Delight in Disorder by Robert Herrick

A sweet disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness:
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distraction–
An erring lace, which here and there
Enthrals the crimson stomacher–
A cuff neglectful, and thereby
Ribbands to flow confusedly–
A winning wave, deserving note,
In the tempestuous petticoat–
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility–
Do more bewitch me than when art
Is too precise in every part.

We seriously can’t get enough of the gracious Ms. Ricci.  We photographed her wedding and bridal session, her pin up session and now her anti-bridal photos.  Now all we need are maternity and newborn;)  As you may or may not know, JMC has been coined as the “godfather” of the Trash the Dress phenomenon. Considering we actually don’t even offer “Trash the Dress” sessions, we find it humorous.  But we do offer anti-bridals and we do not offer them to just anyone.  Not only is there a hefty price tag attached to these but this art is more about the concept and about finding the right person.  John Michael Cooper came up with this idea just under a year ago while photographing a live concert.  Ricci was the perfect subject and when she arrived for her pin up shoot, we explained that we had finally formed the concept for her very own anti-bridal.

Make up by Jolana Adamson

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.

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

We are on a roll!  a lot of announcements coming up… Some of it will sound like we are bragging, and that may be so, but i’m just too excited not to show off what we are doing..  A few weeks ago we were featured on the Today Show, and now one of our images is on the cover of the mother of all photography magazines: PDN - Photo District News!  As a Las Vegas photographer who got his wedding photography feet wet in a chapel on the Strip, I feel these last few years have made us feel that we’ve really made it…  From being barely able to make a car payment to opening up what we hope to be the premier photography studio in Las Vegas to shooting rock stars (more on that in the next post) life under the AltF brand and all of our hard work and dedication to our art is paying off!

PDN:  If you are not familiar with this magazine it is the magazine ,myself included, that most photographers dream of getting the cover of.   Well i can cross that one off my list now! To pop my own ego bubble myself, PDN didn’t search us out, we were recommend to be included in an Lighting article by our really good friend Jason Groupp who along with myself and Zack Arias (another of my favorite photographers and good friend).  Well they picked the cover from one of the 3 of us for the lighting issue cover.  I’m just happy, humbled and thankful that we get to stand beside the talents of Jason and Zack in the article.   Thank you again so much Jason for including me in and allowing me to strike off an entry on my wish list.

Also thanks to Amber at PDN for sending me some copies, which i have been struggling to get here in Las Vegas.

And who is that on the cover?  Well its Alyssa and Jim, from a wedding and Bridal we shot in Bethlehem, PA. in April.  check their post out if you haven’t seen this cool couple before.

If Dalisa and I were more secretive this might just be a teaser post saying that “we have some super secret exciting news and we can’t let the cat out of the bag just yet but please keep checking back later for our uber cool announcement”.  But, as most of you know, Dalisa and i are pretty open about our business and the direction that our photography is headed.  So, when we committed today and set in motion the fulfillment of a 23 year old dream, we just could not wait to tell everyone.

The announcement: After 23 years of waiting and dreaming we are finally opening up under our name and brand - our very own kick ass Studio!

coming very soon:

yeah!

.jmc.

Philadelphia!  The day after our wedding in williamsport, we headed back to spend just a little time in Philly…  Dalisa wanted to experience a classic Philly cheesesteak and i wanted to finally visit Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and soak in some of our nations past…  some may know that i love history, especially early american history.

Dalisa and I did find a really good cheesesteak, she may be hooked on philly…. so a return trip i’m sure will be inevitable.

Above - that’s the one place i really wanted to visit… here is where some of my favorite americans debated and drafted out the ideas that would eventually lead the country to greatness…

.jmc.

Look at us!!!!  We have been featured in PhotoPro’s annual Masters issue.  It’s really, really nice to be featured in a national magazine, but to be included in a masters issue as one of the visionaries of our industry and is such an honor for us.  My immediate urge is to jump up and down, screaming out “look Mommy! My name is on the cover of a magazine!”.   Though I’ve never considered labeling myself as a master of anything, the editors note in the magazine has a good explanation of it and there are also some interesting thoughts on the direction that our industry will be heading in the next year…  So now, as Dalisa prepares to keep my ego in check, it’s time to plan for the coming new year and to stay on the edge of what we do and continue to push the boundaries.    .jmc.

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….