Tag Archives: frameable faces

Danielle Dazzles!

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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!

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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

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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

Beauty and the Bees (and some other bugs)!

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Our latest senior session was perfect.  The light was perfect, the weather was perfect, the setting was perfect, and our senior looked stunning!

We started with a little studio work…

High School Senior Picture

We then went on location where as I mentioned everything was perfect….except for the bugs…  and the “threat” of bullfrogs.  This girl does not enjoy bugs or bullfrogs.  The bullfrogs in the area only made themselves known once or twice with a random loud croak or two, but the bees, beetles and one random flying bug decided to get involved in the session.  It all worked out – the beetles on the flower we were using kept to themselves (even though they briefly scared our model), and the bees didn’t sting us or her.  The one random flying bug flew right into her eye at one point but didn’t stay, and for not being a fan of bees she still looks pretty comfortable by the flowers where they were buzzing around!  She’s a real sweetheart with a great sense of style – we laughed a lot and we had a really fun time together!  Love these shots!

High School Senior Photo

We even made a fun vine from the session…  🙂

High School Senior PictureHigh School Senior Picture

Fun, Fire, Flash and a Little Football!

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Every senior session has a story…

For this session we tested out a new light for an idea we had for a night time shoot.  We ended up getting the shot but we almost didn’t.  We needed bleachers at the end of the session and we struck out on the first two high school stadiums we went to.  At the first one the lot was being resurfaced and it would have been next to impossible to get our equipment to the stadium, the second one was in use by the football team there under the lights, and the third……  was locked, and it was getting late.  Luck finally turned our way when we discovered that the second entrance was unlocked and we were in!  It was totally worth it…. here is the shot:

High School Senior

As for the rest of the session this senior totally rocked it and we had a great time!  Great kid, great family, spectacular pictures.  He is definitely the kind of guy you would want on your team!  Enjoy!

Senior PictureSenior PicturesSenior PictureSenior Pictures

Doug’s Rant – More on Buying LOCAL! – August 2, 2013

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I have written plenty about buying local before but something happened today that made me want to revisit it…  This is a single-topic rant.

Buy Local

A silly story

We source most of our products and services from local businesses, and we always look local first, but once in a while there is a product we need that we get from a bigger company out of state.  I’m not going to name names but this particular vendor based 4 states away just sent us a paper statement with a zero balance.  With a return envelope.  In an envelope.  Is this silly or what?  Keep in mind that every statement we get from this company will always be a zero balance because we pay at the time we order.  Okay fine, so I called them to see if they can just email them to us in the future to avoid the waste and the cost and I was told they do not have the capability to not send those statements.

They literally just told me that they are not able to stop themselves from wasting money and resources.

They have a “system update coming at some point” that may allow them that capability but for now they will continue to spit out empty mountains of paper and mail them across the country for no good reason.  So the lesson here is wherever it’s practical – BUY LOCAL!!!  Generally speaking it seems the bigger the company the more red tape there is, the more politics, waste, and fat – sometimes big corporations just can’t seem to get out of their own way.  Granted this isn’t true of all big corporations, but small independents usually don’t have big automated systems – they typically have real people pouring their personal passion, blood, sweat and tears into their livelihood, and they will give you fewer counterintuitive answers like the one I got today.

Reality check – Local doesn’t get you everything…

Now listen, I understand you can’t buy everything local.  You can’t get a Joe Phone from JoeComm on the corner and get a signal from Joe’s towers…  you have to get service from a national or regional carrier.  I’m not going to say I never shop at Target or Costco – I do.  I don’t know any neighbors with their own oil company and refinery who can sell me gas.  But if there is a choice and you have the practical option of buying local (or eating at a locally owned restaurant) you should consider it where possible.

Keep the money here

Sure I have a stake in this subject since Frameable Faces is a local independent studio, so I am biased.  But keep in mind that as a rule, by buying local you are keeping more money in your local community which helps your local economy, and we Detroiters / Metro Detroiters know a thing or two about the importance of that – especially now with our city in bankruptcy.

You don’t have to agree with me, but at least you know where I stand!  🙂

What Would You Do With More Free Time?

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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?

Doug’s Rant – Facebook Comment Photos, Events! and Glipho – July 20, 2013

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It’s that time again….  🙂

Rant

Several topics to discuss this time out – please share and give feedback in the comments!

Facebook Makes a Cool Change

Facebook adds photo comments

I discovered this little tidbit on allfacebook.com and I think it could have some pretty big implications for how brands interact with their followers on facebook.  I think the fact that people can join in conversations on a facebook page with photo attachments is very cool.  As you can tell in the above photo by my little avatar I’m logged in as Doug Cohen, I’ve clicked on a photo on Leaf & Berry’s page that we took, and I can include a photo with my comment if I want.  We embrace the popularity of photography at all levels and this could bring new opportunities for our peeps to participate in fun and creative ways by attaching their photos.  Our wheels are turning… stay tuned and let us know how you have seen this used and what ideas you have.

An About Face… To Event Photography!

As you may know in the past if you asked us if we photograph events our answer would be “no” with a few exceptions.  Well that has changed…  Ally and I are still not personally looking to be event photographers – we have our obligations as parents on the weekends for starters.  However, our fantastic second photographer Angela Bell has proven to be fabulous with events!  We tested her out on some informal affairs such as out-of-towner dinners and engagement parties and she did really well.  Then she stepped up to a couple bar/bat mitzvahs and she really blew us away!  More on this to come but suffice it to say Frameable Faces is indeed now in the event business and we are excited!

Glipho – Another Cool Social Network

I signed up for a Glipho account and you can follow me here.  What is Glipho you ask?  It’s a social blogging site – a cool way to pull content in from multiple platforms (instagram, twitter, blogger, WordPress etc.) into a very simple blog interface.  You can blog on Glipho, make friends, follow and like other blogs and interact with people.  I’ve chosen to use it as an outlet for myself as me – Doug, as opposed to another branded Frameable Faces page.  Yes I will be posting some FF blog posts there and hopefully bringing more attention and readers back to this blog, but I like to dabble in other topics like music, food, and football and I guest blog elsewhere so I like the idea of this being an outlet for my “personal brand” so to speak.  Do you “Gliph”?  Let me know if you do!

Quick Hits

  • A photo definitely made huge news this week with Rolling Stone putting a photo of the surviving Boston Marathon bomber on the cover.  Let’s just say this sparked a LOT of controversy and debate as you probably know….
  • Detroit made huge news this week with the bankruptcy announcement – I wrote a love letter to “The D” a while back that warrants a repeat link here….
  • Scott Bourne has written another buying guide – this time for camera lenses.  Anytime he shares this type of info it’s worth bookmarking.

Doug’s Rant – To Vine Is Divine, Web Redditing and Digging – July 11, 2013

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Doug droid photoVine and Instagram continue to fascinate me and this is the third rant in a row that I’ve focused on it.  In the last couple of weeks I’ve actually become a pretty big fan of Vine and I’ve enjoyed discovering some really creative and funny Vines as well as making a few of our own.  Here are a few ways we’ve used Vine so far – a little humor, focusing on our community, and a fun hello to our second photographer Angela:

 

 

 

 

As for Instagram I must say I barely see any videos there… and I prefer Instagram without videos (apparently I’m not the only one).  Being a fan of Vine and not of videos on Instagram is an outcome I did not anticipate, but that’s where I’m at now.

Can you Reddit?  Can you Digg it?

I recently read an article on Smart Savvy Social that discussed 10 ways to promote your blog posts and the major takeaway for me was #8 about bookmarking your blog on various social bookmarking sites.  I had toyed with Stumble a while back but I had never really spent any time on Reddit, Digg, or Technorati, so I went ahead and registered this blog on Technorati, created a profile on Reddit and checked out the others.  I find Reddit to be the most interesting so far because of the community aspect and the points you accumulate for good “karma” in how positive your interactions are.  While I am not seeing a whole lot of discussion about the photography business there, I can at least report that so far Reddit is the one that has generated some traffic back to our blog.  Collectively they seem to be pretty good resources for web surfing and finding good content.

Quick Hits

  • Ally is working on a guest blog about using reflectors for lighting purposes on MCP Actions – be on the lookout for that for you aspiring photographers!  It may be a little while before it posts but we’ll announce it on facebook and twitter for sure…  I also have a couple of articles being published there soon as well.
  • Here’s a case of “don’t just take my word for it” as the ever reliable Rosh Sillars blogs about the 17 things photographers should not do.  I counted and I’ve specifically discussed 8 of them in blog posts and guest blog posts of my own.  Admission – we don’t bother with our tripod very often…  we probably should a little more.  😉
  • By the way I’m a big fan of Snapchat as well which you may have noticed is the app interface on my photo at the top of this rant.  This is another visual and social mobile app but one that I’m not sure lends itself to use as a brand profile so I use it to have fun with my family and friends just as me.  A social media platform I don’t create Frameable Faces content for.

Relay For Life West Bloomfield 2013 – Team Frameable Faces!

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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!