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Janet’s Vacation Family Portraits at Texas Lake House, Part 1

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.

And until next time, America.

Cox Fall Portrait Event – Special Salt Lake & Ogden Canyon Dates

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.

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I specialize in emotionally powerful wall art, the best heirloom canvas portraits, paintings, and other gorgeous pieces that change the feeling in your home.

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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.

And until next time, America.

Amanda & Brant’s Family Portraits

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.

And until next time, America.

New Portraits for the Doctors of Premiere Wellness in Utah

Premiere Wellness has been updating their website and needed new and professional portraits of their doctors. In doing this shoot I thought about myself and what I would look for in a doctor based on an online photo. I would search not just for credentials and experience, but also look to see if a doctor seemed approachable and kind in their photo. Are they going to listen to me and customize their care based on my needs? These doctors explained to me that this is exactly how they work, so their photo needed to show that. That means images that are professional, beautifully lit, and have an emphasis on emotion and personality.BryCox_Wellness-07

Premiere Wellness offers chiropractic care, physical therapy and holistic treatments from Dr. Kory Brahnam (center), Dr. Evan Brady (left), and Dr. Jared Anderson (right). Aside from the group portrait, we also did individual images of each doctor for their website as well as on business cards and in papers and for speeches they might give.
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I’m excited about how these look and would be happy to photograph you for your business needs. I am based in Utah and mainly work in the Salt Lake area, but travel all over the country for clients who want the best possible portraits. Give me a call at 801-728-3317 and let’s create something great for you.

Until next time, America.

My Painted Portraits are Different and Magical

One of my specialized products are painted portraits. I start by creating a photographic portrait during one of our sessions, and then use that photo as a reference to create a completely different and magical painting for you. The end result is a unique piece of art that is finished as a stretched canvas in almost any size you’d like.

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Paintings can be of individuals, like this image above that I did a while back for a musician, or like the paintings below of families that I finished for Christmas orders.

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If you’d like me to create a unique painting for you, give me a call. 801-728-3317

Merry Christmas, and until next time, America.

 

Shauna’s Family Portrait Downtown

I’ve had so many great family portraits to create and deliver for Christmas, but here is one of my favorites. I’ll post more shoots after Christmas.

I’ve photographed Shauna and her family many times over the years, and they are all so fun and great to work with. For this shoot we decided to do a different location because she works downtown for KUTV, we thought it would make a great location for her updated family portrait.

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I really love this grouping, with everyone leaning in, relaxed and smiling. The framing with the gold door gives the image even more warmth and interest.

Though you can’t tell in the photo, it was actually a very cold, winter night when we created these. Everyone’s jackets are just out of the frame for easy reach between setups. But with the beautiful and warm lighting, relaxed groupings, and happy faces, you’d never know it was that cold. It looks like a nice warm day.

We also did some individuals to create this nice trio for the wall.

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I love creating family portraits for people. It’s very fulfilling to create something that has emotional value and that is going to be a cherished art piece on the wall. It’s also fun to photograph the same families over the years and see kids grow and change, and Shauna’s family is extra special.

If it’s time for some updated Christmas portraits for your family, the holiday break is a great time to get in. Families are in town, people are together, and the big rush at the studio is past. Give me a call and let’s get your family together and create for something great for your walls. 801-728-3317

And until next time, America.

New Hampshire Shoot

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.