Category Archives: family photography

5 Fun Tips On What To Wear For A Family Photo Shoot

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What to wear for a family portrait session is obviously an important topic.  What do you recommend?  Do we need to match?  Can we wear jeans?  These are the questions we get from our clients all the time for family portrait sessions, and they are very important questions!What to wear

What to wear….

Whenever we meet with a family (or the family member in charge) to discuss the game plan for their upcoming session we usually spend a decent amount of time discussing clothing.  Many people have anxiety over this, and while it’s certainly important to look your best when you invest the time and money to get professional portraits, there is no need to stress!  Here are 5 fun and practical tips and ideas that may help…

  1. Consider Casual.  If you are comfortable you will feel comfortable and therefore you will look comfortable.  There is nothing wrong with jeans and t-shirts, polos, or simple blouses.  A family that appears to be relaxed and naturally enjoying being together makes for really nice portraits.  Keep in mind that formal portraits can be beautiful as well, just know that it’s not a rule that professional portraits = formal portraits.  Sometimes the decor of the room or rooms you plan to decorate can help you with this as well.
  2. Coordinate Loosely.  You don’t have to match exactly.  You can put the boys in a blue and the girls in a pink just as an example, with everyone wearing similar style shirts.  Everyone can wear different style shirts of the same color as well – white shirts are fine.  Coordinate by color or style – just look like you are in the same group and belong together.
  3. Avoid crazy patterns.  No Hawaiian shirts for example.  Just use common sense – you want the focus of the photos to be on the people and not on a pattern or a slogan like “I’m With Stupid” on a shirt.
  4. Try a theme.  We had a family do a Detroit sports theme with different jerseys of the 4 major pro teams – the Tigers, Lions, Pistons, and Red Wings.  It was really fun!  You can do it with your favorite college / alma mater too.  We had a family where the dad and son had maize and blue Michigan sweatshirts and the mom and daughter had pink ones on and it was really cute.  I used to think it was silly when I would see a U of M sweatshirt in pink in a store, but from a fashion standpoint it worked for the shoot!  Anything that your family shares together can serve as inspiration.
  5. Be true to yourself and your family.  Certainly you can look to professional photographers for advice because they have plenty of experience with this, and they can make suggestions that work with different backdrops and settings.  Always ask to see examples!  Also remember however that you are the customer and you know your family best.  Be careful of a photographer who won’t listen to you and insists on doing it his or her way.  This is your session after all…

Always remember to have fun and savor the moment.  You deserve credit for wanting to celebrate your family with a professional portrait session and you should enjoy it!  Feel free to add to the discussion – what have been some of your favorite choices for wardrobe?  What say you on the subject of what to wear?

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Frameable Faces Photography
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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!
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Ally & Doug can be reached at the studio at tel:248-790-7317 or emailed at mailto:info@frameablefaces.com
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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?
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Ethan Loves His Parents….And (Smashing) His Cake!

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Ethan loves his parents for sure.  And he loves his cake.  And smashing his cake.  And devouring his cake.  What’s bad about that?  Okay so maybe too much cake isn’t the very best idea all the time, but for a first birthday photo shoot?  Gotta do it…  Yep.  Just gotta.  Meanwhile Ally has known Ethan’s dad Kyle for a long time and we are huge fans of this fam – Jodie is a sweetheart and Ethan did a fantastic job for their (his) session!  So let’s get to the delicious photos of this delicious kid and eventually his delicious cake!

Ethan Loves His Parents…

We’ll start with the family portrait with the blue / grey backdrop.  Just a classic shot – everyone smiling, everyone happy together!

Ethan Loves

Love that.

Ethan Loves Just Being Ethan…

Let’s give one to Ethan just being a happy little guy – being himself – how great to be 1!

Ethan Loves

How’s that finger taste Ethan?  Think he’s getting ready for the cake…

Before we get to that though, let’s take a look at our fun behind the scenes action from the session.  First with our fun 6 second vine for your looping pleasure:

Next we have the replay of our Periscope broadcast, and if you haven’t downloaded Periscope yet (Apple’s 2015 app of the year) you can do so and follow us at @frameablefaces at this link.

Ethan Loves His Mommy…

We would be remiss if we didn’t also mention that Jodie was actually the birthday girl on this session!  Ethan’s first birthday was technically two days later, and what a birthday present for Jodie – her little one loving on her while she watches over him.  Love this photo…

Ethan Loves

Ethan Loves His Cake!!!

And finally the cake smash!!!  This is a great one to end on of Ethan really starting to go for it….

Ethan Loves

…and clearly happy about it!  That will do it for now – we hope you enjoyed the highlights of our day with this happy family!

Family, Fun and a Little Flannel! What A Crew.

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Photo sessions with this crew over Thanksgiving have become sort of a ritual for us and it’s always a blast as you’ll see in these photos.  Michael and Susie both have grown kids from before they got married to each other but you would never know they weren’t all blood related if you were to hang out with them.  This year there was a new spouse in the mix and she also just fits right in.  We won’t even tell you who goes with whom because the point with this crew is how awesome they are as a whole!  They coordinated with a little flannel this year which is just great, while Michael and Susie stand out as the leaders of the pack in white.  Every year it’s something a little different!

A Little Flannel…

Let’s start first with the “kids” in front of the house in a simple pose – what a great looking group!

Little Flannel

Next before we get into the rest let’s take a look at some fun behind the scenes from the session!  First with our six second looping vine:

Next we have the extended replay of our live Periscope broadcast from our YouTube channel which is a lot of fun.  It’s about 15 minutes long and if you still don’t have Periscope you can download it and follow us at @frameablefaces at this link.

Now one more super fun photo of just the kids before we bring Michael and Susie into the mix:

Little Flannel

…and a lot of fun!

Now we have Michael and Susie joining for the last two fantastic photos!

Little Flannel

We think that one is so fun with them all peaking out from the sides…

Okay one more to wrap it up!

Little Flannel

And so there it is – family, fun and a little flannel!  What could be better?  We hope you enjoyed the highlights from our morning with them!

A SNOWY Family Session With Jason, Taryn And Gia!

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Those of you who have walked by our studio for the last few years have seen a big canvas of the family we are featuring today, and you may have stopped and said “Hey that’s Jason Carr” or “Hey that’s Taryn Asher” or hey that’s “Jason Carr and Taryn Asher” or “Hey why do these people look familiar?”.  Haha!  It’s a really nice and unique family photo outdoors in late fall with an evergreen tree as a backdrop.  We don’t have too many photos like that, so it serves multiple purposes – a unique and fantastic photo, familiar (and frameable of course) faces to the community that make people stop and smile, and it makes us happy because they are just down to earth cool people.

A SNOWY Family Session…

So when Taryn called and said it was time to get back in for another session with their daughter Gia we got excited – we planned the session and decided on Quarton Lake in Birmingham.  What we didn’t plan on was snow!!!  I told Taryn that the forecast was making me a little nervous because there was supposed to be a snow storm coming, and I didn’t expect her to answer that she loved the idea of a snow session!  So yes indeed – it snowed – hard.  The only real significant snow we’ve had so far this year, and needless to say we now have even more unique photos (hint hint)!  We’ve photographed high school seniors in the snow but this family snow session was a first, and the results are spectacular!  Let’s take a look!

Snowy Family Session

How great is that?  Meanwhile Gia is growing up so fast – she is so smart and cute!

Here’s a closer look:

Snowy Family Session

Before we look at a couple more let’s look at our fun behind the scenes video footage – first of our 6 second looping vine:

Next take a look at the extended replay of our live Periscope broadcast from the session!  If you haven’t downloaded Periscope yet you can do so and follow us at @frameablefaces at this link, and also follow both Taryn and Jason on Facebook because they live stream there and they are fun!

Okay let’s get back to a couple more photos…

Snowy Family Session

This is the pose they used for their holiday card – love the background here too…

And here is one more pose with the tree that we love:

Snowy Family Session

And that will do it for now!  We hope you enjoyed these highlights from our day!  Be sure to catch Jason and Taryn on Fox 2 Detroit – we aren’t just friends – we’re fans!

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**********************************************
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
************************************************
Social Media Services: http://M10Social.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!

 

 

 

What A Fun Fall Family Thursday In The Park!

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What a fun fall family Thursday in the park we had with Sean, Rebecca and their kids!  We have known Sean for a long time – for Ally going back to elementary school and for me back to high school where we were football teammates, so this was a very cool thing to be spending time with him and his family, not to mention that Rebecca is delightful and the kids are great!

Fall Family Thursday

We decided on Heritage Park as our location in Farmington Hills and we had great conditions on this particular morning.  We have 4 different family poses to share with you in different spots in the park.  They all have their own appeal…  Let’s start on the bench – Sean remarked that this photo makes him look like the king – we said we would photoshop a crown on his head for him – hahaha!!!

Fall Family Thursday

Great looking family!!!

Next we have a candid photo in black and white that tells a little story – we love the way this one came out:

Fall Family Thursday

So fun!

While we’re talking about fun let’s take a look at our behind the scenes footage of the morning – first with our 6 second looping Vine:

And now we have the extended replay of our live Periscope broadcast!  If you haven’t downloaded the Periscope app yet you can do so and follow us at @frameablefaces at this link:

Okay we have two more photos to get to – first of the family sitting and relaxing…

Fall Family Thursday

…and lastly posed on the rocks – how CUTE is the little one loving on her daddy?

Fall Family Thursday

And there you have it!  A fun family Thursday in the park indeed!  We hope you enjoyed the highlights of our morning with them!

It Is Time To Meet Al and Tarcha’s New Arrival – Nala!

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Yes it is time to meet Al and Tarcha’s new arrival – Nala!  We were so excited to meet her!  We have known Al and Tarcha for 5 years now and we have done headshots for Al, his dad, photos for their church in Detroit where Al is a pastor, maternity photos of Tarcha when they were expecting and now finally little Nala!  We have shared plenty of good times with these guys and they have really become friends in addition to being clients.  It is really special for us to see their family growing.

Meanwhile Tarcha’s mom was in town for the session as well so she was able to join in for a couple photos which was great – what a wonderful lady!  Nala was a total champ for this session and we have a few highlights to share with you!

New Arrival

Nala arrived quite early – she apparently couldn’t wait to get out and see the world – but this session coincided with what would have been a week after her scheduled arrival.  We did some photos on the grey fabric and the black fabric.  Let’s start with the grey and with grandma included…

New ArrivalJust so wonderful!

Now let’s narrow down to the happy family unit – just Nala and her parents:

New Arrival

So much love in that picture!!!

Okay now before we switch backdrops let’s take a look at our fun behind the scenes footage of the session.  First with our 6 second looping Vine:

Next we have our extended behind the scenes replay of our live Periscope broadcast – those of you who are regular viewers may have seen us introduce “Pastor Al” on a previous broadcast, and if you don’t have Periscope yet you can download it and follow us at @frameablefaces at this link:

Okay now let’s get to the black backdrop for these beautiful photos with Nala first with her mommy…

New Arrival

Just gorgeous.

And lastly we have a matching photo with daddy!

New Arrival

Just in love with this session.

And that will do it for now – we hope you enjoyed celebrating Nala’s new arrival with us!

Portraits Up North In Harbor Springs With The Hackls!

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We drove up to Harbor Springs for a photo session with Cathy Hackl and her family at her in-laws’ place and this was a really special day for multiple reasons.  You see, we met Cathy through Periscope which you have seen and heard us talking about pretty much non-stop since April.  Cathy was one of the first people we met on Periscope – part of the original “Scope Crew”.  She was always so smiley, pleasant and friendly on her broadcasts, and she was also the first person I spoke to offline about a little issue I was having with Facebook at the time.  I simply asked her a question over twitter and 5 minutes later we were on the phone.  We’ve been friends ever since.  Cathy is the real deal – a genuine sweetheart of a person and she has had a very accomplished career in PR and social media, going on eventually to serve as the PR director for the first Periscope Community Summit in New York City back in September!

From Perifriends To Real Life Friends…

Meanwhile, while Cathy is based in Gainesville, Florida her in-laws live up in Harbor Springs, MI, and she has been saying for months that when they come to visit they want to do family portraits.  So we hopped in the car and drove up to Harbor Springs to finally meet Cathy in person and it was like we had known each other in real life all along just as I knew it would be.  We got in late the night before the shoot and stayed with Cathy and her husband Jason with their kids in a rental house they were staying in.  When we woke up we did our morning show with Cathy on Periscope, and here is the link to the replay on our Katch.me page.  So fun!  Check it out…

Next it was time for the portrait session which we did broadcast on Periscope, but outdoors the signal was not the best where we were and the replay quality was very spotty so we don’t have that here.  But we do in fact have some AWESOME photos to share so let’s get to it!

Harbor Springs With The Hackls!

It was indeed a little chilly on this morning but the lighting and the view were both fantastic.  Let’s start with the happy – and expectant (!) – couple!

Harbor Springs

Love the hands together on the soon-to-be-arriving newest member of the family!

Before we bring in the kids let’s take a little look at our fun behind the scenes vine of the proceedings!

Now let’s bring in the kids!  They are SO cute!

Harbor Springs

And now lets take a look at a couple of the sweetest close up photos of these little munchkins!  First the little man….

Harbor Springs

….and now big sister!

Harbor Springs

As a little bonus, Cathy went back to Costa Rica where she is originally from so we had our ordering meeting over Skype!  The best part about Skype ordering meetings is when we share screens we can see our client’s reactions to seeing the slide show for the first time, and the ear-to-ear smile on Cathy’s face is priceless!  Check it out!

So there you have it!  A wonderful experience with the Hackls and we are looking forward to hanging out with Cathy again next month in San Francisco where we’ll be speaking at the second Periscope Community Summit!  We hope you enjoyed the highlights from our day with her!

UPDATE:

Here is a “testimonial takeover” where Cathy did a Periscope broadcast on our channel to our audience to share her experience working with us!

 

 

Getting The Siblings Together On A Special Day

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Getting the siblings together on a special day is always a great plan for a photo session and that’s just what this family did.  The youngest brother was graduating high school on this particular day and one of the older sisters was in town to celebrate, so along with their mom we gathered at Cranbrook to mark the occasion with a photo session.

We rarely get to take photos at Cranbrook because it’s typically prohibited unless you are an approved vendor, but students of Cranbrook are obviously allowed to take photos on the grounds and we met these four there where Jonah had his cap and gown from the day’s ceremony earlier.  While we did do a few shots of Jonah in his cap and gown, for this post we are going to focus on the siblings together along with one beautiful shot of all four!

Siblings Together

Let’s start in reverse order from the session with a couple of shots in casual and comfortable dress…

Siblings Together

Good looking kids!

Next let’s get in a little closer with this close crop.  A nice little breeze on the hair makes for a lovely photo!

Siblings Together

Before we move on to a clothing change here is our fun behind the scenes vine of our day…

Dressing it up a little…

We actually started out on this session with everyone dressed up a little in all white.  This is the signature family shot from the session of all four of them.  We love the way this one turned out.

Siblings Together

Lastly here is one more playful photo of the three siblings in a garden – a well composed photo of the three having fun with flowers in the foreground!  We just think this is a delightful one to end on!

Siblings Together

So there you have it – a special day indeed of getting the siblings together, and we hope you enjoyed the highlights!

Balloons, Cake, Family And A Yummy One Year Old!

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Balloons, cake, family and a yummy one year old sums this session up, and I would even take that further and say that that sums life up!  Right?  That’s what it’s all about – moments like these.  This family was a delight and they actually came in with multiple family members and generations.  Everyone had a ball being together and celebrating this milestone with the youngest member of the crew!

A portrait photographer’s dream…

We started with some photos of the proud parents and our little guest of honor in traditional dress which is indeed a portrait photographer’s dream!  The feast of colors are just a joy to photograph.  Let’s take a look at one from this part of the session:

Yummy One Year Old

Just beautiful!  We love these.

Next let’s take a look at another family portrait that was a little more casual with our little guy up on daddy’s shoulders – always a fun playful shot!

Yummy One Year Old

Next let’s take a fun look at our behind the scenes vine from the day!  You’ll see a “smashing” preview of what’s to come!  Haha!

Yummy One Year Old and Yummy Cake!

Yes our little star was ready for his cake at this point and he had a smashing good time alright – his parents brought in a huge “H” balloon which as you can guess is the first letter of his name, and he made a fun mess!  Check it out:

Yummy One Year Old

Look closely at this next photo – you can see that he has a full handful of cake…  haha!

Yummy One Year Old

So fun right?  We enjoyed it as we always do when we have a yummy one year old at the studio.  We hope you enjoyed the highlights from our day!

Photographing The Fantastic Family Of An Old Friend!

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Here we are with back-to-back family sessions on back-to-back days with back-to-back blog posts!!!  Say that five times fast…  Meanwhile this is another fantastic one and in both cases we’ve known the dad of the family outside of the studio so we were excited when they called us to photograph their families.  Ally has known Larry from yesterday’s post for a couple years, but I have known Mike from today’s post for about……..40 YEARS!

Going back a ways…

Yes Mike and I go back almost to the beginning to Forest Elementary School and Rolling Oaks / Wedgewood Commons which was the greatest neighborhood, and it was the greatest time to grow up there.  It’s always a little surreal to have someone’s family here that you go that far back with.  Meanwhile Mike has done really well in the family department – his wife is a sweetheart and his boys are great!  So let’s get to the photos!

Fantastic Family

Everything has been blooming which makes for great location shots and the weather held up nicely – we had a mix of clouds to contend with here and there which made for some light changes but we were prepared!

Next we have a great shot of the boys!  Birmingham is nice because you have access to green and brick for a little of both…

Fantastic Family

Studs!

Okay let’s take a look at our behind the scenes vine of the day – possibly the most epic vine from a family session we’ve ever posted!

Note the #AbbeyRoad hashtag.  Haha!

Fantastic Family

So maybe we played in the street a little….  it was totally blocked off so we can assure you no laws were broken nor clients harmed in the making of this next image.

Fantastic Family

One more shot as we bring it back to a nice moment between the happy couple…

Fantastic Family

So there it is!  A fantastic family indeed!  We hope you enjoyed the highlights from our morning with them!