About

the project

Photograph photographer’s families and inspire volunteerism. Roadside Families is a “pay it forward” project. We will photograph a photographer’s family and give them a physical print that is ready to hang on their wall at no cost to them. In turn, Photographers are then asked to 1. Photograph another photographer’s family willing to also pay it forward 2. Provide a physical print for their wall and 3. Commit to doing a couple of hours of volunteer work, community service or to donate their service to a worthwhile cause.

inspired by

The Roadside Families project was directly inspired by a passionate speech from Master Photographer, David Anthony Williams (the man in the image above), during a DWF convention in 2008 on the importance of the family portrait. As photographers, we document other families routinely but seldom take time to document our own typically known as “The cobblers son syndrome.”

who we are

John Michael and Dalisa Cooper, AltF Photoraphy.
Unofficially: It’s not about us and we would rather just hide behind our work. Officially: John Michael Cooper holds 31 years of experience in the wedding and portrait industry. Both John and Dalisa share over a decade plus experience with speaking and sharing within the photography industry at workshops, seminars and a regular platform and master class speaker at WPPI. John Michael Cooper is the 2017 recipient of the WPPI Lifetime Achievement Award.

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Families Photographed

HISTORY

In 2008 while on a 9 city speaking and workshop tour, that took us from Las Vegas to Boston and back, we started the Roadside Families project and photographed 37 photographer’s families. Most of those families had either never had a family portrait taken or hadn’t had one taken in a very long while.

2011 was our 2nd round of Roadside Families and this round was truly coast to coast. Starting in North Carolina and going to the east coast to New York then back down through Kansas and then the west coast throughout California. Resulting in a total of 56 families across the USA. Truly “Americana”.

Thank you to our Main Sponsors for their support of this project.

Simply Color Lab has been our main print lab for almost a decade. Simply Color Lab has also sponsored the 2008 and 2011 Roadside Families project and produced wall prints for each family.

ShootQ is the studio management software that has become the glue that holds our very busy studio together. From managing leads, shoots, to contracts and we truly don’t think we would be able to run our studio without it.

Supporting Sponsors

Our sole album provider for nearly a decade. With the most beautiful albums and best customer service.

Outsourced post production services for photographers.