Tag Archives: Ally Cohen

Stepping Out Into The Spotlight

Jill had an outstanding photo shoot and it’s always special for us when we photograph a younger sibling of one our seniors from the past.  We’ve become very close with Jill’s older sister whom we photographed a couple years ago and with whom we produced some of our most memorable shots.  Meanwhile we had never met Jill until our recent consultation with her to prepare for her own turn in the spotlight…Senior Pictures

WOW!  Such a beautiful, photogenic and sweetheart of a girl!  First we started in the studio:

Senior Pictures

Next we went on location and got a variety of great shots, but it was at the end where the session produced a new shot for us that we LOVE – a little spontaneous hop onto a swing set that yielded such a fantastic result!  Enjoy!

Senior PicturesSenior Photos

 

Another Cool Senior Session In The City!

We proudly present to you pictures from Noah’s senior session!  You’ve probably seen him in our window and on our class of ’14 brochure…  Noah is one of our spokesmodels and we are happy to have him representing our studio!

High School Senior Photo

The other day we posted on facebook that “happiness is photographing North Farmington Raiders” and this was one of the sessions we were referring to.  Noah’s little brother even came along and jumped into one of the photos!

Photo of Brothers

We had a good time and Ally saved a katydid who was hanging out right in front of a door to a parking garage (we think it may have had an injured leg).  In any event we were pleased with the results with the urban setting!  Enjoy!

High School Senior PicturesHigh School Senior Portrait

Danielle Dazzles!

As you can tell we are busy with seniors which makes us so happy!  Danielle is no exception when it comes to the happiness level…

Senior Pictures

Danielle is a spokesmodel for us this year and so this was the second time we had the privilege of photographing her.  The first time we got some great studio work done and so we focused heavily on location shooting.  It was pretty hot but the lighting was perfect, and we got the standing-in-the-water shot but I wouldn’t say it was the most comfortable shot – very muddy and mucky, but Danielle rocked it anyway – a total pro!

High School Senior Photos

All in all it was a great session!  We love our seniors!

High School Senior PicturesSenior Pictures

Courtney Lights Up The Night!

This was such a cool senior photo shoot!

High School Senior Photo

We planned this one for a rare evening session and we got some amazing shots as the sun went down and then when it was totally dark with a few different lighting techniques.  We had so much fun with Courtney – tons of laughs and we all were feeling really inspired as we let the creativity fly…

First we actually started with a little studio work:

High School Senior Photo

Then we headed out into the night and got some incredible pictures!  Courtney looks fantastic in front of a camera!

High School Senior PicturesSenior Pictures

Kickin’ It With Blake

It’s all about the shoes….

High School Senior Portrait

We had a great time on this fantastic senior session with Blake!  We had the honor of photographing his sister two years ago and we were looking forward to this.  The weather was fine and the session went off without a hitch or any crazy stories unless you count the highly aggressive salesperson who came in and tried to sell me advertising despite the fact that we were obviously with a client, and then arguing with me when I said I wasn’t really interested.  Ugh.

High School Senior Picture

Meanwhile Blake has the style going on when it comes to the shoes and he has quite a collection.  He also has a sense of humor since once you’ve seen this video it’s hard not to joke around with anyone named Blake, Denice, Jacqueline, Aaron, Timothy, or the last name of O’Shaughnessy.  We were calling him “Ba-lak-ay” and his mom got in on the fun too.  🙂  Cool guy for sure and we had a lot of fun!

High School Senior PictureHigh School Senior Photo

What Would You Do With More Free Time?

This is a post about life, work, kids, balance…

What Would You Do With More Free Time?

Our kids are at camp for a total of 3 1/2 weeks and they have two more weeks there before they come home.  When we tell people this they say “Wow!”, “Party Time for you two!”, “It’s like a vacation!”, “Are you going anywhere?”, and “What are you going to do?”

Yes it’s like a vacation in a sense even though we are not taking any trips.  When the kids are at camp it means more free time – you don’t have to drive them anywhere or pick them up.  You can’t spend time with them because they’re away.  We don’t have to worry about planning or making meals for them.  So yes we have free time but that hardly means we are kicking back and laying by the pool for a month…  Here are some of the things we are doing while our children are away:

  • We are missing them
  • We are enjoying the time alone
  • We are launching a canvas business for other studios with the local folks who have printed our canvas for our clients for the past 4 years and we’ve used some of the time by working hard on this.  We are excited about it and there will be more to come on this topic!  If you are a professional photographer please give us a try.  The quality is top notch as our clients know.
  • We are meandering and browsing at the library and the bookstore – and we are taking our time when we do
  • We are going out with friends
  • We are staying in and reading books, watching movies, sleeping in occasionally
  • We are meeting with a bunch of seniors and scheduling senior sessions – can’t wait for the class of 2014 – new senior frameables will be gracing this blog soon!
  • We are strolling around Royal Oak and Birmingham
  • We are spreading the word about our leap into events with our second photographer Angela Bell
  • We are working hard
  • We are loving work
  • Ally is working on the photography lessons she is offering
  • We planned a little impromptu 25th high school reunion for Doug’s graduating class
  • We are taking stock – of lots of things
  • We are going to Eastern Market and Ann Arbor
  • We’ve had a drink or two
  • We are exercising
  • ….and we are missing our kids.

What would you do with some extra free time?

Relay For Life West Bloomfield 2013 – Team Frameable Faces!

This was the first year we entered the Relay For Life West Bloomfield with our own team and we found it to be a very fun and rewarding experience!  For those who don’t know, Relay For Life is a community fundraising event put on through the American Cancer Society to raise money for research to find a cure for cancer.  We had donated in the past and Ally had attended several of the past Relays.  I have to admit that this was my first Relay, and now that I’ve been I don’t plan on missing another one…

Relay For Life West Bloomfield 2013

Photo Credit Hala Eliya Photography

Go Team Frameable Faces!

As pretty much everyone has, we have certainly been touched by cancer in our families and with our friends and so we thought it was time we did something about it – using our brand and our resources to try to raise money to make a world with more birthdays and less cancer, and for our first year I am happy to report we raised almost $1500.  Just so you know you can actually still donate to the cause for this year’s relay through August 31st if you like at our team page.  We had a few partners worth noting who helped us – we did fundraising days at Zoe’s House Of Pancakes and Leaf & Berry, and Hiller’s Markets donated fruit which we made into fruit kebobs and sold at the Team Frameable Faces tent at the Relay.

Disclaimer – the following photos were snapped with a Droid and are of varying quality, but they are included here to tell the story of the day.

We started with a fruit kebob-making party here at the studio Friday night June 7th…

Relay For Life West Bloomfield 2013

Fruit Kebob Party!

Relay For Life West Bloomfield 2013

Joel Ben-Moche cuts up some watermelon! Yum!

 

Then Saturday morning started the Relay with the walk of the survivors…

Relay For Life West Bloomfield 2013

Walk of cancer survivors

We spent the day manning the Frameable Faces tent with our team!

Relay For Life West Bloomfield 2013

Fruit Kebobs!!! Get your fruit kebobs here!!!

Relay For Life West Bloomfield 2013

Frameable Faces Senior Carly Simko shows off her awesome decorations!

Relay For Life West Bloomfield 2013

JC Sidaway sells origami canoes to raise money to fight cancer!

Several dignitaries came to the event including Senator Debbie Stabenow…

Relay For Life West Bloomfield 2013

Senator Stabenow addresses the crowd

Okay this was amazing….  on a day when people spent a lot of time remembering those who lost their battles with cancer an amazing rainbow circle around the sun appeared directly above the event….

Relay For Life West Bloomfield 2013

Incredible

We then decorated luminaria bags in memory of those we’ve lost, and then the entire track was ringed with lit bags at night time while everyone walked a lap in silence.  An extremely touching and powerful moment.

Relay For Life West Bloomfield 2013

Team Frameable Faces luminaria bags

Relay For Life West Bloomfield 2013

Luminaria bags lit with candles

Parting Comments

The Relay is a 24 hour event and Ally and I spent about 17 hours there.  Now that I’ve done it I get how special it is.  I don’t have a good reason why I hadn’t been before.  There was a nice turnout of people, but frankly there weren’t enough.  There is no good reason or excuse for not going to your local Relay For Life.  You don’t have to have the means to donate huge chunks of money in order to attend.  No one will hound you to give.  But you certainly can give, and you can certainly support the cause even if it’s in spirit.  Even if you just come hungry and eat at the Relay – every bit helps.  You will see a ton of people you know and you will feel a really nice sense of community.  As for Team Frameable Faces this year was a good start but we can absolutely do better.  We truly hope you will join us next year as we come together again to CELEBRATE, REMEMBER, and FIGHT BACK!

 

 

 

Mickey…..Kitty!

Sure everyone has heard of Mickey Mouse, but Mickey the kitty is “taking Mickey back” for kitty nation.  Who says a cat can’t be named Mickey right?  Right.  Just look at him – he doesn’t care what you think.  You can’t stop him…

"I'm King of the World!!!"

I’m King of the World!!!

Photo of a kitty

This couch is just my style…

Mickey the cute kitty

Hey I was told there was fish in here. There are no fish in here.

Return of the Fantastic Four!

We have been photographing these 3 siblings and their cousin for a few years now and we love when they come to the studio!  They are hilarious and we have enjoyed watching them grow – the youngest was really just a baby when we first met him, the oldest is turning into such a beautiful little lady and the other two – well they’re just not little toddlers anymore.  They’re big kids now!

Cute KidsThis session had a little silly, a little classic, some traditional attire – a little of everything….!

Silly siblings and cousinsCousins in black and whitePhoto of siblings and cousins

“Perfect” Children!

Let me explain….   We have photographed plenty of little ones.  Newborns, toddlers, kids – and we love all of our little Frameables.  Often when we tell parents that our sessions are two hours they react by saying “there is no way my child will sit and pose for two hours”, and we reply saying “that’s why we need two hours!”  Sometimes toddlers need a little time to get comfortable, and for newborns in particular we block off 3 hours and try not to schedule anything right after just in case we need more time.  With newborns very often there are feedings that need to happen, diapers that need to be changed, and sometimes we need to wait it out while baby falls asleep so we can take photos while they are sleeping.  It’s not a perfect step by step choreography, but that’s okay – it doesn’t have to be.  We almost always get what we need even if the good stuff doesn’t start to happen right away…

Having said all that, there was one child that we photographed three years ago that we always remember as being so extraordinarily easy to work with as a newborn – we were able to get a ton of perfect shots and it didn’t take long at all.  Well, she just came back as a three year old with her 9 day old sister and sure enough, she did an incredible job again – this time with baby sis and the baby was amazing too!  These parents are 2 for 2!  Like the title of this post says – PERFECT CHILDREN!!!  We love love love these photos… and hope you enjoy them too!  🙂

Little SiblingsNewborn Baby PhotoNewborn PhotoSibling Cuteness