art

Summer Family & Missionary Portraits

Families are always changing and now is the best time to update your family portrait. It’s warm weather in Utah, the studio gardens are in full bloom, and it’s the perfect time for outdoor family portraits.

This young man was leaving on an LDS mission and would be gone for two years. So we mixed a mission portrait session with a family session, and the results are a gorgeous and emotional art piece for the wall that his family can enjoy while he’s gone. See finished image and album in this video.

I like using locations that have a personal meaning to my clients. In this case, their yard was gorgeous and lush with trees. So by mixing in some custom lighting to make everyone look great and also enhance the deep lush colors, we had a number of beautiful angles from which to shoot.

And I like to create a number of family portrait options from each shoot. Some are better larger on the wall, others are better smaller on a desk. And others will just have a certain emotional punch to it, where the client just connects with it and loves it.

For this shoot, we started in casual clothes for portraits with and without the grandparents.

Then dressy for some other options.

Of course I create options of just the children individually too. Here are some of my favorites of each child.

Here’s a missionary themed image using a nearby wheat field.

This image with the flags shows the countries where this young man will serve his mission for the next two years.

And closing with some gorgeous images of just parents together.

It’s the perfect time to get some new updated family portraits. Families are always in flux and sometimes we put off our much needed portrait for the so-called “perfect” time (like when this child is married, or when that baby comes, or when I feel better about how I look). But there’s always another change right around the corner. I’m a national Master Photographer and know just how to make you look fantastic in your portrait right now.

Take advantage of this gorgeous Utah weather. Let’s talk about meaningful locations for your portraits, and if you need, I have wonderful grounds right here at the studio for both outdoor and indoor options.

Give me a call at 801-728-3317 and let’s talk about your new family artwork.

And until next time, America.

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.

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.

My “Isle of Light” Lighthouse Image Featured in Professional Photographer Magazine, April 2014 Issue

My lighthouse image Isle of Light, is featured in this month’s Professional Photographer Magazine. The magazine features a few images that did well at national competition, and shares the story of how those images were made.

Here is how it looks in the magazine.

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I created this image while speaking on the East Coast after getting bumped from a flight. It was also selected to be in the PPA Loan Collection Book after scoring well at nationals.

This image is available on my art site in various sizes and finishes, if you’d like it for your home or business entry.

Professional Photographer Magazine is a publication that goes out to all professional photographers throughout the US as well as other parts of the world. If you’re photographer, you’ll find this on page 20. Here is the double-page spread.

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It’s always an honor to be asked to be in this magazine, and this image is one of my top favorite lighthouse images I’ve created too. I’m glad they love and appreciate it and wanted to showcase it.

Until next time, America.

Hunting Lighthouses on Vancouver Island, Canada

I love the adventure of hunting down and photographing lighthouses. It’s the perfect activity for someone like me with wanderlust. The entire process is cathartic and inspirational. It requires driving through un-populated areas on old curvy roads instead of fast and straight highways, it means driving with the window down and smelling the sea even if it’s cold outside, it means hiking and sometimes scrambling up and down mountain sides to get to the right spot, and it means sitting and watching light and soaking in the atmosphere around you with no one else around as I wait for the right moment to shoot. And in the end, I leave with a beautiful image that I hope others enjoy, but even if they don’t, I know I will enjoy it and the process of creating it.

This week I had a speaking job in Tacoma Washington, and decided to go a bit early to photograph some lighthouses on Vancouver Island, Canada. I love the adventure of photographing lighthouses, and really like the Victoria area on Vancouver Island. I’ve never had time when I’ve been up there to get out to the lighthouses and photograph them. This was the trip to do exactly that.

After landing in Seattle, I took my rental car over to Victoria, Canada on the COHO ferry. This self portrait is me with my point and shoot, on the cold and windy bow of the ferry. Even though it was cold, I always like being outside on a ferry rather than inside. Everything is different outside on a ferry, and it makes me feel like I’m on an adventure. You can smell the ocean air, you feel the droplets, and you can look off at the dark water beneath you as you crash through it.

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After landing and getting established in Victoria, I went out lighthouse hunting. I first photographed the Fisgard Light outside of Victoria. Access is only open during the day and when I got there, I was told hat the light itself was “closed” for the day, but other parts of the ground were open. I paid the fee and went to find an angle where I could still get close and photograph it, knowing I could get around the construction and workers. And that I did. I was able to get right up close, and I spent some time there hiking around the rocks and looking at the light, created these images.

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I really loved the clouds and the dramatic sky, and thought a black and white would work well. Even though I love the red of the building, this black and white may be one of my favorites of this lighthouse.

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Before leaving, I did this self portrait with the lighthouse with my point and shoot on manual.

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The next lighthouse, Sheringham Point, was quite hard to get to, being a long drive up the western coast of the island. Along the way, I looked for my favorite fish and chips hut on the water, but it was closed for the season. When I finally got to the lighthouse, I found that it too was closed — abandoned and gated off by the government. The surrounding land was also locked and controlled by a land developer. Everything was gated and blocked off. It took some hiking and some ingenuity to get to it, but here are the images I created.

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By this time, it was getting late in the day, and being on a different part of the island, the weather was dramatically different, giving this lighthouse a very different and beautiful mood. And the rocky cliffs to the side were my favorite part, and I thought were part of the character of this lighthouse. I found a way over to the side where I could photograph the lighthouse using the cliffs to frame it. These looked much more dramatic than the images of the lighthouse from other angles.BCox_Victoria-2014-481-Pano2-edge

I sat on this rock for a while watching the light move and change, and listening to the crashing waves beneath me. I thought it a cool place to created a self portrait with my point and shoot.BCox_Victoria-2014-594-edge

Being on the hunt, my mind was distracted all day. It was here sitting, that I realized that I still hadn’t eaten breakfast and it was actually dinner time. So I headed to the nearby logging town of Port Renfrew to get some fish and chips, and then from there took the long way back to Victoria, making a loop up and over the island using a curvy logging road. I arrived back in Victoria at night and got some Chinese food for a late dinner in Victoria’s China Town.

All along the way, I also took abstract images on my iPhone and posted them to my Instagram feed. There are iPhone pics of these lighthouses as well as abstracts from the ferry and other interesting things. You can see those here, http://instagram.com/bry_cox

Until next time, America.

James Conee Album Cover, Stand Like A Mountain

My friend James Conlee has recorded a new single, Stand Like A Mountain, and it was just released on iTunes. Here is the photography and cover that I produced for him for this song.

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To help launch the song, James created this YouTube video which has already had over 31,000 hits! He mixes time-lapse photography of mountains with his song for a very cool mix, and notice how the northern lights hit at minute 3:35 right at the crescendo. View it out below…

And to purchase the single, you can get it on iTunes here:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/stand-like-a-mountain-single/id737895528

Make sure you check out his other single, Until also available on iTunes (or both are also on Amazon too).

Enjoy, and until next time America.

Art Scenics, Lower Price + Holiday Discount + Free Shipping!

For Thanksgiving shopping, I just reduced the price on all the scenics and temple prints on my art site plus I added an additional 15% discount plus FREE shipping! All of these savings are good now through Christmas!

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With all of these discounts, these are the best price I’ve ever had. Save yourself from standing in long lines and get something that is a great and timeless gift for almost anyone.

I have serene and inspiring art pieces from Italy, China, and the US, including seashores, lighthouses, and LDS temples.

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The extra discounts will be applied after the pieces are added to your shopping cart. So see what you like, add it to the cart, and see how much you’ll save.

And remember that the November family special is still going on, so if you need some new family portraits, give me a call. It’s a great time to get them done before Christmas.

And until next time, America.

 

Great Smoky Mountains

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

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.

Creativity – A Summer Day with Adobe, Heber Utah

This summer, some friends and contacts of mine from Adobe’s California office had some meetings in Park City. They invited me along as a local tour guide and helper on their creative day of shooting, and had events scheduled that ended at the Heber Valley Railroad (aka Heber Creeper).

Here are some of my images from that day. I started out using one of my Lens Babies as I photographed the train yard.

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The colors were so vivid that day, and the selective blur was a great look I thought for the train cars. With older and nostalgic train cars, I thought an older lens look would match perfectly.

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They had lined up this model too, who came in this authentic conductor’s outfit. I think he was my favorite subject to photograph, and I created images with both a selective focus…

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…and a normal lens. His outfit and expression were perfect. I really liked balancing the converging lines in the background with him.

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Here are some abstracts from an area of the train yard that is normally closed to the public, but with special permission we were able to walk around and explore. It’s hard to explain how fun it is to crawl around in areas like this and just shoot photographs for fun.

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Cox_AdobeHeber-220 It’s always fun to get away and create new images just for the sake of being creative, and it was fun being with  photographer friends from Adobe. They really had a fun night planned and I am grateful I could be apart of it.

Until next time, America.

Bry Cox Artwork on Walls of Google Maps View Inside Salt Lake’s Roof Restaurant

It was announced that Google Maps is now doing street views inside some of Utah’s most historic and prominent buildings, and one of which is the old Hotel Utah, now called the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. At the very top of that building overlooking the Salt Lake Temple, is the Roof Restaurant which has chosen to decorate with my artwork.

In this view now available on Google, you can see some of my pieces on the walls.

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There are also some of my large stretched canvases there too, but the Google view does not allow you to see them because of the chosen angles.

If you’d like to see these and more art images, they are available to view and buy at BryCoxART.com. And if you’re looking for a nice dinner with a great view, the Roof is the perfect place.

Until next time, America.

Healey’s Family of 40

It is always important to get family portraits, and right now is especially an important time for the Healey family, and I feel really honored that they hired me to create the portraits for their entire family.

Overall, their entire group was about 40 people, including married children and grandkids. We set up in their family yard during a wind storm and rainy week, and miraculously found a dead spot from the weather. Their yard made for a fantastic backgound and the images all loom wonderful.

I’m excited to post them today, even though the web just can’t do them justice. This first image is now a beautiful canvas hanging over their fireplace.

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I love this large grouping. Everyone is positioned comfortably and realistically, the entire shape is balanced and keeps your eye moving, the expressions on everyone are real and happy, the background has depth and texture but is dark enough that it isn’t distracting, and lighting on everyone though difficult, looks amazing.

Big groups are more difficult to do right than you’d think, but they are very satisfying. I really love how this portrait turned out.  It has to be my new favorite.

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With every large family group, I also like to do smaller groups. Above is the original children gathered around their folks, and below is each individual family.Cox_JHealey-F-125

Each family is grouped and lit a little differently depending on the family, but the overall look of each group matches in case people want to create a wall grouping and hang these portraits near each other.Cox_JHealey-F-134

Each family has their own personality and every child looks great. I really love photographing families and especially love getting little kids to all look cute and smile. It’s more than just doing some tricks to get a smile, but rather work to get each child to show their personality in both the pose and their expression. These little boys below look perfect. I especially love the tough pose of the boy standing and leaning into his mother.

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When people are positioned right, lit right, and they have a real and believable expression, the result is a portrait that is fun to look at, and yet classic and timeless.

Cox_JHealey-F-171These little girls below were so funny and wiggly, I was surprised to get any images with all of their feet down on the ground. They were so giddy and were laughing so hard at everything I did, that it was cracking me up too.

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And finally, here is the couple that started this big group. I really liked this image of the two of them.

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Again, it was a real pleasure to work with everyone in this family. I loved all of the groupings and families, and love how everything turned out. I always feel it an honor to create and capture memories for people, but especially for this family. I really love these images and hope that they all do to.

Until next time, America.