speaking

Bry Cox at Photo Beijing China & Inner Mongolia (Part I)

I just got back from speaking in China at Photo Beijing, 2015 where I was treated like a king. It was such a great experience and I’ve been anxious to share more about this trip. My hosts also asked if I’d be a photographic ambassador and visit Inner Mongolia as well, and I took a lot of great images there of the most interesting faces. I’ll share more about that later. For part 1 of this trip I wanted to start with Photo Beijing 2015.

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I wrote an article on street photographer Vivian Maier, which is getting compiled with other articles into a book being published later. Because of that article, I was asked to travel to China to speak on Vivian Maier. (I’ve also posted that article online for paying members of my photography training site for it’s insight into posing and reading people’s personalities.)

After speaking on the opening day, they had a big ceremony complete with red carpet where they had me walk while being photographed by a huge crowd of people. While walking amongst the camera clicks and flashes, they had television cameras too from CCTV, and I could even see myself projected on the huge screen in the distance as it cut from camera to camera. The whole thing was quite exhilarating.BryCox_PhotoBeijing2015_China_02 BryCox_PhotoBeijing2015_China_03

I was so excited that I made this iPhone video at the top of the carpet, still on a high from the walk.

They also had these models wearing dresses made of photographs, walk the carpet the opposite direction.BryCox_PhotoBeijing2015_China_04 BryCox_PhotoBeijing2015_China_05

At the top of the carpet, there were welcomes and speeches from government and photographic dignitaries.BryCox_PhotoBeijing2015_China_06 BryCox_PhotoBeijing2015_China_07

And I had to get a photo with me with my friend Bing, who invited me over to China, and who I got to know years ago when I first went to China to speak in 2009. Her father is one of the most well-known photographers in China and was in charge of the event.BryCox_PhotoBeijing2015_China_08

After the red carpet ceremony, we were taken to a television theater and asked to sit on the front row for another opening ceremony event, this time we were entertained by amazing local dancers and singers. Again, this was all filmed by cameras from CCTV, which continually cut to cameras on us. Sometimes, the cameras were awkwardly close to my face, so close I couldn’t see over them to see the dancers.
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All of these images I’m posting were shot with my small Lumix point-and-shoot camera, which I love for it’s manual controls, retro look, and very small size. It was the best camera to take on a trip like this, giving me both control as well as a very small size and weight.BryCox_PhotoBeijing2015_China_11

The next day, me and the other speakers were part of a roundtable discussion. I was the only one from the US, and other countries represented included Bangladesh, Malta, France, Germany, UK, Indonesia, and many others. We all wore headphones with receivers capable of receiving various channels of audio from the translators. It was incredibly interesting to see so many people with so many backgrounds and languages, all connected by photography.BryCox_PhotoBeijing2015_China_12

Somehow when my name was translated from English to Chinese and back into English, it came out as “Bry Cox’s Bio.” So a few times throughout the event I saw my name written this way.
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I was also given some translators at this event, local college student volunteers that followed me around everywhere and made my life easier.BryCox_PhotoBeijing2015_China_14

When they asked if I’d come speak on photographer Vivian Maier, I had no idea how big of an event it would be. They had beautiful signs like this printed around town inviting the public to an exhibition of original prints shipped from New York.BryCox_PhotoBeijing2015_China_15

And here I am at the exhibition after I was done with my work and meetings, wearing more relaxed clothes. It was an incredible show. They had 50 original images on display, and they had made wall paper based on her negatives. It was all quite beautiful.BryCox_PhotoBeijing2015_China_16

Before this, I had only seen Vivian’s images in books. It was quite an experience to see them up close and in person, looking at real silver halide prints. The detail that close was incredible and the images were even more beautiful and inspiring.
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Of course in Beijing I went on some photo walks where I did some of my own street portraits that I’ll share in my next post, images like this cute little boy driving his motorized trike through the busy streets of Beijing.BryCox_PhotoBeijing2015_China_18

And later in Mongolia I was presented with custom made traditional clothing in a ceremony which I’ll get to in a later post. And while there, my hosts took me to photograph a Mongolian primary school where kids wrote in calligraphy with giant brushes, to a Buddhist temple at sunrise, and to a local farming village where the residents put on a parade for us. During all of this I created some photos that I’m really excited about, and I’ll share them in the next posts.BryCox_PhotoBeijing2015_China_19

So until next time, America.

Photographic Workshop in Tacoma, Washington

I just got back from speaking in Tacoma Washington, and judging at the state’s convention for professional photographers. It was a great event and very inspirational.

I spoke on lighting women specifically, and on just how to get everything right in the camera so that there is no need for retouching, color correcting, or even having to make adjustments later using software. Everything should be manual, including your flash, and angles and poses are specific. When everything is done right, images should look amazing right out of the camera.

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That was the first half of the day, then after lunch I was going to demonstrate my fast digital workflow using some images I already had on my hard drive. But during lunch I was getting a lot of questions about lighting and exactly how to do what I was teaching. So at the end of lunch, I asked an attendee named Lexi to be a quick model for me outside the hotel. It gave me a chance to demonstrate what I was teaching, and also game me some demo images to use during the second half of the day, that everyone knew were not prepared earlier for the event.

A photographer friend I’ve gotten to know over the years who was at the convention, Rich Breshears, took this image of me and Lexi outside in the parking lot. It shows me shooting with my light pole that I have built so that I can really control light even better as a model moves. I like to hold the light so that I can move it as I need to, putting the highlights and shadows exactly where I want them, not leaving them to chance. The parking lot had this big bush which I used as a background because it complimented Lexi’s red hair and also gave me a dark, low-key background that was mostly solid with a little texture, that way there was interest without distractions.

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After getting a few images, we went back inside and started up again. I spoke on my fast workflow system, which is made even faster by not having to correct any images. I also showed that with images already looking great out of your camera, your computer time should be fun and creative, coming up with some cool ideas for the client rather than correcting problems. Here I added one of my new custom edges I’ve made.

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And then I used that same image to create an abstract painting in front of the group.Cox_LSharpe-S-107-painting2-crop

I also used three images to create this trio, showing everyone how to create their own trios and composites. I love seeing images in threes, and having a trio design already made makes designing later even easier.

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It was a great event and very inspirational. When I speak, it means that I study and go through all of my material to determine what to spend my time on with the group. I find myself being uplifted as well as everyone else when I share and give. I really appreciate the opportunity to speak in Tacoma for the Professional Photographers of Washington, and want to thank Lexi for being a model for me at the last minute.

If you need some updated portraits, give me a call. Spring is here and it’s a great time to get in. And if you’re a photographer and want to improve your skills and attend one of my photographic workshops, please visit my upcoming schedule on my workshop site at BryCoxWORKSHOPS.com. Until next time, America.