My 2012 Gift for YOU, A New Christmas CD!

by BryCox (Admin)Bry Cox Photography Blog, Commercial & HeadshotsPosted on One Comment

Every year at this time, I design, layout, and print about 20,000 Christmas audio CDs for a client and friend, James Conlee.  I always make sure that I get some copies for myself that I can give to all my current clients and friends.  This year’s album is especially beautiful and I’m excited for you all to see and hear it.

With every order between now and Christmas, you’ll get your own copy (while supplies last).

This produced every year by one of my best friends, James Conlee who produces and oversees the entire album.  In fact it is a joint project of friends in many ways because the cover painting is by another friend of ours, James Christensen (a famous painter with Greenwich Workshops).

This year, his painting used for the cover is “Cecelia,” which is incredibly colorful and beautiful. I love the different uses of various types of brush strokes, the various hues, and the beauty of the entire piece, though James Christensen’s paintings are always incredibly captivating. His artwork really makes this CD artwork wonderful.

I had a hard time cropping his image for a square cover, as the entire painting is so wonderful. I did however, use some tricks with the type over the painting to make it blend in more and seem more like gold leaf embedded into the canvas.

It’s a little known fact that I design all of the CDs that James Conlee produces, and I think that this is the 13th CD I’ve designed for him. The music for this particular project was recorded with the Prague Symphony Orchestra and with The Madeleine Choir of Salt Lake City.

So for all my holiday clients that are ordering this time of year, whether you get a large collection of various wall portraits or even just reorder one small 8×10 print, I am giving you a FREE 2012 Christmas CD!  The cover painting is phenomenal, the music is phenomenal, and the whole production is worth owning! In fact, if you’re a current client and don’t have anything to order right now, still call me and stop by and I’ll make sure you get a copy as well.

We are getting close to Christmas as far as appointments go, so if you’d like some fantastic images of yourself or your family, now’s the time to get in the studio.  Give me a call at 801-728-3317 to set thing up.  And remember, I’ll include a Christmas CD with your order.

And feel free to check out my main website at BryCox.com, and until next time, America.

Bry Cox on the Back of Zion’s Bank Community Magazine

by BryCox (Admin)Bry Cox Photography Blog, Commercial & Headshots, PublishedPosted on No Comments

Hitting 60,000 mailboxes right now is the Sep-Oct Edition of Community Magazine by Zion’s Bank. On the back is a full-page Pictureline ad featuring me and one of my favorite images.

There is a caption next to my photo. It’s my testimonial of Pictureline that reads:

When I started my studio seventeen years ago, pictureline was there to support me. The store is clean and aesthetically pleasing, and the staff is very knowledgeable. They’ve made my business and priority, and because of that I consider them friends and I value their advice.

There’s nothing that compares to holding and trying new cameras or equipment out first hand, and buying locally will ensure that I get the very best quality and support possible. We’re lucky to have pictureline in our backyard. – Bry Cox

The image chosen for the ad was from a fantastic and exciting shoot that I previously posted here on my blog, and below here is a video showing the entire shoot. You really need to see this video. Every single image is amazing.

If you get this magazine, make sure you turn it over and take a look at this. I really love this photograph and it was a real honor to be asked to be apart of this ad. I love photography, the entire photographic industry, and Jens not only has an amazing store, but he’s a great supporter of photographers and the industry. I really appreciate being associated with Pictureline and I hope that this ad does well for them.

 

Portrait: The Director

by BryCox (Admin)Bry Cox Photography Blog, Commercial & HeadshotsPosted on No Comments

While I was working out of town recording some teaching videos for photographers, I worked closely for days with the director of the production. He was an incredibly interesting man inside and out, and was tattooed from head to toe. At the end of the production on the last day, before we packed up, I asked if I could photograph him.

I took no more than a minute or two, used the studio equipment that I had been recording with, and created this portrait of him before he even took his headphones off.

I find faces to be fascinating, and even when I’m not photographing someone, I find myself watching people and trying to read into their personality from the tiny details. Richard Avedon, my favorite fashion photographer and someone who truly understood how to photograph faces, addressed this same thing in himself. He said if he hadn’t become a photographer, he’d probably have been some kind of fortune teller or reader of some kind, because he couldn’t turn off the fact that he was always reading and analyzing faces.

I’m very grateful that I’m a photographer and get to create really custom portraits for people. Every face has a story, and this man’s face and this image is very captivating. I’m planning on creating a final print and sending it to him, and I hope that he too finds it as interesting and captivating as I do.

Commercial Images for Rhino Med Cart

by BryCox (Admin)Bry Cox Photography Blog, Commercial & HeadshotsPosted on No Comments

People don’t always realize how important great images are to a company’s marketing campaign. Perspective clients may never visit the showroom, tour the factory, or meet the employees face to face, but they will have a perception of the company based on the only thing they see — the brochure. Therefore the images have to tell the story and fill in the gaps, and can’t just be snapshots of what an object looks like. Rather they must show what it is, what it can do, it’s level of quality, what type of people use it, and how buying it will solve the prospect’s problems.

Because of this, I LOVE creating commercial images for businesses and was excited when the Rhino Med Cart company asked me to create the images for their new brochure. They got me an ex-NFL player for my male model, and he was terrific!

All of these images were created on scene with custom lighting and exposure for a deep blue sky, and stark contrast for either color or black and white. The final design and brochure layout was in color, and here’s how it looks, outside front (right side) and back (left side)….

…and inside when you open it.

This is a very unique cart used on athletic fields. It is very versatile and incredibly durable. To show that, we had the almost 300 pound athlete stand on the outer lip. It didn’t break, bend, or even tip the cart over.

These carts can be stocked and used for medical and orthopedic purposes or as a drink cart with plenty of features for each use.

Interestingly, there was a problem with the first female model and her schedule, so instead we grabbed this cute girl last minute who was there working out on the track before the shoot. It was a good solution as she did a great job.

She was very personable and photogenic, and really helped show perspective when standing next to our big NFL male model.

I really loved the deep colors and the specific lighting style used in each of these images. It creates saturation and contrast and as a result, depth. When so many photographers right now are shooting images that are “flat” or “blown out,” it’s nice to create something so unique, different, and opposite – something that actually feels 3D, has depth, and looks sharp, clean, and professional.

If you’re a business and need some fantastic images created, give me a call at 801-728-3317. Tell me your vision and I will create images for your company that match your level of professionalism, quality, and attention to detail.

Bry Cox featured in This Month’s Photography Magazine, ‘Rangefinder’

by BryCox (Admin)Awards, Bry Cox Photography Blog, Commercial & Headshots, Photography Workshops, PublishedPosted on No Comments

I’m featured in this month’s Rangefinder magazine, a publication that goes to all the professional photographers. This is how the cover looks (which I didn’t shoot).

It was for the big WPPI event in Vegas for which I created this collage below, mentioned in a previous post. I was pushing and hoping this would be the cover, but it didn’t make it for that. However, it was used in the story, positioned on the edge of the page to catch viewers eyes as they flip through the magazine.

Here’s the opening spread. I added little targets on my images (5 of the 8 on this spread).

The bottom left image is a multi-image stitch created by Alain Martinez, one of the other two people on the project with me. He shot me and another of other prominent photographers one by one, and put it all together for this one image.

There are more images of ours in the story, along with a little write-up of the three of us who worked on the project: me, Alain Martinez from Miami, and Henk van Kooten from the Netherlands.

There is a book that will follow, and I’m very excited to see how that comes out. It was a real honor to be asked to work on this as well as to work with Alain and Henk and get to know them better.

On another note, it’s spring time and now is a great time to get a new family portrait. Give me a call at 801-728-3317 to schedule a time. And feel free to browse my main website at BryCox.com.

Photographs for an Interior Design Job in Farmington

by BryCox (Admin)Bry Cox Photography Blog, Commercial & HeadshotsPosted on One Comment

A local interior designer named Jenna (JM Design Sparrow) is a great Interior Designer and artist, and she asked me to photograph one of her recent projects in Farmington, particularly the client’s bathroom.

There was a lot of attention to detail and I wanted to make sure that I captured, not only the look of the room, but the feel of it as well. I really liked this necklace holder on the vanity, for instance, and shot this with some purposeful optical blur for a nice abstract look.

This tub is one of the center points of the room, and I wanted to make sure that I showcased it with both panoramas as well as close images.

This panorama below was particularly fun as well as difficult to shoot. It’s hard to shoot a long image like this in tight quarters like a home, while keeping vertical lines and perspectives correct. I love how it turned out.

The entire bathroom was made up of custom and unique pieces of furniture, that all went together very well.

Even the details like the faucet and the lights were special finds and meant a lot to them.

There were some other areas too that were particularly fun areas to design, and she wanted images of these areas as well. These were mainly areas of gathering and relaxation.

Then while finishing up, I photographed the family’s tulips on their kitchen table. I just liked the colors and how they were lit naturally.

If you need some interior design work, Jenna’s the person to talk to. She loves integrating people’s personality and tastes into their own home, and solving the problems of texture, colors and space.

And if you need some great interior images, perhaps for a home your selling or to show off a design job, then give me a call. Hopefully you can see from my work that I am an absolute technician, focusing on the details of lines, balance, exposure, and specific lighting to create a professional and polished image, while at the same time giving you something that is new, creative, and interesting to look at too.

And now is a great time to set up your Spring appointment for your family portrait. Give me a call at 801-728-3317 to schedule a time. And feel free to browse my main website at BryCox.com.

Vegas Images & WPPI Assignments

by BryCox (Admin)Art Images, Bry Cox Photography Blog, Commercial & Headshots, Photography WorkshopsPosted on One Comment

I was recently asked by GraphiStudio to photograph the big portrait conference in Vegas called WPPI. The project is called “Day in the Life of WPPI,” and the images will go in a book as well as an upcoming edition of Rangefinder Magazine. While doing that I created my favorite image of the project, this image collage of images from the strip.

I wanted to show the feeling of Vegas, so went driving shooting out the window with this collage in mind. The final results were better than I imagined.

I also shot some images driving with my iPhone too (below) which I like for their abstract feel.

And I also shot the strip with a time-lapse camera strapped to the side of my vehicle. Afterwards I took those images, and created this time-lapse video.

Though my main job was photographing particular speakers and events through the program, I really tried to show the feel of the event with panoramas like this group below,

and this pano showing the taking down of the tradeshow.

While working there, I was also asked to join a contest for the MGM advertising, and so I also created these images while there, both exteriors and interiors of the MGM, Signature, and spa. Knowing that the MGM has their own staff photographer on hand, I decided to give them something quite different using tilt lenses and controlled blurs. I wanted them to be more abstract, capturing the “feel” of the place rather than being just a photo of the place.

I really like these of the spa, using multiple reflections to get this first image.

Here are some shots of the rooms at the Signature.

And for fun, I also shot a street scene looking out one of the windows of the Signature hotel rooms so that I could later add myself to the shot in post production. This is the final result.

Do you have a business or an event that you’d like photographed in an artistic and pleasing way? Give me a call. Plus now is a great time to set up your Spring appointment for families or high school seniors. Give me a call at 801-728-3317 to schedule a time. And feel free to browse my main website at BryCox.com.

Singer/Songwriter/Actress Katherine Nelson’s Outdoor Shoot

by BryCox (Admin)Bry Cox Photography Blog, Commercial & Headshots, Thoughts, WomenPosted on No Comments

I’m so excited about these images and can’t wait for you all to see them! This is an outdoor commercial shoot that I did for Katherine Nelson. You may recognize Katherine as the actress that played Emma in the LDS Church film, “Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration.” That movie plays daily at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and she was also in the movie “Emma Smith: My Story.”

Katherine is also an accomplished singer/songwriter, winning all sorts of awards for both her solo work as well the work she’s done with various groups like the Nashville Tribute Band and Kenneth Cope.

For this project, she had a specific need and concept, so I chose one of my secret locations that matched what she wanted to create.

I set up all sorts of lighting equipment imaginable to take control of the scene. Lighting this scene was difficult, but it needed to be specific and controlled in order to create images that pop, while still being real and natural. The results are phenomenal! I was especially excited that a storm had gone through earlier, giving us great storm clouds to work with. I love a sky with drama!

Katherine is a fantastic model and a joy to be around. I find her easy to photograph, easy to direct, and she really had great expression. She even did her own styling and created her own clothing, accoutrements and flag for the shoot. It all worked together so well. I flipped out when I initially  saw her and the details of her outfit. It was all so perfect. I especially love her red skirt against the green grass.

We really had a fun time at this shoot. Looking back over it, two of our initial favorites were the image above and below. I love the sun shining through the clouds in the photograph above, and in the image below, the flag blowing against the awesome storm clouds with a little bit of blue peaking through, really makes this sing!

And this next portrait below is one of my all-time favorites from the entire shoot. I love the stance, the directional lighting on Katherine, and the color harmony with the dominant blue sky. The clouds have wispy pink highlights painted by the sun that has now set. This image is at twilight, and has such depth! I actually put this up on my website’s main splash page today, cropped square.

We were having so much fun that even after the sun set completely, I continued to shoot and create in the dark, using all artificial light. However I did it in such a way that it looks like real sunlight. The scene in these next images was actually dark to the eye at the time, but with the right techniques the scene glows and feels like sunset.

Then to end the shoot, I finished up with some close-ups, again with all artificial light because the sun had set at this point. The idea was to create a fake sunset but with the control of darkness, and these images are some of my favorites! (That’s one of my lights as a fake sun in the image below because it’s actually dark outside.)

You really need to see the entire shoot, but there’s not room enough on the blog, so I created a slideshow set to music. Start it up and enjoy.

It seems funny, but anytime I post a shoot like this, I get a lot of emails and phone calls asking where my images were taken. When I suggest that they hire me and I’ll photograph them there, some will admit that they just want to go to the same spot with a cheaper photographer – as if my locations are what yield great results. This is of course untrue.

Being in a great location with the right gear and a beautiful model certainly doesn’t hurt, but the real key to creating great photographs (whether it be outdoors, in sunlight, at twilight, sunset, or even after the sun has gone down) is specific control of lighting. And lighting people specifically and artistically is my unique skill.

I sometimes point to my list of awards and credentials, not to brag, but to show that when you hire ME, you’ll get something completely unique and personal, you’ll get phenomenal photography.

No matter who you are, I will make you look great, real, and natural, and generations from now people will still love your portraits and appreciate your purchase.

Now is a great time to set up your Spring appointment. I’m sure it’s time for a new family portrait, and high school seniors are getting ready to graduate. Give me a call at 801-728-3317 to schedule a time. And feel free to browse my main website at BryCox.com.

Kendra Lowe’s Musician Portraits

by BryCox (Admin)Bry Cox Photography Blog, Commercial & Headshots, WomenPosted on 2 Comments

Kendra Lowe is an accomplished and fantastic musician, composer, event director, and one of only a few people I’ve met personally with perfect pitch. She needed some new photographs for her musical bio, and wanted images that were unique, had pizzaz and sass, while at the same time having classic appeal. Because of that, she came to me and we had a blast creating these.

Kendra not only sings, but also plays many instruments: piano, banjo, violin.  She performed with the Utah Symphony at age 6, was the Assistant Executive Director of Utah’s Stadium of Fire show, toured with David Archuleta (of American Idol fame), is a constant studio musician, while at the same time composing in her MIDI studio. She needs great images to match her talent. 🙂

I love how these all turned out. Kendra was such a stunning model. The images are sexy and classy, elegant and edgy, feminine and stunning! It was hard to narrow the shoot down to my favorite portraits.

I really love the stacking of warm tones in these too. They came together so well, and were created here at my studio where I have the ultimate control over the light.

We did also did some casual images as well, and this one with her tossing her hair was one of my favorites!

If you are in need of some new portraits for your business, portfolio, or anything else, and you require images of high quality to match the look of what you do, then give me a call at 801-728-3317. Spring is a great time to make your dream portrait happen! And browse my main website if you’re new to my work, BryCox.com.

Race Horses in Arkansas

by BryCox (Admin)Art Images, Bry Cox Photography Blog, Commercial & Headshots, Photography WorkshopsPosted on No Comments

While speaking in Arkansas, a photographer friend of mine out there made arrangements for me and the group I was teaching to take some photographs in the early morning light at the Oaklawn race track. It was invigorating and fun because of the cold morning air and because photography is not normally allowed there. But with our special permission, we were able to get right up close and photograph the horses training. Here are a couple of my favorites.

This first image is so great when you look at it up close. The eyes are tack sharp and the blur in the image looks fantastic. It is all natural of course, no effects, no blurring – it’s all done in the camera. I especially like the horses position in the frame and the overall shape of his feet.

On all of these, I added my new custom edges that I’ve been working on. I really like the finished look of these images.

We had free reign of the areas that no one sees, including the back. So while walking through the back area, I photographed the stables.

As I was leaving, I photographed this tree, looking up against the sky using my Lensbaby shift lens to get a real optical blur around the edges. I love how it turned out!

If you’re in need of some really great images, whether it be some unique art for your wall or some custom family portraits, give me a call. Spring is here and it’s a great time to get in. 801-728-3317. And check out my main website too if you’re new to my work, BryCox.com.

Joanna’s Portraits

by BryCox (Admin)Bry Cox Photography Blog, Commercial & Headshots, WomenPosted on 2 Comments

I did some great portraits of Joanna. She is so fun to photograph. Take at look at some of the images from her shoot.

I really like this first image, the eyes, the expression, and the diagonal line of her hair. It all works so well. And the three images below work great as a series. Every image is captivating, beautiful and real.

And here’s one in color using one of my new custom edges that I’ve been working on.  All of these were created in the studio, with specific fashion lighting specific for her. That, combined with her expression and the images really glow!

If you’re in need of some really great portraits, either for portfolio work or just for fun, give me a call. 801-728-3317. And check out my main website too if you’re new to my work, BryCox.com.

Temple in a Snow Storm During Bridal Show

by BryCox (Admin)Art Images, Bry Cox Photography Blog, Commercial & Headshots, Wedding & Bridal ShowsPosted on One Comment

This last week I was one of the main vendors at the bridal show held at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake.  It is always a great show.  I look forward to it every year.  Here is a look at my booth if you didn’t make it.

During the show, there was a beautiful snowstorm and I created some wonderful storm images of the Salt Lake Temple looking out the window.  I created a few variations and I’m still deciding which one I like the best.  Which ones do you like?

I’m also excited that all of these were processed out using my new duo-tone black & white effects that I recently created, and are finished with my new line of  custom edges that I’ve been working on.  I create and sell these effects and edges to photographers around the country when I speak to save them time and money.  These are a part of my new line of effects.  I really love how they look, especially with these images.  I’ve also tried them with portraits and absolutely love it!  I will post them on my blog soon.

After looking out the window, I had to step out for a couple images outside.  Again, I shot two variations and can’t decide which one I like better.  One is shot faster to catch the flakes in the air and the other is slower which creates some really cool diagonal lines.  Both work for so many reasons.

Before running back in, I got a passing tourist to take a photo of me with my camera.  I love the snow in the air, but hate that I’m out of focus.  DANG!

Anyway, soon I’ll have those temple images ready to purchase in my art site.  But until then, let me know which ones are your favorites.