Yes, I Have Mariachi Pants!  Thank you Jimmy and Sanne!  Our grand opening party was a huge success, not just because I was wearing some of the coolest pants ever made, but because we had so many friends, family, clients and vendors that showed up to party and support us in a 23 year old dream to have our own studio.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  If you missed the party of the year, I will give you a small recap.  We had a Cool band doing some great covers - Dean Cortez, Greg Diaz and World Famous Drummer, Joe Esposito in form Southern CA, and killer DJ - Mike from Good Vibrations - spinning and keeping the party going and lighing up the studio making it more like a club, of course we have to hand it to Randi from Naakiti for transforming our ultra cool space to an even ULTRA-ER cool place, The crew at Ice Occasions for literally cooling some hotness down, JR Lighting for equipping us with some fun toys to play with, William Pfersching for providing the delicious cuisine, Lori White for making Dalisa beautiful and finally, to Loftworks for providing a unique and exsquisite location to fit our brand, lifestyle and business.

-jmc & dc

version 1

version 2

“flying is the ability to throw oneself at the ground and miss…” -douglas adams

The most recent conceptual shoot… Gina being so brave, daring and exceptionally gorgeous for us.  Who knew she had such amazing abilities?  Rachel and Robert were the final touch that helped execute this vision

The results of another Zero Package.  As some know, amongst our offerings in our price list there is one package that is very special and very different.  The Package Zero.  What is Package Zero? The best way to describe it is to describe what it isn’t.  It is never the same, and it is never what I normally do.  It is a package that gives me total creative freedom to be an artist and to view a wedding day as the opportunity to make art that is considered as “one of a kind”.   The clients that accept this kind of package have zero input on what I shoot, how I shoot, and what I produce for the album.  My promise to them is that I will follow a style, genre, or theme that I have not done before and then once I do it, I will never do it again as coverage for any other wedding.  In addition, I will build an ultra custom, one-of-a-kind album that I will not replicate, ever.  The resulting trust that these clients give me to produce the final product often becomes a burden as my goal is to produce (what I hope will be) my opus of that time: the best piece that I have ever done. 

The above video is just a quick glimpse of what my latest zero’s album looks like.  It was shot and designed knowing that I would not be able to share the images effectively online since I shot the entire wedding in stereo and the results to be viewed as large format stereograms.  Also included in the album is a 100+ year old stereoscope viewer.  This was, by far, the most difficult wedding that I have ever photographed and its post production and album has been the most complex project that I have done to date.  Although I can’t share with you the experience of the images online, the album in the above video represents (for now) my magnum opus.

We have so many ideas written down, sketched out, just waiting to see the light of day.  Most of the time these ideas take so much work and effort that I procrastinate and put off the project until the concept finally overcomes my laziness and pushes itself out into the real world.  Below is just one of the many ideas that I have sketched out for a project to bring my conceptual “anti-bridal” approach to portrait and family photography.   

above in tights our willing participants in our first antiportrait project: Kiera, Willie, Tivon, Randi, Autumn and Naazir

Our most published image, the gatekeeper to our website.  ”My Joan of Arc” has been published nationally and internationally in major photography and wedding magazines along with my version of “Ophelia”. These images have also been a part of the inspiration to the “Trash the Dress” phenomenon that has spread through out the world - pushing photographers to think well outside of the box.  We don’t want these to become like those good songs that are overplayed on the radio, so we are taking them from the front of our site and burying them somewhere peaceful.  We will no longer submit them to requests for publishing. At the start of the new year you will have to look hard to find the bride on fire or the tragic romance that consumes the bride in the water.  This also means that it is time to put up new images and start to push the boundaries once again, reinventing ourselves and doing the unexpected. 

When intitiating the “anti-bridal” project, I did not realize the paradigm shift that it would cause within parts of the wedding photography industry,  nor did I realize the opportunities that it would open for altF - demanding speaking engagements around the world.

Thank you Joan and Ophelia for making such an impact in our career.  

Take one last look… February being the end of the sale of these fine art prints on our site.  If you want a piece of wedding photography history, you can snatch up your copy here until February 28th - a limited edition fine art print of each of these images as well as the black and white version are available.  Prints are signed and only 250 of each will be printed - we are almost to that number.

The McLellans **updated**

Strange how some of my ideas get from my sketch book to reality.  It was near the end of July when i just happened to be strutting through Elvis’s living-room pondering a peanut butter and banana sandwich when i mentioned to the noticeable pregnant McLellans that i have wanted to shoot a maternity bridal session in front of an old air stream, ala trailer park anti bridal….  well a few months later and the super cool McLellans flew out all the way from Nashville to let me play dress up with them…    So while channeling a peanut butter and banana sandwich i give you the Fabulous McLellans as my latest anti-bridal “trailer park bride” .

big thanks first to the McLellans for flying all the way out here, 2nd for Mikka at Tuxedo Junction for supplying us with a vintage powder blue tux, and 3rd but not least Hoss for allowing us to spill beer on his driveway while also allowing us the use of a pre ’70s Silver Streak.**update…ok when i originally posted, i totally forgot to give proper credit to this last image.  while shooting with the door open our daughter, Ros, said we should put them in door facing one another..  well i tried it out and just before i started to shoot someone said that it looked very Norman Rockwell-ish.    Sorry Ros, i forgot to give you your due credit….  thanks so much, now if you can just be there for all of our shoots….

vote vote vote….  i’m sure watching this animation will cause some to go into seizures, so stop watching and go to the polls  and by the time you get back there will be a new post..

Day 30.  The final workshop.

Thanks to Laura Hannah and Paige Eden of L’amour De Vie we ended our workshop with a great group in a prime location - Denver, CO.  The weather was superb which allowed the set up of the final conceptual shoot for the tour.  Bringing the Very Altf Logo to life was easy with Heather Lilly’s willingness and sense for diversity.

And the prestige couple for our morning shoot: Caroline & Dan - they had no problem rockin’ our world.

Day 5 Dallas ** updated**

Dallas - the kickoff of the workshops..   First we have to thank JVS and Anne for being more than just wonderful hosts but truly  great friends.  (BTW, Baci and Visa had a fantastic time with Chloe and Nero at the dog park, even if there was drool involved.)   If you want to see how the workshop went, just go to JVS and Anne’s blog: offcarmeraflash.  For us, the workshop was such a fun time.  I’m always at home when I’m playing around with other photographers & shooting what I love to shoot (teaching also, I really dig that).  We started the day with an engagement (images below) style shoot to explain our shooting method.  Our volunteers for that were Kelly and Joseph.  Kelly is the makeup artist for the bridal shoot. (thank you Kelly, you did an awesome job) ——– Our bridal session (which we ended the day with) was an illustration of our conceptual Anti-Bridals.  The beautiful Kate Mefford of Juxtapose photography willingly allowed me make her into and recreate for myself The Bride of Frankenstien. So here she is: Kate as “Franks Bride”.

Kelly and Joseph

our roadside family portrait project continues:
Mike, ReJana and Macie

and the super talented JVS, Anne, Chloe and Nero