Today I spent the entire day with the most amazingly creative and incredibly talent John Michael & Dalisa Cooper of AltF.  I’m pretty new to the workshop circuit and have come to realize that not all are created equal. However, I had high hopes since I’m such a fan of JMC and his work. Dalisa is a total sweetheart and flippin adorable and I couldn’t wait to spend the day soaking in some of their creative genius. Even with high hopes I still managed to be blown away. About 20 minutes into the workshop I thought, “they so didn’t charge enough for this”  It was a small intimate workshop of about 15 other photographers and so relaxed and laid back. I typically stay pretty quiet at these things and prefer to soak it in but I felt totally at ease with everyone and JMC answered every question that was thrown at him and more. Eric Doggett hosted at he and his wife were so gracious.  I can’t wait to share all of the details later tonight but for now, I must run and get the littles settled into bed and unpack, unload, upload and throw up a couple shots from the workshop.This is seriously good stuff people. John & Dalisa are on a 9 city tour and several locations are sold out but CHECK IT OUT and GET THERE if you can! I’m only sad I couldn’t stay ALLLL weekend!

Update:

so i got everyone tucked away to sleep and wanted to share a few more details. it was a great mix of shooting, q&a, workflow, lighting, posing, business philosophy and just john and dalisa sharing what has made them a household name in the photography industry.  so i had several small ephiphanies while i was sitting there. and there were moments when i felt like the doors flug open in my mind and the white doves were released and a choir of angels sang “halleluja” over me.  really, as i was leaving i felt bad that i had been armed with all this amazing information as well as totally buzzin’ with inspiration. i couldn’t believe i didn’t have to donate a kidney to get into this. i seriously was going to ask dalisa if she wanted a lung….maybe JMC could use my liver. it was that good.

We got to watch John in action as he shot a quick engagement session at the beginning of the workshop and then we ended with a bridal and work on one of his conceptual pieces which he’s doing at each workshop. in dallas he did his take on this infamous beauty of a bride.

You can see his take using the beautiful and wicked cool Kate Mefford of Juxtapose Photography. It’s incredible.

 Here he is getting ready to demo his video lights. i’m so in love with video lights so i was super excited to find out he uses them as well. good stuff! uh, the hat was a nice prop for a bit later.

this is tara marie rockin’ the model.

For the conceptual piece at this workshop he said he’d had this idea for a couple years. He’s actually been hinting for that long that he wanted to do this so today he finally got the chance. These are a couple of him doin’ his thing. I can’t wait to see his final edits of these.

Bonnie & Clyde

So i don’t flippin care what the price of gas is right now. Get your ass to the nearest veryaltf workshop….um, now people.