Author Archives: Doug Cohen

Joining Fall, Fire and Finesse With Jenna!

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We are happy to share highlights from the day we were joining Fall, fire, and finesse with Jenna!  For those of you who know us you know we are both North Farmington Raider alums and how much we love the brown and gold!  Jenna comes from a great family tradition of Raider athletes and I personally have known her dad and uncle since I was a kid so this was really a special session for us.  This session had great variety which fits this girl because she’s the whole package – she’s smart, athletic, pretty and funny!

Okay let’s get to the photos!  First we went on location to Heritage Park with Jenna and her mom and we were able to get this shot in the barn doorway – a unique shot for us since I don’t think we’ve ever been there where the door was open before…

Fire and Finesse

Love it!  This next photo is another unique shot with the deep mahogany colored leaves framing the photo, and Jenna’s eyes look amazing here!

Fire and Finesse

So after getting the “Fall” part it was time to head back to the studio to get the “Fire” part!  It’s no secret that we like to set things on fire here in the studio and a volleyball is the perfect prop!  We think shots like these just convey the energy, drama and fierce commitment required for athletic competition, and Jenna just nailed it.

Fire and Finesse

Here is our fun behind the scenes vine of the day!  We always love when people see these and say “Whoa that’s real fire!  We thought that was just photoshoped!”  Yes it’s real fire!

Lastly we went to the red background for a little more “Finesse” in a dress and we love this glam shot with the sneakers!

Fire and Finesse

So there you have it!  We hope you enjoyed our joining of fall, fire and finesse with Jenna!

 

Jacob’s Senior Session Was Sweet In More Ways Than One!

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Jacob’s senior session was sweet in more ways than one and we’ll be returning to the sweet theme frequently as we tell the tale of our day with him!  For starters he’s a sweet guy and he loves to laugh.  We all had each other cracking up for much of his session!  Jacob has a great sense of humor and we weren’t surprised since we know the family – Ally is related to them and they are great people!  We photographed Jacob’s older sister Shaina a couple years ago for her senior pictures so we were excited to photograph Jacob.

We started on location with Jacob and his mom at the Franklin Cider Mill which is a fun (and tasty) place to shoot!  We shoot there a couple times per year and of course we got some sweet cider and donuts while we were there – more sweetness!  There are a couple of cool bridges there which we used for this shot…

Session Was Sweet

Handsome guy right?  The lighting was really nice too!  Here is one more shot from the cider mill:

Session Was Sweet

Next let’s take a look at our fun behind the scenes vine from the day!

Now here is where the session really took a sweet turn!  Often with our seniors at some point in their session we do a themed shot if there is something that really defines them, or if we want to recreate a fun photo from their childhood, or any type of extracurricular activity – some of these get really fun and creative!  In Jacob’s case we called ahead to Plum Market to see if we could take a photo in front of their Godiva chocolate display and they said sure!  Like I said – here’s where things get really sweet!  Haha!

Session Was Sweet

At this point it was time to head back to the studio and we’ll leave you with this awesome shot on the blue – love the cool scarf!

Session Was Sweet

So as you can see this session was certainly sweet in more ways than one!  Sweet guy, sweet cider and donuts, sweet chocolate – life should always be so sweet!

 

We Are Unabashedly And Openly Admiring Alayna!

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We are unabashedly and openly admiring Alayna and we don’t care if we embarrass her a little by saying so!  This girl is unassuming and modest, but she is beautiful and she has a cool style all her own.  After moving away for a while she came back to Michigan to finish her senior year and we are happy she did!  Her grandmother joined us on her session and what a cool grandma!  Our day with them was really just a total pleasure.

Okay so let’s get to the photos.  We started in the studio on the black background and we love Alayna in the grungy look with the ripped jeans, sneakers and flannel style shirt!

openly admiring alayna

We grabbed a few other photos on the black background before we headed out on location and here is a nice close up of Alayna’s lovely smile!

openly admiring alayna

Next it was time to head out on location and the fall colors were still at their peak on the day we spent together – this year it really seemed like we had an extended window with the colors over previous years.

We love everything about this next image – the fall orange behind her, the breeze slightly blowing her hair, the jacket, her eyes – all of it!

openly admiring alayna

Here is our fun behind the scenes vine of our session!

Next we moved across the street from the nature preserve where we were shooting to a different park in order to use one of our favorite bridges.  There we produced this photo that we will leave you with…

openly admiring alayna

All in all we had a great day and enjoyed hanging out with Alayna and her grandma!  You can see why we are “openly admiring” her and we hope you enjoyed the highlights from her session!  🙂

 

A Pair Of Our Favorite Senior Twins – Ethan’s Turn!

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In our last post we highlighted photos of Claire from “a pair of our favorite senior twins” and this time it’s twin brother Ethan’s turn!  We mentioned how their spokesmodel session was so memorable and that this repeat performance didn’t disappoint, so let’s continue the fun…

The storyline follows pretty closely to Claire’s since we did this all together.  We started in the studio on the black background:

Ethan

Ethan is an outgoing and personable guy – very confident and a pleasure to be around, and he and Claire get along really well.  At least from what we’ve seen anyway…  Ha!

Next we headed out on location and yesterday we mentioned that not only was there a scenario with a frog but a Titanic reenactment.  In this vine that highlights the twin photos we took you’ll see a little of that.  😀

Okay next let’s take a look at a couple more awesome shots of Ethan – first on the rocks…

Ethan

And then this next full length shot on a pathway….

Ethan

We also shot a little more behind the scenes footage of just Ethan in this fun vine!

We made two more stops after that location as you may remember from Claire’s session – first to the graffiti wall where we’ll share this photo of the two of them:

Ethan

And then to the meadow where we photographed a thoughtful Ethan “pondering his future”!

Ethan

So that will do it for now – we have had a great time photographing these two over this past year and we are thrilled that we’ve had the opportunity to hang with them and be a part of their senior year.  We look forward to fun times and visits with them in the future!  We hope you enjoyed the highlights from their sessions!

A Pair Of Our Favorite Senior Twins – Claire First!

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A pair of our favorite senior twins came back for their senior photos which we were really excited about since we had so much fun the first time around on their spokesmodel session!  Ethan and Claire have been a joy to have representing our studio – we just love them.  This session included a scenario with a frog, Titanic reenactments and various other shenanigans but at the core we also had an amazing shoot that happened!  Here we are going to go “ladies first” and start with Claire…

We started out in the studio in the early afternoon on the black background for this simple and cute close crop…

Favorite Senior Twins

So pretty and she is such a sweetheart!  Next we went outside where we covered a lot of ground including a couple spots we don’t necessarily visit that often.  Big rocks are always fun to use:

Favorite Senior Twins

Here is our fun behind the scenes vine of Claire including the scenario with the frog that I mentioned earlier…  haha!

Too bad the frog bailed right before Claire was about to turn him into a prince!  🙂

Next let’s highlight a photo of Claire and Ethan together.  This is part of the fun of photographing twins – you get to do fun shots of them together in addition to solo shots!

Favorite Senior Twins

Next we took a drive to the graffiti wall that we’ve used a few times over the years.  You never know what you’ll get since the graffiti can change, but it actually hasn’t changed the last couple times we’ve gone there.

Favorite Senior Twins

Lastly we made one more stop at the meadow we discovered just this year for a few more and we got this one with some beautiful backlight!

Favorite Senior Twins

So there it is – Claire’s photos from the session were wonderful, and next we’ll highlight our photos of Ethan as we continue to celebrate two of our favorite senior twins!  So stay tuned!

A Sunny Sensational Senior Morning With Sid!

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We definitely had a sunny sensational senior morning with Sid!  What an impressive, smart and engaging young man!  Sid is a busy guy with tennis and school and it took us a while to get a day that worked for all of us, but we finally made it work and our conditions were sunny and sensational – even if it was a little chilly out!  Like 30 degrees chilly!

We started on location on some trails and got this shot first against the tree…

Sunny Sensational Senior

You can see that we had some great backlight to work with there!  There were also some nice fall colors around which we see in the leaves surrounding Sid in this next spot.  We went to a different location on another trail where we came across a nice flat rock and we had been chatting about how when we find a new spot with a senior we name it for them.  That’s when Sid chimed in saying “Hey it’s Sid’s Slab!!!”  We love it!  Here is a shot of Sid on Sid’s Slab!  Haha!

Sunny Sensational Senior

Next we’ll share our fun behind the scenes vine of our morning…

Next it was time to head back to the studio for some photos indoors (and to warm up a little).  Here we started with the grey background which we really like for formal shots in suits and ties.  Sid nailed it and Ally always says she loves when the guys wear pink…

Sunny Sensational Senior

Lastly we broke out the black background which we are always fond of for this one:

Sunny Sensational Senior

Great times!  We look forward to big things from Sid and we had a sensational sunny morning with him on this session!  We hope you enjoyed the highlights from our day!

O Juliet We Just Love Your Senior Session!

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O Juliet we just LOVE your senior session!  That’s the truth.  We had amazing fall colors, a new outdoor prop we never used before, a great girl and a great mom and our results speak for themselves.  Juliet is a sweetheart and a really impressive girl with big plans and a clear head on her shoulders.  We can’t wait to see what she is going to accomplish with her life!  But for now let’s focus on the wonderful morning we spent with her!

We started on location where the fall colors were at their absolute peak – just look at this wall of color, and we love Juliet in the maroon dress – she looks beautiful, confident and content here.

O Juliet

We spent a little more time in the natural setting but we also got some really cool urban photos – and then the studio shots are amazing too….  We want to get to all of that so let’s move on.  🙂  Our next photo is just a fun engaging photo of Juliet on some steps which we think brings out her personality.

O Juliet

Here is our fun behind the scenes vine of the morning…  🙂

Now we’ll take a look at the spot we hadn’t used.  This outdoor “prop/barrel/tube thing” looks so cool in black and white – love this.  We’ll call it “senior in a circle” haha!

Senior in a circle

Lastly we headed back to the studio where we went with our black and blowy set up and we have to say that Juliet nailed this shot.  Like it was made for her – so dramatic and pretty!

High School Senior Girl - "O Juliet"

And that concludes our highlights of this session, even though we could have easily kept going – no shortage of amazing photos of this girl from that morning…  We hope you enjoyed them!

 

United This Family Stands….and Smiles, and Hugs!

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This beautiful family came to the studio recently for a photo session and they were a pleasure to be with.  One of the kids was slightly under the weather, but I won’t even reveal which one because the kid was a total trooper and you would never know which one it was!  Meanwhile everyone got along and picked each other up, made each other laugh and generally had a good time, so yes we can definitely say that united this family stands….and smiles, and hugs!

We stayed with the black background for this session which always works well.  Our primary goal to start out with was to get a classic family shot to be displayed on canvas for the wall above the fireplace, so often we try to make the most important shot the first shot.  We had several to choose from but this one is the winner…

United This Family

What a stunning family right?  Next we spent some time on just the kids, individually as well as some group shots and that’s where we captured one of Ally’s favorite family poses – the family hug!  See what I did there?  You knew that was coming from the blog title….  ha!

United This Family

So cute!  Just great kids and we had fun with them.  Here is our fun behind the scenes vine of the morning with the family hug in action!

Next let’s take a look at this combination of just the mommy with her babies!

United This Family

And lastly let’s celebrate where this family all started – with the happy couple responsible for all this love!

United This Family

 

So there it is – our wonderful united family!  They are totally worthy of being the subjects of the first blog post on our brand new website!  We hope you enjoyed the photos!

 

A Frameable Fun Fall Session With A Family Of Three!

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We have been buried in seniors from the class of 2015 lately which we love, but a frameable fun fall session with a family of three was a nice change of pace especially at the height of fall colors!  What a fun couple with what Ally would refer to as a squishy yummy little boy named Josh.  Josh gave us great smiles and we had much fun!

We went to one of our go-to spots in a neighborhood close by and the conditions were just right!  There are trees and bridges and just a lot to work with there.  We started with the bridge:

Frameable Fun Fall Session

How cute is the little man?  Cute enough that we moved on to working on some solo shots to give him the spotlight and Ally captured this sweet photo of Josh just being a happy little boy sitting in the leaves…

Frameable Fun Fall Session

Next we looked to get a few more family shots under a tree filled with and surrounded by pretty yellow and orange leaves – it was a great spot which gave us some great results!

Frameable Fun Fall Session

Love the interaction here of the three of them just being a family.  And we have a little of this on our fun behind the scenes vine of the morning!  You’ll see here that when we went back to the house afterwards to try to get a few more with the dogs that Ally got a little surprise…  haha!

As mentioned in the vine this part of the session with the dogs was a bit more challenging but we did get one last family shot on the deck that we’ll share here!

Frameable Fun Fall Session

And there you have it!  Highlights from a Frameable fun fall session with a family of three that we hope you enjoyed!

Rachel Was Resplendent On Her Senior Session!

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Rachel was resplendent on her senior photo session on location, in the studio, with her hair curly and straight!  Her session had it all and why not?  This girl has it all.  She’s got the looks, brains, personality, a great family and a great future!  We were proud to have her represent our studio this year as a spokesmodel and we were looking forward to photographing her again since her spokesmodel session was so great!

Rachel was torn between having her hair curly which is how it is naturally or wearing it straight which is what we did for the spokesmodel session, so we decided to do a little of both.  Her mom joined us and we had a blast!  We started outside on location with the curls where the fall leaves were all around…

Resplendent

Really pretty lighting here and as I said before – Rachel looks resplendent!

Meanwhile we had another “wildlife adventure” on this shoot as a snake decided to join us making Rachel scream which pretty much made me scream… kind of a chain reaction…

Ally was able to grab a photo of our little friend…

SNAKENext we moved over to a pavilion in the nature preserve that has several elements that we like to photograph with our seniors, but while we have noticed this mural in the next photo before, we never used it!  We’re not sure why we hadn’t but we’ll call it “Rachel’s Mural” from now on and we think it made for a really nice backdrop!

Resplendent

Here is our fun little behind the scenes vine of the day!

Next it was time to head back to the studio and Rachel went down the hall to get her hair straightened for the second half of the session where we focused mainly on the black background.  The black always has a nice dramatic look to it:

Resplendent

Straight-haired Rachel looks just as good as curly-haired Rachel!  And let’s look at one more on the black…

Resplendent

So that’ll do it!  We hope you liked these highlights from Rachel’s session in all of her resplendence!  We certainly enjoyed spending another day with her!