Kicking off the VeryAltF tour in ‘08, John Michael and Dalisa Cooper of altF start a Pay-It-Forward project to help photographers get in front of the lens with their families. Something photographers are notorious for not doing. These are their stories.

The majestic and inspiring David Williams spoke at the annual DWF Convention in Tampa, January 2008. With the recent release of the Very Altf Tour, we chatted in our hotel room about how fantastic it would be to encourage photographers in various cities to get off their bum and start turning the camera’s on each other.  Our route had already been laid out - why not take advantage of our 6,800 miles and spread the reveloution from city to city?

The rules were simple - we photograph a family, we send them the files and send them a print for their wall. Simply Canvas was kind enough to sponsor our first round, giving each of the 37 families a canvas print for their wall to kick off the whole project.  - After that each family photographed has to pay by “Paying it Forward”.  Shoot another photographer and their family, give them the files, send them a print for their wall and make sure they will Pay their dues by Paying it Forward.  No money is to be exchanged.  Our hopes are that not only will photographers all over the world now be given the gift back that they perform on a daily basis, but they will be photographed again and again documenting the growth of their families through out the years.