A few weeks ago I posted a very unique image of the Salt Lake Temple which has caused a lot of excitement. Many people asked it was available for purchase. Well I have it now, ready for purchase as a custom 20×36 inch stretched canvas gallery wrap. It looks absolutely gorgeous.
To kick it off, I’m offering the first 10 for $300 off, and am also including free local delivery or FedEx Ground shipment to the lower 48 states.
I know that by offering the first few at a big discount that many of your friends and families will see it displayed your homes and want one for themselves.
Bry Cox – Mountain Tops
This image is called “Mountain Tops” due to the composition and as a reference to the Old Testament use of mountains as a symbol of the temple. Here’s how it looks from the side.
Bry Cox – side view of Mountain Tops
In getting “Mountain Tops” ready to release, I also decided to release and offer another image that has only been seen at my studio but has always created a big buzz — “The Sacred Grove!” It’s amazing how great this looks close up! It’s also been fun to have a religious piece of artwork that only certain people recognize as well. Some have simply thought it was a beautiful scenic, but those who know, appreciate it on many levels and are stunned by it.
Bry Cox – Sacred Grove
This is available as a 24×36 stretched Canvas Gallery Wrap and I’m doing the same thing with this: offering the first 10 for $300 off! This too also includes free local delivery or FedEx Ground shipment to the lower 48 states.
Both are available at my online store which is BryCoxART.com, or can be ordered by phone by giving me a call at 801-728-3317.
Last week when I was teaching at the photographic workshop in New England (see my last blog entry), I had the honor of meeting painter Jeremy Sutton (JeremySutton.com). He too was there to teach a course at the workshop, but his was on painting.
As both of us were instructors, we arrived a day early to get set up and have dinner together and with the other instructors and the NEIPP staff. I had never met him before, but knew his name and had seen some of his DVDs years ago. I was excited to finally meet him.
As we talked, we were both excited about the fact that we both had the same fresh approach and philosophies to creativity. Though we use different mediums and have different terminology to explain it, it was fun to find that they were so similar.
I’ve dubbed my creative philosophy and style, “Jazz Photography,” based on me being a jazz musician before becoming a photographer, and using the same approaches from playing jazz to creating photographs — that is having a high technical background but being able to block the technical thinking, allowing that part to function perfunctorily in the background in order to really be able to improv and be creative.
Jeremy, being a painter with a strong technical background, uses a similar approach, pulling on his love of jazz music and his background of swing dancing, relating it all to his individual brushstrokes. He even listens to jazz and talks about dancing as he paints.
BryCox - Sutton painting 1
Jeremy had an idea of combining our groups one night for about 30 minutes in order to talk about the similarities of our creative processes despite the differences in mediums. He decided that doing a live portrait would work best for this, and I was honored to have him chose me to paint. This image above is Jeremy painting me live.
BryCox - Sutton painting 2
It was quite an experience to be painted live. As you can see from this image above, he lit me with some consistent and directional light (the lamp) and is working digitally with a digital pad and pen (called a Cintique’, $2000) that is pressure and directionally sensitive. His work can be seen on the projector behind us.
BryCox - Sutton painting 3
He worked very abstractly, laying down colors and shapes that didn’t look like me or a person at all, but instead were swirls of color and shape, both positive and negative. The entire process only took 20 minutes, and near the end it began to come together where we could all see the face emerge from the abstract.
I am extremely pleased with the painting. Here is the final result:
BryCox - Sutton final canvas
I absolutely love this! As an artist, I find it incredibly interesting and very artistic. I love the use of color, the shapes, and the loose feeling of the brushstrokes as well. This was not created from a photo reference, but live, right in front of me. It was an incredible gift!
Being a musician, I love to write and record in my free time. This to me looks like an album cover for a future CD! I think I have a new project on my hands. 🙂
As my current clients know, I’ve offered painted portraits on canvas for many years using a portrait I create as a reference. Some of these can be seen in past entries on this blog (here is one example, or type “painting” into the search bar near the top of my blog to see more examples from the past).
However, I am hoping to learn and incorporate more of Jeremy’s style and techniques into my work to be an even better painter artist. I’m excited for what that will bring to my work.
I just got back from teaching a photographic workshop called NEIPP in New England. I had a great time and the group was wonderful. The location was beautiful too, located on Cape Cod in the town of Hyannis (on the ocean below Boston).
This was my view, looking out each morning from my hotel room balcony.
BryCox - Hyannis Room View
Here is my class out in front of the convention center. I’m in the center, front.
Bry's NEIPP Class 2009
I never really blog about my workshops except to say that I’m going or just got back from one. But on this occasion, the photographer who worked as my assistant photographed me in action, so now I have something to show all of you.
Many of the workshops I teach are only one day events, but this was one of the full weeklong workshops that I teach all over the country. I love doing these multi-day workshops because I have the time to fully go through my entire workflow. I talk about creativity, lighting and posing people correctly for their face and body shapes. I demonstrate real shoots of real people (like this image below),…
Photographing a model
…and then we work on those images from beginning to end, as I demonstrate my Photoshop techniques and digital workflow.
BryCox - Me teaching Photoshop
Everything I do is on a projector so everyone can watch and work along with me.
BryCox - Teaching PhotoshopNEIPP Class
And here is one of the final images, all finished. This is of one of the models, Bonnie.
BryCox - Model demo of Bonnie
And here are two of my models, Kristen & Jocelyn, who were sisters. I love this composite! It was very cold outside and windy and this was a creative exercise to demonstrate how to take something that’s negative about a shoot (in this case the cold and the wind) and use it as a positive to create something wonderful and magical.
BryCox - Sisters Kristen & Jocelyn
At the very last night, we had a big formal dinner with all of the instructors and all of the photographers in attendance. At the end of the dinner each group roasted their instructor in front of everyone.
My group roasted me by acting out their wildly exaggerated impression of me in a photo shoot. It was pretty funny and I have to say that it was pretty dead on too. I was speechless! A fun night!
I really liked the people at NEIPP. It was a great group and I feel it an honor to have been asked to go teach there. I made some new photographer friends too which is always fun, because the more I travel, the more I run into photographer friends from all over.
If anyone reading this is a photographer and would like to attend one of my workshops, check out my workshop site for more info.
I was very happy to create this portrait of Mr. Ron Micheli — the official portrait for his upcoming run for the Wyoming Office of Governor.
Ron Micheli
I love creating great portraits of people. One of the joys I get from being a portrait artist is creating from scratch using nothing but light, a two-dimensional image that not only captures how a person looks, but also the inner spirit, glow, and personality of that person. I want people to look at my images and feel like they already know the person while having never met them.
Despite all the very technical aspects that go into creating a portrait and lighting someone just right, I actually think one of the hardest things to do as an artist is to capture a person’s true personality. That’s why I love creating portraits, and I think that it is what really sets me apart in this industry.
That feeling of knowing a person’s personality in a portrait is crucial in an photograph like this, and this image has it! It contains the warmth, kindness and thoughtfulness that Mr. Micheli showed me when I first met him. I had only talked to him for a few brief moments before we stepped into the camera room to begin the session. Though we talked nothing of politics, I could tell from his manner and his kindness that he would be a fresh and honest relief to the world of politics. I wish him well!
What a fun morning. Today, Nicole and Ammon came in to see their final wedding album design, as a large slideshow projection in the theater, here at the studio.
It is such a beautiful design and I’ve been excited for them to come and see it. Here is one of my favorite page spreads from the album. If you are unfamiliar with my albums, this spread represents two pages, like an open book.
Bry Cox – Nicole’s Album
Their wedding was held at the Salt Lake Temple with their reception at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. They are a great couple and have been very fun to work with.
To see their entire album in slideshow form, click here. I think you’ll see that they are very photogenic and very much in love. There is a lot of sparkle in these two which really makes the album amazing!
This Saturday, I’ll be at the Gateway Wedding Show, located in the Grand Ballroom next to The Depot at the Gateway. The show goes from 10 am to 4 pm and it should be a lot of fun. I’ll be bringing some new albums and some new beautiful samples to show.
Bridal shows are a great way to see and compare different photographers and other wedding vendors very quickly, and I’m excited for you to come and see me and what I do, and to compare the quality and value against anyone else.
If you’re getting married, stop by and say hi. It’d be fun to see you.
Well, my Portland job is finished. It went really well. I fly home today and should have flown out a while ago, but I got bumped and am waiting now at the Portland airport for my next flight.
One thing I’ve always liked about the PDX airport is that it is one of the few airports that has free and working WiFi. That is a nice service for sure, so today I’m taking advantage of that and thought I’d put up a few more images from my coastal road trip I took earlier this week.
Bry Cox - Heceta at a distance
This image above I created on my long walk up to the Heceta lighthouse (on Day 2). It was such a serene moment to come around the path and have it open up to this scene!
Bry Cox - Looking off Heceta
This image was taken from the lighthouse looking down. The mountain in the distance is where I photographed the lighthouse during the day time on Day 3 from a distance along with the image of myself.
Bry Cox - Heceta Panorama
Here is a pano of the lighthouse before the sun set that night.
And earlier that day I photographed an entirely different lighthouse on the way to Heceta. This lighthouse is called Yaquina and I used my friend Bryan Welsh’s long lens to get this from a distant beach.
Bry Cox - Yaquina Lighthouse
Well I’m getting tired of sitting here in the airport and need to walk around, stretch and maybe get some food. I hope you all like these images. I know I had a great time creating them and am very excited to see them printed.
Yesterday was day three of my Oregon Coast Photo Safari. When I’m on a photo safari, for some strange reason I think it’s fun find and stay in some classic motels…that are clean of course. This is the motel where I stayed between day 2 and 3 on the safari. It was in a small coastal town right across the street from the place where I ate dinner. And yes, it was clean and cheap and the biggest thing that impressed me was the fact that they still used real keys instead of swipe cards.
Coastal Motel
So after checking out, I headed back north, taking the slow and scenic way to Portland, and found a little meandering road called Mercer on the way. That’s where I got this panorama.
Bry Cox - Mercer
Because only locals drive the road and they all know each other, I had a few local people stop and watch me to make sure I didn’t need any help or to see what I was up to. I loved this scene. The trees are fantastic!
From there I continued more north passing the lighhouse again and this time stop and created some images from a distance rather than up close.
Bry Cox - Heceta Head
I like this angle because it shows the cliffs below the lighthouse. Such a great location. This was right off the road and didn’t require any hiking, so other cars were pulling off too to look. After setting up my equipment, I found someone to take a photo with me in it. I never get any photos of me when I’m on a trip, so this is a real treat!
Bry Cox - Bry at Heceta
I got into Portland by early evening yesterday and began working all day today. I work again most of the day tomorrow too, and then I’m done here.
Here in Portland, because I’m working, I was put up in a very nice hotel. I’ve stayed in a lot of nice hotels, but this has to be one of the biggest rooms I’ve ever had. It is the size of a three room apartment and I love it. It’s so nice to stay in a nice place after staying in a cheap place the night before. The contrast really makes me appreciate companies like this that put time and effort into creating an atmosphere of good taste, and style, that is beautiful and comfortable to live in.
Ok, well I’ve got to go prepare for tomorrow. I’ll get more images up when I get a minute. Until next time, America!
— Bry
I made it just as planned to my favorite lighthouse at exactly when I wanted to arrive, just as the sun was beginning to set. This is one of the most photographed lighthouses in the world and I’ve won some great awards myself with images of this lighthouse that I created some years ago. It is called Heceta Head, and pretty much every art book on lighthouses has Haceta Head on the cover.
Aside from the lighthouse itself, the location is absolutely gorgeous and serene. It puts me in an introspective and creative mood just being there. The air was perfect and fresh and I loved the sound of the very large waves crashing into the rocks below us.
I created a lot of images here tonight, but here are just two for now.
Bry Cox - Oregon Photo Safari 4
The lighthouse is about a 1/2 mile hike from the parking area. Once reaching the lighthouse, I hurried to make this image just before the sun dropped below some clouds on the horizon.
Bry Cox - Oregon Photo Safari 5
Once the sun had dropped out completely, I created this image with the help of a photographer friend of mine, Bryan Welsh (MIT Studio) who came along with me. He helped me paint the side of the building with a flash during a long 30 second exposure, a technique called “painting with flash.” It came about once the sun had dropped out and in trying to figure out how to get the twilight image I wanted, found out that he had two hand-held flashes in his bag.
Painting with flash means that while the camera is on a tripod and open, we run around in the frame flashing the areas we want lit. The flashes have to be in the right locations and at the right settings, and you have to constantly run to avoid ending up in the photograph yourself. A very fun way to make a photograph! 🙂 I think we were laughing after every 30 second exposure.
There are more images from this location, and hopefully soon I’ll get some more up on the blog.
Today was such a fun day. I loved driving down the coast, seeing small towns, eating in fun little diners, hanging out with my friend Bryan, and photographing this lighthouse. This particular lighthouse was the main reason I wanted to come back out to the coast on this trip and I think I got some great images.
Well that’s it for tonight. I should get to bed now. Until next time, America!
— Bry
I’m out in Oregon for a job I have coming up in a few days, but I came out early to take a road trip down one of my favorite roads in the country…the Oregon coast. Here are some images I created today.
Bry Cox - Oregon Coast Photo Safari 1
I love this! This building is will be 100 years old next year. I had a nice talk with the care-keeper today while photographing it.
Bry Cox - Oregon Coast Photo Safari 2
This is overlooking Haystack rock in the distance. The next image shows Haystack better.
Bry Cox - Oregon Coast Photo Safari 3
Some nice waves almost got me while creating this image.
I’ve had a great day and had a lot of fun seeing some of these places again. It is so pretty out here! Tomorrow I’ll be heading south and working my way further down the coast. I’m planning to arrive at my favorite lighthouse late in the day so that the sun will be in the perfect spot to make the lighthouse look spectacular.
If I can get a hotel with reliable internet tomorrow night, then I’ll get some images of this lighthouse up.
One of the things that I love about creating photographs is capturing relationships and preserving those feelings and emotions in an artful way. Today I worked on this order for a couple that is getting married soon. The images are from a ‘Pre-Session’….a session of the bride and groom before the wedding.
Emily
I love this image of them hugging each other. They have such a beautiful sparkle in their eyes.
Emily
This is Emily alone in her wedding dress. It will be finished as a long, skinny, horizontal wall image.
Emily's Design
Here is a design I created for them too. It shows a lot of emotions and feelings all in one composite, designed to keep your eye flowing throughout.
I love doing these kinds of sessions. They are really fun and fulfilling. This couple has a lot of love for each other, and I think it really shows. I wish them luck in their new life together.
So to everyone else out there, remember that you can hire me for this kind of a session whether you use me for your entire wedding or not. Give me a call and tell me about your dream portrait and let’s make it happen!
I have a new portfolio DVD for 2009, and it is all finished and ready for you! It is formatted for your large widescreen home theater so that you can view the images large and in the comfort of your own home.
Bry Cox – Portfolio DVD
This DVD includes specific slideshows on weddings, bridals, families, children, high school seniors, models, as well as some entire wedding albums so that you can see how I might tell the story of your day from start to finish. You can order one for free right off my main website, here. (Click on Free DVD on menu.)
You can watch it on any DVD player or computer, both Mac and PC. The music is amazing and was all written and recorded by my sister, Elise. Each music score was specifically chosen for each slideshow to accentuate the mood of the images. It is a wonderful DVD and I know you will all love it.
————————————————————————– Note to photographers: I can understand how other photographers may want to frequent my site, and I appreciate that. However, I received thousands of requests from photographers for my last portfolio DVD, photographers not wanting to hire me but to get ideas for themselves.
If you are a photographer, please understand that I spent a lot of money and time producing these DVDs and am happy to give them for free only to clients and potential clients. I cannot respond to photographers requests for free DVDs, but you can certainly order them for a cost (along with many other photographic items) in the store part of my photographic workshop site. Thanks for understanding.
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