Alena Attains Autumn Awesomeness On Her Senior Session!

You may remember Alena from the beginning of the year in her spokesmodel session when she began to represent those North Farmington Raiders for our studio?  Well we upped the ante attaining Autumn Awesomeness for her senior session!  You remember back when it was Autumn right?  As of this zero-degree writing it seems so loooooong ago….  but I digress.  Let’s reminisce and revisit our day with Alena!

Alena Attains Autumn Awesomeness…

Alena’s mom Mindy is also a North Farmington Raider alum just like us and we’ve known her for many years so we love being with them and this day was no exception.  Since Alena’s spokesmodel session was all indoors during the winter we spent most of our energy this time on location in Birmingham and that’s where we’ll pick up the action.

Autumn Awesomeness

Yes!  Could her hair be any more perfect for a fall shoot?  We also need to give a shout out to Mandy Rose Studio for the always fantastic job on Alena’s hair and makeup (Michelle on hair and Mandy on makeup)!  Actually let’s even kick it up another notch with this one:

Autumn Awesomeness

Wow.  So pretty!  And let’s take a look at some of our fun behind the scenes action from the shoot, first with the replay of our Facebook Live broadcast:

Okay now let’s get to the fun urban stuff – industrial walls, streets and the like!  We headed over to another location for these and did another wardrobe change.

Autumn Awesomeness

Love it!  This has been one of our favorite walls for a long time and guess what – we’re not telling where it is!!!  Haha – we don’t own the wall so if you figure it out we won’t be mad lol…

Meanwhile we have some more behind the scenes fun with our YouTube Live replay – check it out and please hit the “subscribe” button to our channel while you’re there!

We will leave you with this last photo for now of Alena stopping traffic!  Haha!

Autumn Awesomeness

Wow right?  Alena slayed on this session and we attained Autumn Awesomeness indeed!!!  We hope you enjoyed the highlights of our day with her!

Equipment used:

These are our affiliate links to the products we used on this session:

**********************************************
Frameable Faces Photography
**********************************************
Frameable Faces Photography is a small biz retail mom & pop shop of Doug&Ally Cohen located in the Orchard Mall in West Bloomfield, Michigan, United States Of America!
************************************************
Ally & Doug can be reached at the studio at tel:248-790-7317 or emailed at mailto:info@frameablefaces.com
************************************************
***************************************­*******
Being “Frameable” is an attitude, a community, a way of life – a life you would want to celebrate and display on your walls for all to see!  Tell us… ARE YOU FRAMEABLE?
**********************************************
Join the Frameable Faces Community – sign up for our email newsletter for the best of the week in the Frameable Faces World!  Click here!

 

 

Photographing Jordyn On Her Senior Session Had Us Jumping For Joy!

Photographing Jordyn was a pure delight – you might even say being with Jordyn had us jumping for joy!  Well maybe not literally jumping but certainly figuratively because she is just such a sweetie and a pleasure to be around!  Her mom Rebecca joined us on a fine fall Michigan day and she’s a lot of fun too!  The results speak for themselves so let’s take a look:

Photographing Jordyn…

We started out in the studio on the white backdrop and we love Jordyn in the powder blue with the white chair!  Great one to start with…
 
Photographing JordynNext we moved to the black backdrop and we fired up the Facebook Live for some behind the scenes fun!  Take a look:
 

And here’s a shot on the black in a new outfit!

Photographing Jordyn

Love that!!!

At this point it was time to get outside on location and we made a stop over behind the West Bloomfield Library for a little pop of fall!  Photographing JordynShe looks so pretty!

At this point we headed over to our last stop over at Orchard Lake where we fired up the YouTube Live this time for a little more behind the scenes fun!  Take a look!

And we’ll leave you with one more photo of Jordyn chillin’ out on the dock:

Photographing Jordyn

And there you have it!  Photographing Jordyn had us jumping for joy and now you know why!  We hope you enjoyed the highlights of our day with her!

Equipment used:

These are our affiliate links to the products we used on this session:

**********************************************
Frameable Faces Photography
**********************************************
Frameable Faces Photography is a small biz retail mom & pop shop of Doug&Ally Cohen located in the Orchard Mall in West Bloomfield, Michigan, United States Of America!
************************************************
Ally & Doug can be reached at the studio at tel:248-790-7317 or emailed at mailto:info@frameablefaces.com
************************************************
***************************************­*******
Being “Frameable” is an attitude, a community, a way of life – a life you would want to celebrate and display on your walls for all to see!  Tell us… ARE YOU FRAMEABLE?
**********************************************
Join the Frameable Faces Community – sign up for our email newsletter for the best of the week in the Frameable Faces World!  Click here!

 

 

 

 

Lots Of Fun And Laughter On Lexi’s Lively Fall Senior Session!

Lexi had a lively fall senior session indeed – there was lots of fun and laughter because she’s just so funny!  She’s gorgeous, smart, nice and all that but she definitely made us laugh a lot.  You’ll see how much fun she is in the behind the scenes videos below.  Meanwhile she’s a legacy here since we photographed her older sister Helene several years back (before we were writing blog posts for each senior) and we were happy to have her parents Robyn & David back to the studio!

Lexi’s Lively Fall Senior Session!

Like her sister, Lexi waited until we had the pretty Pure Michigan fall colors and since we scheduled a morning session we went out on location to do those first – we’ll pick up the action there:

Lively Fall Senior

How amazing is that shot….?  She looks awesome surrounded by all the Pure Michigan fall leaves!

We also love this close up with the brick:

Lively Fall Senior

At this point we went over to nearby woods behind the West Bloomfield library and here is the replay of the Facebook Live broadcast behind the scenes – it would actually be great to have Lexi back to the studio to co-host some other livestreams – she’s hilarious!

….and here is the result:

Lively Fall Senior

Fantastic!

At this point we headed back to the studio for some photos where we went live again this time for some fun on YouTube:

…and one more from that red paper backdrop:

Lively Fall Senior

Gorgeous!

And there you have it!  A lively fall senior session with Lexi indeed – we hope you enjoyed the highlights of our day with her!

Equipment used:

These are our affiliate links to the products we used on this session:

**********************************************
Frameable Faces Photography
**********************************************
Frameable Faces Photography is a small biz retail mom & pop shop of Doug&Ally Cohen located in the Orchard Mall in West Bloomfield, Michigan, United States Of America!
************************************************
Ally & Doug can be reached at the studio at tel:248-790-7317 or emailed at mailto:info@frameablefaces.com
************************************************
***************************************­*******
Being “Frameable” is an attitude, a community, a way of life – a life you would want to celebrate and display on your walls for all to see!  Tell us… ARE YOU FRAMEABLE?
**********************************************
Join the Frameable Faces Community – sign up for our email newsletter for the best of the week in the Frameable Faces World!  Click here!

Facebook Creator, SEO & more – Doug’s Social Stream Of Consciousness

 

Facebook Creator

A huge development just happened in the world of Facebook.  The launch of Facebook Creator is a pretty big deal for Livestreamers on the platform and we were able to download the app, set it up and go live with a bevy of new features yesterday in no time!  Here is the actual broadcast:

Thoughts & Tips on Facebook Creator

Let me take a second here to point out a couple of things and dissect our approach just on this first test of the new features in a screenshot graphic and then we’ll discuss further:

Facebook CreatorYou can see in the broadcast we were able to bring Jenny Q right onto the screen (with a simple click of her comment)!  There’s even a little video icon within the comments of your viewers while you’re live that lets you know who is available to join. 

Now I’m not going to go into a bunch of detail about how to set this up on Facebook – instead I’m going to direct you to the link that walked me through it on Social Media Examiner written by Peg Fitzpatrick.  As a side note it was Ai Addyson-Zhang‘s tweet of the article that led me to it by a simple #FacebookCreator hashtag search.

Meanwhile here’s a tip – you don’t have to purchase Canva For Work (as mentioned in the article) in order to get a transparent overlay on your screen.  You can create a basic graphic in the free version of Canva and then select for it to be transparent right in the Creator app and it will convert it for you.  Canva For Work might give you a little more control over this but you can get around it if you’re starting out. 

Having the graphics on your screen is nice – similar to what I used to do with OBS for Periscope broadcasts for certain shows.  Now granted they aren’t as flexible – you can’t change them up on the fly during a broadcast, but they are cool to have there as I outlined in the graphic above.  The option to add prerecorded bumpers (prerecorded video intros like your favorite TV shows for example) at the beginning and end of the live broadcast is really nice too.  We haven’t done this yet but you can bet I’m looking for ways to use all of these tools to create new content for us on Facebook as well as for my social media clients.  For those of you who tune in to our Periscope broadcasts don’t worry, there are NO plans to move the Doug & Ally Morning Show to Facebook!  If you’re curious here is an article I wrote earlier this year that compares and contrasts the two platforms which is still pretty on point – there have been a few changes since then obviously, but the basics remain the same.

A Couple of SEO thoughts…

I’m no expert when it comes to SEO but I have a basic working understanding of it.  By using plugins like Yoast here for WordPress I’ve been able to properly place my content on the Internet so that it ranks well in search results on Google in our home base of West Bloomfield for example.  Now, some might say one of the flaws in our SEO strategy is that we cast too wide a net which doesn’t allow us to dominate a niche and the people we snag aren’t as targeted as they could be.  We are a high end / low volume photography studio.  It’s just me and Ally and we put a ton of effort, heart and soul into every client and every portrait session.  We bring a ton of experience and expertise to the table.  We aren’t for everybody – we aren’t a cheap studio, don’t want to be, and yet we rank for plenty of general searches such as “West Bloomfield Photographer” which doesn’t discriminate between different tastes or budgets.

Facebook Creator

So what’s the answer?  As I said I’m not an expert and I’m not ready to cast a smaller more targeted net on the web for “higher end” clients only – I’m not even sure there’s a way to do that – to only get ranked for clients who want the “best experience”…  I think I’m good with how we present and differentiate ourselves online with social media and our owned online assets.  I say for SEO just make sure you’re found first and foremost as a general rule and then make sure people can tell that you are a quality outfit when they find you.  In the meantime though here’s my advice if your net is a little on the wide side:

I had someone call asking about pricing for a portrait session the other day.  I talked him briefly through the process and the pricing and we were way out of the budget he was looking for – he wanted something really simple.  Instead of turning my nose up at him I helped him through his options and what the differences are, and ultimately referred him to Focal Point in Farmington.  They are a higher volume studio than us with a large staff and more basic options available.  It won’t be the same experience as working with us but this guy wasn’t looking for the “best” – he was just looking for something “good” and economical.  Nothing wrong with that.  Focal Point been good to work with for us with seniors for class composites, they are a local family owned studio, and I still helped this gentleman – I’m comfortable sending him there because they are a professional outfit.  The ease of entry has allowed too many non-professionals into this industry so I want to support actual studios.  You uplift your profession, you play nicely in the sandbox and if you are in the business of helping people then do it wherever you can whether someone becomes your client or not.  It’s good karma.

What are your thoughts on these topics?  Are you using Facebook Creator yet?  Have a good SEO take?  Let me know!

**********************************************
Frameable Faces Photography
**********************************************
Frameable Faces Photography is a small biz retail mom & pop shop of Doug&Ally Cohen located in the Orchard Mall in West Bloomfield, Michigan, United States Of America!
************************************************
Ally & Doug can be reached at the studio at tel:248-790-7317 or emailed at mailto:info@frameablefaces.com
************************************************
***************************************­*******
Being “Frameable” is an attitude, a community, a way of life – a life you would want to celebrate and display on your walls for all to see!  Tell us… ARE YOU FRAMEABLE?
**********************************************
Join the Frameable Faces Community – sign up for our email newsletter for the best of the week in the Frameable Faces World!  Click here!

 

Getting To Know Nadia On A Nice Fall Day In Michigan!

We love getting to know our seniors and on a nice fall day with those Pure Michigan colors outside we got to know Nadia a little better on her senior session!  She’s a total sweetheart – and what better day to photograph her than on her birthday!!!  Nadia’s mom Cherish joined us as well and we had a lot of fun with her too as you’ll see in a sec.  Meanwhile it was a little chilly that day (although that’s all mental as we like to remind our seniors – ha) but the conditions were still just fine for photos and we focused on location shots so let’s get to ’em:

Getting To Know Nadia

Know Nadia

Love that shot with the steps as the backdrop!

We also have some fun behind the scenes for you starting with the replay of our Facebook Live broadcast:

And let’s take a look at a couple more…

Know Nadia

Looking super cute in the hooded vest and you can see some hints of fall in the background as well as in this close up below…

Know Nadia

A nice pop of color with the scarf too!  We also have a little more behind the scenes this time from the Snapchat story from the day:

Fun with those snap filters!   Now we’ll leave you with one more:

Know Nadia

She looks amazing and nicely framed with some Pure Michigan fall leaves!

And there you have it – getting to know Nadia was wonderful and we hope you enjoyed the highlights of our day with her!

Equipment used:

These are our affiliate links to the products we used on this session:

**********************************************
Frameable Faces Photography
**********************************************
Frameable Faces Photography is a small biz retail mom & pop shop of Doug&Ally Cohen located in the Orchard Mall in West Bloomfield, Michigan, United States Of America!
************************************************
Ally & Doug can be reached at the studio at tel:248-790-7317 or emailed at mailto:info@frameablefaces.com
************************************************
***************************************­*******
Being “Frameable” is an attitude, a community, a way of life – a life you would want to celebrate and display on your walls for all to see!  Tell us… ARE YOU FRAMEABLE?
**********************************************
Join the Frameable Faces Community – sign up for our email newsletter for the best of the week in the Frameable Faces World!  Click here!

Kyle Had A Killer Senior Session – It’s A Real Keeper!

Kyle had a killer senior session alright – it’s a real keeper and it was a lot of fun to shoot!  Kyle is another Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Prep senior and his mom Amy and his lil’ sis joined us for the first part of the session in the woods before we finished on the beautiful campus of OLSM!  Let’s start in the woods with Kyle…….and his bow!

Killer Senior Session…

This is definitely our first hunting bow – pretty cool.

Killer Senior Session

We also have some behind the scenes fun for you – first from the story we created on Snapchat from the day!  Here it is…

After hanging in the woods we headed over to the OLSM campus for the rest – we’ll start with the sport coat and tie!

Killer Senior Session

Looking sharp!

Next Kyle broke out the letter sweater which is always a great look!

Killer Senior SessionAwesome – love that.

We also have more behind the scenes fun this time from the replay of our Facebook Live broadcast:


  And we’ll leave you with this one close up:

Killer Senior Session

And there you have it!  A killer session with Kyle – we hope you enjoyed the highlights of our day with him!

Equipment used:

These are our affiliate links to the products we used on this session:

**********************************************
Frameable Faces Photography
**********************************************
Frameable Faces Photography is a small biz retail mom & pop shop of Doug&Ally Cohen located in the Orchard Mall in West Bloomfield, Michigan, United States Of America!
************************************************
Ally & Doug can be reached at the studio at tel:248-790-7317 or emailed at mailto:info@frameablefaces.com
************************************************
***************************************­*******
Being “Frameable” is an attitude, a community, a way of life – a life you would want to celebrate and display on your walls for all to see!  Tell us… ARE YOU FRAMEABLE?
**********************************************
Join the Frameable Faces Community – sign up for our email newsletter for the best of the week in the Frameable Faces World!  Click here!

Lo and Behold It’s Logan and His Killer Senior Session!

Lo and behold it’s Logan!  One of those surreal sessions for us since we’ve known this dude since he was a baby… he’s also a legacy here since his big sis Aria was one of our seniors last year (not to mention little sis Sedona had a Frameable bat mitzvah too) and this fam is one we’re very close with so this made for a fun one!

Lo and behold it’s Logan!

Meanwhile we were rained out twice for the location part of his session which was really the majority of what we had planned so we broke it up into two different days.  Logan’s mom Rachel came along and she and Ally did plenty of giggling getting Logan to laugh and smile…hehe…  So let’s start with a studio shot on day one:

Logan

Bad dude.

We also have some fun behind the scenes action starting with the replay of the Facebook Live broadcast from the studio:

Now let’s pick up the action on day 2 on location with some “Pure Michigan” colors!

Logan

Looking good!

For the behind the scenes on the location shoot we go to the snap story from Snapchat since there were some funny moments there…. lol!

And a couple more results:

Logan

How about that awesome Pure Michigan Color as a backdrop!!!

And we’ll leave you with one more…

Logan

And there you have it – lo and behold we made it happen with Logan even if we had to split up the session!  We hope you enjoyed the highlights!

Equipment used:

These are our affiliate links to the products we used on this session:

**********************************************
Frameable Faces Photography
**********************************************
Frameable Faces Photography is a small biz retail mom & pop shop of Doug&Ally Cohen located in the Orchard Mall in West Bloomfield, Michigan, United States Of America!
************************************************
Ally & Doug can be reached at the studio at tel:248-790-7317 or emailed at mailto:info@frameablefaces.com
************************************************
***************************************­*******
Being “Frameable” is an attitude, a community, a way of life – a life you would want to celebrate and display on your walls for all to see!  Tell us… ARE YOU FRAMEABLE?
**********************************************
Join the Frameable Faces Community – sign up for our email newsletter for the best of the week in the Frameable Faces World!  Click here!