cox Featured on Pictureline’s Blog – Wedding Equipment & Preparedness

Posted by BryCox (Admin)

I was interviewed by Pictureline for their blog on my equipment list and my approach to preparedness and problem solving for weddings. It’s a short read, and as you will see, my approach is simple — be over prepared. When people are putting the most important events of their lives in your hands, to me, that’s the mark of a real professional.

Drunk people run into you and spill drinks on your gear, old people and kids knock things over, hot-shoes break off, cords start to short, batteries and cameras sometimes just stop working, extreme weather, temperature and humidity cause failures, and leafs and curtains sometimes jam up causing a colossal lens or camera failure. All of these things have happened to me at weddings and I’ve been prepared because of my rule of three.

Check out the article here. http://www.pictureline.com/blog/bry-coxs-wedding-gear-on-the-go/

 

(Pictureline is the best camera store in the country. Their staff is the most knowledgeable of any I’ve seen anywhere, and they’re the nicest too.)

Bry Cox featured in This Month’s Photography Magazine, ‘Rangefinder’

Posted by BryCox (Admin)

I’m featured in this month’s Rangefinder magazine, a publication that goes to all the professional photographers. This is how the cover looks (which I didn’t shoot).

It was for the big WPPI event in Vegas for which I created this collage below, mentioned in a previous post. I was pushing and hoping this would be the cover, but it didn’t make it for that. However, it was used in the story, positioned on the edge of the page to catch viewers eyes as they flip through the magazine.

Here’s the opening spread. I added little targets on my images (5 of the 8 on this spread).

The bottom left image is a multi-image stitch created by Alain Martinez, one of the other two people on the project with me. He shot me and another of other prominent photographers one by one, and put it all together for this one image.

There are more images of ours in the story, along with a little write-up of the three of us who worked on the project: me, Alain Martinez from Miami, and Henk van Kooten from the Netherlands.

There is a book that will follow, and I’m very excited to see how that comes out. It was a real honor to be asked to work on this as well as to work with Alain and Henk and get to know them better.

On another note, it’s spring time and now is a great time to get a new family portrait. Give me a call at 801-728-3317 to schedule a time. And feel free to browse my main website at BryCox.com.