photography by john michael cooper, blog post by dalisa cooper

JMC is still slightly obsessed with John Singer Sargent’s El Jaleo painting which has shown in his work over the last 3 or 4  years.  This is the closest he has come in remaking the famous painting it which he was able to do after finding the perfect couple for such a project.  Joyce and Rick’s story just happens to come together over a flamenco dance and now they are soon to be wed.  You can certainly feel the romance with this couple.

And a few portraits for everyone’s viewing pleasure…

Lori White on Hair and Make up

photography and blog post by john michael cooper

A studio engagement session.  Shooting in the studio is always a challenge, that’s why I’ve wanted one for all of my career.  Absent a great vista, the brilliant desert skies, and the classic western sunset, the portraits have to be all about the dynamic between the couple, no crutch of a beautiful background to help save the day.  As you can see below, Jason and Stephenie are just that, a fun and dynamic couple who’s laughter and smiles takes over the images and lets you know exactly what kind of fun people they are.  If the wedding comes out half as fun as this session was, then it is going to be one hell of a day!  Can’t wait!

.john.

Elizabeth & Bud - the coolest couple with a super cool car means we, of course, had a great time on their engagement session!  The new bridge being built for the Hoover Dam was a great frame for this first image.

John quickly made friends with this ‘67 Corvette Stingray

We then moved on for a gorgeous sunset at Lake Mead

This last shot is my fav!  Totally looking forward to this rad couples nuptials!

They say “all good things come to an end”, “change is good”, myself -I  said at the Mystic conference “it is always a good time to re-invent”.  Enter Finao, a bad ass album company, to help us with the reinventing of altF.  Yes…. an album company.   As of the beginning of 2010 we have been changing things all across the board here at altF and our albums are not immune to those changes.   As of a couple of months ago we have stopped the production of our hand crafted albums and passed over the craftsmanship of our books to the folks at Finao.   I know some will be disappointed, as we have been at the very forefront of artist crafted books for the last 11 years, but not to worry - I will still have my hands busy creating things, it will just be in a different place. Having Finao produce our wedding books will free us to do what we do best which is push the boundaries and do things people haven’t seen yet.  So with that, I’ll leave you with a small hint on why we have chosen Finao over all the other album companies:  There are a lot of great album companies out there and Finao’s quality (which is superb by the way) was only a very small part of the equation.  We picked Finao because of their attitude, passion, and style line up with our philosophy here at altF.  Frankly we are just “trying our best” to be bad ass fucking photographers and we need one bad ass fucking album company to make our books. Finao!

.johnmichaelcooper.

ps. I also like that there is an “F” in Finao.

a few of our new samples and a good segue into moving away from our albums to Finao’s with a 12×18″ book with a decade of our artwork,  signature images from 2000-2009.

Rachel and Jan and the dry lake bed.  As Vegas warms up this couple indulged us in a little desert play before their wedding.  Jan may just have the most piercing eyes that I have ever seen and Rachel has a striking resemblance to one of my childhood hero’s

Of course, we did have to get a little dirty…

Thanks you two for rolling around in the dirt with us - it was a great play date!

-dalisa

It was just over a year and four months ago that this couple retained Altf for their wedding and kicked off their package with a fantastic engagement session.  The only problem?  They were also kicking off an intense and effective workout regiment with one of Las Vegas’ best trainers - Willie Garrett of No Xcuse Fitness.  Their transformation was so intense, we could not bear the thought of showing off “old photos” of these two at their upcoming wedding… it was clearly time for a whole new session.  Here they were - 16 months ago

These two are smokin’ hot - I can’t wait to get my lens on them in just one short week!

If you want to transform into some serious hotness also - it’s time to call Willie Garrett at: 702.873.3001 - he will whip your ass into shape, no excuses..

-dalisa

Emily and Nick!  These two had such great poise that every pose they fell into looked like it was ready for a fashion ad.  Even thier two dogs played well with the camera, although I think they were really just waiting patiently for their turn to run and pull in a desert version of the Iditarod. - check out nick’s cool toy at the bottom of the post…  Wonder if can get my dogs to pull me..

.jmc.

Talk about Rockin’ the Altf Studio - these two played up like never before!  An epitome of fun - meet Jen and Alex, soon to be wed May 8

They were so cool - my kind of people with a keen desire for a good play on mustache antics

Jen & Alex - I totally can’t wait to see what’s in store for the wedding, counting down the days!

-dalisa

What do you get when you go out for a longer-than-expected hike to get to a location… in this case:  you get rewarded with a beautiful vista, some killer light and a chance to get to know this wonderful engaged couple (which I know will have a fun wedding..)  Kerry and Chris, thanks for humoring me with the extended hike - I think we got some killer images and I’m looking forward to shooting your wedding!

.jmc.

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