At the end of fall, I photographed Travis and his beautiful family here in my outdoor studio gardens located right outside my Utah studio. Then later for Christmas I had everything finished and delivered their final order. The morning of the delivery, I made this video showing how gorgeous their finished products looked.
It was great seeing Travis and his beautiful family again. His children are adorable and are growing so fast. I always like to photograph a few options for the large family group, and this was our favorite of everyone. Here at my Utah studio we can do either in-studio images or we can step out into the studio gardens and do outdoor portraits too. For this shoot we choose to shoot outside and take advantage of the last of the good fall weather. And having everyone sitting together on the ground close, was our favorite grouping of the entire family. Hopefully you see how beautiful this looks in the video above.
We also took time to photograph each child and then made up square standout portraits of each one. Doesn’t this little girl make you smile? She’s so cute with her long hair, crossed knees, and feminine pose? The rock stairway was the perfect spot for her individual portrait.
And each child has a perfect and genuine smile, each custom lit, each looking fantastic. These looked beautiful as finished, glazed, square wall pieces.
And to close the shoot, we did one wall portrait of all the kids together in one photograph. There’s a lot of personality in this image. And it’s a piece that they can all look back on for years to come and remember when they were all this age.
It’s always a wonderful thing to update your family portrait. And I know you probably need an updated portrait. We can mix it with larger family groups, or alone with your immediate family, then taking time with your children.
Give me a call at 801-728-3317 and let’s talk about your new family wall portrait.
I had the joy of photographing these cute little 2-year old twins for their birthday portraits. They were so fun and expressive, that they had me laughing the entire time.
Before shooting outside, we started off in the studio on a clean white, to show off their fun, colorful, number-2 shirts. I have things that I do to get little kids to relax and open up with me, giving me great expressions. Right from the beginning, this little boy opened up and saw me as his buddy. But the little girl was a bit more apprehensive. She brought her favorite monkey, and held on to him for the first part of the shoot and started off with some cute scowls.
Before long though, they were both doing great and we got some wonderful smiles from both of them.
One of the games I play is to “get their toes.” In this photo, she’s poking her feet out to show me her toes because she wants me to get them again. It’s a good sign and shows she’s happy, open, and having a good time.
Then a change of clothes and a wonderful, somber expression from both of them. I love these outfits, and love how each one is standing. Their body language is perfect.
But then their moods swapped. She was happy and open, but he started to crash and cry. For comfort, he’s holding a toy car in one hand, and food in the other. And this little girl is calm with her monkey.
And then back to some fun expressions out of both of them again.
But when he started to lose it again, calling his aunt on the phone helped him settle down. And I love her expression, watching her brother.
Sitting down in the chair, she comforts him with an arm around him.
Using these favorites from the studio white, I designed up this 9-up portrait collage, ready for the wall in their home. It’ll be finished and framed, setting these images off.
Then stepping outside into my studio gardens for a change of scenery, we got this wonderful little kiss! They’re each turned perfectly so you can see both of them, neither one covering up the other. And I love their bare feet.
We also did some individual portraits of each of them. Here, she poses against a tree with her head cocked as the wind blows her dress.
And he stands in a nice, squared-off masculine pose, watching what I’m doing, a little worried and ready to be done.
These three images worked really well in this wall trio design.
Little kids grow so fast, and memories seem to be as fleeting as time. I love being able to create wonderful heirloom portraits like these, and I hope their family loves these, and that these adorable children will love them too when their older and can look back on their 2nd birthday together.
I love how these turned out and had a wonderful time with these two beautiful kids.
Summer is leaving us and the window for outdoor portraits is closing. Now is a great time to bring your family or children in for some family portraits. Right here I can do indoor studio and outdoor portraits in the same place, or I can travel to special locations too. Give me a call at 801-728-3317, and let’s create something beautiful for you and your home.
For Christmas I delivered this beautiful family portrait. They have been a joy to work with and I have loved working on this order. Each time I see all these children and their beautiful faces, I feel my heart swell. The final canvas looked vivid and stunning, especially because they ordered it as a larger 50-inch canvas with an outside frame that made the colors pop. And it looked wonderful in their home.
This family lives not too far from my Utah studio, and we created this at their home in their yard. It was the perfect location and provided a very meaningful background for their heirloom portrait.
Just before packing my SUV to deliver the order, I recorded this video because I had to show it off. See what you think…
And when I photograph big families, we also take time to photograph the smaller, individual families. Here are some of those images. And look at how adorable each little child is in each family grouping. And notice too how the lighting creates a clean and vivid image of everyone. The images are sharp, detailed, and they looked fabulous printed up larger.
I know these will be beloved heirlooms to each of these families for many years to come, especially as these children grow and change. I’m grateful that this family called me to create these, and I’d love to create something special for you too. Now is a great time to do some wonderful family portraits. Give me a call and let’s talk about your dream portrait. 801-728-3317.
Here are some more favorites from this shoot with this beautiful baby girl. I shared earlier some images of her in pink, and to contrast those these are all in neutrals. I just love this little girl, her big eyes, sweet smile, and her cute little chin. We got a lot of wonderful expressions during this shoot. And those looks combined with master lighting techniques to make her eyes and soft skin pop, has produced a portrait shoot that I can’t stop staring at.
I love this smile above, but I also love this serious expression below too. The serious look shows off her features like her cheeks, little chin, big eyes, and cute mouth.
In one photo shoot we were able to get quite a variety of looks and expressions, and even different outfits and sets. The pink images are captivating and beautiful, but these images in neutrals are wonderful in their own way too. It’s hard for me to pick a favorite. But I will admit to coming back and looking at this shoot again and again to see this cute face.
All of these neutral images framed in a series would look great in a nursery or hallway.
Babies change so fast and now is the best time to photograph them. And I love photographing babies. If you have a new baby and would like some wonderful and captivating portraits, give me a call at 801-728-3317. I’d love to create something special for you for the holidays.
I photographed this beautiful baby yesterday, and she’s so adorable and captivating that I have to post some early favorites. I was going to share these in about a week because I have other images queued up to share, but this pretty little face has been on my mind all day, so she’s bumping the other shoots back.
Throughout the shoot she was so happy and cute, and just smiled and smiled at me. Her little face and big round eyes kept me gazing.
She came with this beautiful little pink dress so I set up this all-pink background and some custom lighting to make everything pop. I got a lot of great images in both this pink setup as well as other color schemes. I’ll for sure share some of the others soon.
I love these first three images as squares either on the wall separately as canvases, or framed together in this smaller trio design.
Finally, this one of her kicking her feet and smiling with her tongue is great as a longer stand-alone image.
I love photographing babies, so if you’d like some fantastic portraits of your little baby, give me a call at 801-728-3317. I’d love to create something special for you for the holidays.
It’s family portrait season, and I wanted to share this beautiful and extensive family shoot. I was flown to Texas to photograph this wonderful family while they would all be together on vacation at a gorgeous lake house. I’ve done a lot of work for this family over the years, and I loved seeing them all again to create these wonderful art pieces.
Here’s a video showing their wall canvas and family album. It’s best viewed full screen and in HD. 🙂
Here’s a shot of Janet’s gorgeous album, black leather with a black leather briefcase to hold, carry, and protect the album.
Kids seem to grow the fastest between family portraits, and these kids were no different. All of the children had changed, and were so adorable and fun to work with. This image below was our favorite big group where everyone looked their best.
This Texas lake made for a wonderful backdrop.
And as you can see in the video, I spent time photographing each family, creating various groupings and ideas and even made some into paintings. Here are some of those.
After each family, I focused on couple and individual children’s portraits too, getting great expressions and capturing personality in each child.
When I was done with one family, they’d go off to play and enjoy their vacation, and I’d begin again with another family.
This beautiful little girl was getting baptized, so we created these images in her white dress to commemorate this time in her young life. I really love these images and her beautiful expressions and poses in them.
And finally, I created this trio of her funning to capture her youthfulness.
I’ll share more from this extensive shoot soon. But in the meantime, if you’d like some family portraits, give me a call at 801-728-3317. Let’s talk about your dream portrait and get something scheduled before the weather gets cold.
Fall is here and the leaves come and go so quickly. This year I’m doing some special dates for families in two different canyons, Salt Lake and Ogden areas. And because I’ll be shooting in the same area each day, the location fee will be drastically reduced. Plus get free Christmas cards with your wall portrait purchase too.
It’s a great time to get a wonderful location shoot in the Utah leaves. We can photograph just your kids, your family, a little of both, or even block out time for your larger extended family where I can also shoot smaller individual families too.
I make family portraits painless. I work quickly, get your kids to smile and look wonderful, and we’ll get lots of variety too so you’ll have great images to pick from.
Salt Lake canyon on Saturday October, 14th.
Ogden area canyon on Friday October 20th.
Limited time slots at each location. Call me at 801-728-3317 to schedule the best time for you.
I specialize in emotionally powerful wall art, the best heirloom canvas portraits, paintings, and other gorgeous pieces that change the feeling in your home.
Let’s photograph your family or kids in the beautiful Utah fall leaves, and make up some custom wall art for your home for the holidays. Call me at 801-728-3317.
Amanda and Brant brought their beautiful baby boy to the studio for some family portraits. I love photographing children. I love playing with them, making a connection, and getting genuine smiles and laughs for their photographs.
This adorable boy woke up on picture day sick so he wasn’t his normal happy self. The family thought about postponing their shoot, but I convinced them to come anyway. Picture day always seems to be hard. Things come up, but no matter the problem, I can almost always overcome them in the shoot and get great results. Plus I know that I’m great with kids. No matter how they’re feeling, I can get them to smile and laugh long enough for great photographs.
And sure enough, when this little boy arrived, he was immediately happy. He laughed and smiled at my antics and the shoot went beautifully. In fact he smiled and laughed so much, we all couldn’t help but laugh with him. I really love this shoot.
These were all created outdoors right here in my studio gardens. I’ve designed the grounds to have layers of green, so that I’ve got lots of angles for outdoor portraits. So as another family option, I created this painting from one of the walking images.
Here is a close up from that same painting to show more detail.
And of course we needed to get some individual portraits of this cute boy. This first one shows some size perspective so that later in life he can see how little he and his hands are in comparison to his parents.
And these are him hanging out, playing, and sitting outdoors, all with a huge, genuine smile.
These three images worked really well as a set, so we did this trio. It’s designed and framed, ready to hang on the wall.
Summer is almost over. It’s a great time to get in for some family portraits along with some of the kids. And if you don’t want to travel to distant locations, right here I can do inside or outdoors in the studio garden. Give me a call at 801-728-3317.
Spring is officially here and it’s time for family portraits. But sometimes people want something different, unique, something that they can feature in their home as an art piece and be proud of. For those clients, I offer custom painted portraits, painted from the family groups I create during your session.
I have photographed Janet’s extended family before, but this time they wanted something different. So while they were on vacation in Utah, I drove up the mountains and met up with them and photographed each family in some tall grass near their vacation property. I shot a variety of options with the families looking at the camera, and some of them interacting with each other that I could use to create paintings. Here are some of those finished paintings. They look amazing up close when they’re finished on canvas.
And here are some of the other groupings, starting with the biggest extended family group, and then each family separately. I love the diversity of location options in Utah. With a little bit of scouting and some custom lighting, I was able to make this location work right outside their vacation home. By me coming to them, I was able to integrate a location into their images that meant something to them, plus it saved them vacation time so that they could quickly get back to their time together.
And of course I love to focus in on children and do just some individuals. Rather than show every child’s individual portrait, here are some from just one family.
And for every single shoot I do – whether it’s in my studio, outside in my Utah studio gardens, or off on location as this shoot was – I really hope that my clients see the quality and value that I offer. I work to mix into every single image a combination of emotional impact and fantastic lighting. I want both, real expressions that draw you in mixed with all the technical details nailed.
I know it’s time for YOUR updated family portrait. Give me a call and let’s get it scheduled. 801-728-3317
It was a rare opportunity to get all of Janae’s family in town together. So during this short window when everyone was in Utah, they came in for some new studio family portraits. And one of my personal favorite parts of creating family portraits is to connect with the children. I am not satisfied with kids just looking my direction or into the camera, and I don’t want cheesy, fake, or rehearsed smiles. I want them to really shine. I want a family grouping that is well composed, beautifully lit, where everyone (including the tiny kids) all look real and amazing. And I am really glad with how this turned out.
And with all family portrait sessions, I also like to photograph individual families. These final options were printed as 4 large squares and custom framed to match so that they could all hang together on Janae’s wall as a beautiful series. Notice how great everyone looks, especially the children.
And this last image is just a fun grouping of the original family. Portraits like this are great to show love and togetherness even though we all change.
March is a great time to get in for some family portraits, and I have a promo going right now. Give me a call at 801-728-3317 and let’s discuss creating something new for you.
I recently posted on Facebook about installing this large 7×4 foot portrait, and included with a few images of me hanging it. I received a bigger response than usual, 260+ likes, 30+ comments, and private messages from people asking how I did it. So I thought it’d make a great blog post.
Here I am hanging the portrait with a couple large Little Giant ladders that still were’t quite tall enough.
Bry Cox hanging a beautiful 7’x4′ family portrait in this beautiful home. The size of a photograph should fit the space properly.
And here is the portrait so you can see the details better. This family had grown quite a bit with married kids and lots of cute new grandkids. So when they hired me, they wanted to make sure that they could see everyone’s faces and could enjoy the image from the given viewing distance of the room.
The day of the shoot was cold and rainy but I still wanted to create the image outside. Yes, they have a large home and we could have set up in a room somewhere, or I could have even set up a studio in their gym, but I always emphasize my specialty of lighting and emotion, and I knew I could create something with more drama outside in front of their home. And yes, we could have rescheduled for a pretty, sunny day, but I don’t like to reschedule for lots of reasons.
One, many times like this, it’s the only day when family is all in town. Two, sometimes rescheduling means the portrait is never created. And three, rain makes for really beautiful and saturated colors when custom lighting is handled the right way. Plus after 20+ years of creating photographs full time for clients I know that I can work within the cycles of a rain storm as it goes from a big downpour to a slow drizzle to hard rain again.
The trick is to be all set and shoot quickly when the rain slows down so that I’m done before the next wave of hard rain comes again. And that’s what I did. While the family waited in the warmth inside, I set up my lights and camera and had everything metered and ready to go. I kept everything covered until we had a lull in the storm, and then had everyone come outside and we began working.
Storm or not, I pose and position people quickly and in natural stances, then I play with the kids with a puppet routine that I’ve worked up over the years. I love it when even the tiniest kids, babies really that can’t even talk are laughing at my puppet show because they know it’s funny.
I started with the largest family group, and moved quickly to individual family groups. I only shoot about 3-5 images per family because I don’t want to wear people out, or exhaust the natural smiles of the children. And on this night we had other reasons to hurry as the rain was starting to get heavy again.
Besides the biggest group I was able to get two other families groups shot before the rain hit hard again, so I moved under the awning that can be seen in the earlier groups. Again, I wanted to stay outside so that all of the family groups would have a uniform look, color scheme, feel, and lighting style. I want them all to look good when hung together and not look like different shoots. So working under the awning was perfect because the clients were able to stay dry (even though I was standing in the rain), and we were able to finish the session so that everything matched and looked beautiful.
I love that this little baby is laughing. In the big family group, she was the kid laughing the loudest at my silly puppet routine.
At some point, no matter how fast you work, kids are spent. They only have so much energy for photos, but it’s still fun to try and get a grandkids photo, even if some are crying. We did one under the awning and then went inside to the fireplace and did one big casual group of the entire family.
Here is a view of their finished portrait in their home. The most common concern with families is getting your portrait too big or too small for where it is hanging. You want to be able to see faces and it is hard to imagine sizes when looking at a price menu. That is why I preview your order on a projector so that you can see your exact image at the exact size you’d like it. And if you know you’re getting over a certain size, I’ll come to your home and will help measure walls so that we get it absolutely perfect. And yes, I’ll even come hang it for you too.
Bry Cox hanging a family portrait. Notice how the size works so well with everything.
Summer is ending and this is a great time to photograph your family. It’s always hard because schedules are crazy, and right now kids are going back to school. But winter is even harder and right now it’s still warm and pretty outside. Give me a call at 801-728-3317 and let’s create something amazing for you.
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.
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.
So thanks to the women and moms in my family, and thanks all the women and moms out there. Happy Mother’s Day!
