utah salt flats

BlackRapid Photo-Moto Ride 2023 – Part 4

Posted by BryCox (Admin)

Once a year, some photographer friends of mine get together for a multi-state motorcycle ride. For the last few years, it’s been branded and put on by Ron Henry, the founder of BLACKRAPID. This is the last and 4th part in this series documenting this year’s ride. (See Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3.)

As everyone headed out from the Santa Barbara docs in their various directions, Mike Ridinger, his son Cade, and myself made a route home that would take us on backroads through Death Valley and the Utah Salt Flats.

Cade as the passenger on Mike’s bike would check routes and give us options as we rode. It allowed us to avoid all the LA traffic and large freeways clogged with cars, and instead take the most beautiful scenic side routes in California.

We slowly weaved our way northeast, spending hours curving through farm land and orchards. It was a completely different view of California than I’ve seen previously. It was a sea of orchards and farms, interspersed with little towns perfect for gas stops.

In one town, there was this building on the left with a series of colors. I stopped to photograph it while changing up clothing. We seemed to go through warm areas, then cold, then rain, then back to warm all along this route. We’d go up mountains and hills, down, and the weather would constantly change.

At one point we stopped along a roadside to change up our clothing and gear. Mike got this photo of me and Cade chatting and looking at the sunset.

It’s amazing how open and wide the country is when you get off the main roads. While stopped, I took a photo of my bike on the side of the road.

As we looked off at the sunset behind us, we were amazed by the colors and the layers of mountain peaks in the distance.

As we continued on into the twilight, we found a town with a suitable hotel and got some dinner for the night.

The next day we got up, packed our bikes, and headed for Death Valley. It started out as a hot morning, and as we rode through this area, we had no internet. But Mike’s thermometer consistently showed we were in the 100º-115º range depending on our elevation. At this temperature, the “wind-chill” that happens when you ride is actually makes the temperature feel even hotter. At a certain temperature point, the wind blowing past you as you ride isn’t cooler, but hotter.

Being this hot, this was a great place to stop to eat, cool down and gas up. I liked this old truck with the sign saying, “Last Gas for 45 minutes.” Gas out here is far and few between – as we find out later. But first, we absolutely enjoyed our time and Death Valley. My phone kept shutting down from the heat, even if I put it in my pocket out of the sun. At one point, we visited a gift shop, and I put my phone in the ice cream freezer to get it to start working again.

From Death Valley we headed to a town called Tonopah to fill up – it’s the last gas station for 170 miles on the way to Ely, Nevada. Mike’s gas tank is bigger than mine, but I had some spare gas on me too, just in case. My tank, with normal riding can go about 120-140 miles before I run out of gas and have to switch to my reserve tank, where I’ll get another 30 miles. It was cutting it close on making it the 170, but we were too far away from anything for another route, plus I did have extra gas on board.

So we gassed up and headed out to Ely. Along the way we’d talk and re-calculate, wondering how close to town I’d get. Eventually, my main tank gave out and I switched to reserve. Eventually, that gave out and I poured the rest of my gas I had with me in my tank and we continued on. When that puttered out, we were about 9 miles from town. Mike and Cade went ahead into town to get me gas, while I pulled over and watched the night and the empty road. Before long, they were back with extra gas for me and we went on into town, got a hotel, and talked about our day’s adventures over dinner.

The next day we headed to Wendover, Utah, dodging storm clouds and getting hit at one point with the edge of a wild rain storm. I shot this image at a Mexican restaurant were we cooled down and got some lunch.

With a new tank of gas, we went out to the Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah.

We took some time to enjoy the flats and photograph our bikes on the stark, white salt. My blue bike really popped with the color scheme of the flats – blue sky and white clouds and salt.

Mike brought a small studio flash and we had some fun playing with lighting on the Salt Flats.

From here we headed home to my place in Utah, a few more hours to the east to relax, eat, and decompress. The next day Mike and Cade packed up and headed home to Lewiston, Idaho. It was the end of a great adventure. Over 2100 miles and friendship and adventure.

And on a portrait note, kids are back in school and fall weather is coming. It’s the perfect time to update family and kids’ portraits before the pretty green dies off. Give me a call at 801-728-3317 and let’s set something up.

And until next time, America.

Salt Flats Photo Shoots – Teaching Lighting to Photographers (part 1)

Posted by BryCox (Admin)

This last weekend I taught a 2-day lighting class to on the Utah Salt Flats to photographers from Idaho. It was my Adaptive Lighting class and it’s the perfect place because the area is so unpredictable. And this time was no different because when we got there the entire area was covered in smoke from the California wildfires.

Instead of wishing we didn’t have smoke, my challenge to everyone was to adapt, problem solve, and create smokey images so amazing, that everyone from now on will want photographs in the smoke. And as you can see from my first example, the smoke could be very beautiful. With some adaptive lighting and gear, my first demo was deepen the sky for a warm, surreal, and golden landscape.

We had an awesome turn out, as you can see in this video, and photographers and models alike were all having a great time. Definitely watch this short video. It’s in 4K, so try full screen if you have the internet bandwidth. It’ll be worth it.

No matter where you are, lighting always needs to be controlled for portraits – and that’s particularly true on the flats because there’s never shade. Many photographers rely on shade to make their portraits work, but learning to nail everything in the harsh environments of the Utah Salt Flats with studio lights and technical know-how means being able to create beautiful portrait anywhere. Out on the Salt Flats, the sunlight changes constantly from morning, to noon, afternoon, sunset, twilight, and even after dark. Being able to rock studio lights at this location is essential.

I am excited by the images I created there, and will post them soon. But first I wanted to share some behind the scenes from the event.

Here’s our entire group in the afternoon on Saturday. I captured this image with my drone, fired with my lower hand. And a special thanks to my friend Cory Waite for coming along as my friend and assistant, and for getting lots of great behind-the-scenes footage.

It was fun seeing all the lighting setups along the flats, and all the photographers and models having a great time.

Here are a few early favorites that I created during various demos.

Here’s a great image of Phil White working. He’s the photographer who put the event on and asked me to come speak for the Professional Photographers of Idaho. If you’re a photographer in Idaho, you should belong to this group.

On Saturday afternoon, we got special permission for our group to photograph at the historic Enola Gay Hangar, nearby in Wendover, Utah. I’m grateful to those who made that happen, and I’m excited to see what everyone creates in this unique spot. With all of our pretty models, lighting gear, and access to this great location, there were lots of ways to solve creative problems and create beautiful images. Here’s some of my early favorites from that location

At one point, photographer Katrina Hoffman was changing her camera settings while photographing a model who was Salsa dancing. I took advantage of the moment to cross through her shot – but Salsa danced through the space. Katrina was quick enough to get this photo of me carrying my lights, and Salsa dancing past her Salsa dancing model. HAHA!

Stay tuned for more great images from this event. And if you’re a photographer looking for training, check out my training website with online courses and schedule for upcoming events. It’s all at BryCoxWORKSHOPS.com.

And if you’re a client and would like to create some amazing portraits, now’s a great time to book a fun new shoot. Give me a call at 801-728-3317.

And until next time, America.

Salt Flats Evening Shoot with Pamela, the Bubble Trailer, and the Chop Stick Guys (part 1)

Posted by BryCox (Admin)

This week my photographer friend from California, Suzette Allen kicked off her big nationwide tour in her Bubble Trailer. She’s a photographic trainer and we’ve known each other for years because we often speak at the events. She’s taking the next few months to tour the country in her trailer, visiting some of her favorite camera shops and photographer friends. Her first big stop was here in Utah. I drove out to meet her on the Salt Flats, along with the Chop Stick Guys, and I brought my beautiful friend Pamela to be our model.

While everyone was gearing up, I did a quick light-painting of Suzette’s beautiful Bubble Trailer.

The Salt Flats is a wide open area with no shade. The sun moves quickly and the light shifts dramatically. Sadly many photographers go there and rely on haphazard or natural light while using auto camera settings there. It’s all they know. They just end up with muddy faces and often washing out the background too. Instead, to really rock the location and the lighting there, all the details need to be controlled. These are the details that I teach and share with photographers in my training courses.

When you control the lighting and the technical details, you capture the deep tones of the background while sculpting the model with light, making her shine. From there you can be fully creative and let go, especially if you have a great location and model. And Pamela was a terrific model! She absolutely killed it! We had a lot of fun and have so many beautiful images to choose from. Here are some of my early favorites.

This outfit offered a pop of color on the cool tones of the background. The sun was setting, but the heavy clouds and distant storms were blocking a lot of the sky. So with some custom lighting, we get these deep colors in the sky and Pam and her outfit just pop.

She has a lot of personality and it really shows in these photographs. I really love all the images we created.

As the sun got lower, the wind really began to pick up. We used the wind to our advantage, and I love the movement that it created in her hair and outfit.

As it got darker, we did a change of outfits for more variety, and our model wore this flowy red dress. It was perfect for the wind and looked great with the trailer later. Her and I shot a lot of movement in this dress which I may post later, but here’s some of my favorite stand-out images in this dress.

Suzette is building a series of images of her trailer in different locations, and prepared a bunch of balloons for our model. Because she was switching back and forth between shooting video and photos, she was using continuous lighting. I saw some of her previews on her camera and I loved what I saw. Here are some behind the scene images of her working.

I really love the rain clouds as our backdrop to these photographs, and Pam really did a great job.

This is just Part 1. I’ll post more later because I continued to shoot Pam into the night with a couple more changes of clothes, even after sunset when it was pitch black. Plus the next morning we all got up extra early to shoot one more time on the Salt Flats at sunrise. I brought a different model for sunrise, and have lots of great images to share from that too. From both shoots, all the portraits are amazing, and I’m exited to share them with you.

If you’d like a cool photo shoot at an exotic location like the Salt Flats, give me a call at 801-728-3317. With the right lighting, it can work well for families, kids, even high school seniors.

And if you’re a photographer looking to up your game and get more training, check out my online and in-person courses at BryCoxWORKSHOPS.com.

And until next time, America.