Tag Archives: 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…

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…

Fruit Kebob Party!

Joel Ben-Moche cuts up some watermelon! Yum!

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

Walk of cancer survivors

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

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

Frameable Faces Senior Carly Simko shows off her awesome decorations!

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

Several dignitaries came to the event including Senator Debbie Stabenow…

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….

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.

Team Frameable Faces luminaria bags

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!

A Family Finally Completed

June 25, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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The last time we photographed this family they were a family of 4. Now they’re a family of 5 and what a journey they took to get here. After a very sad and extremely dangerous episode a few years ago that resulted in the loss of the baby that would have completed their family along with the ability to have any more children, some time passed and they never quite felt like they were complete. They were happy but something told them they were still meant to be a family of 5 all the same, so first they healed, then they talked, then they dreamed, and then they hoped for the opportunity to adopt and bring another life into their home and their family.

They took the steps needed to adopt and first they looked to Russia. Plans were made. A lot of time, effort and emotion was invested into this and they were going to need to take three trips in all to Russia to find and bring home their daughter. And then…. their hopes were temporarily squashed by Vladimir Putin when he signed an anti-U.S. adoption bill on December 28th, 2012 banning the adoption of Russian children by U.S. families effective January 1, 2013. Luckily they hadn’t taken the first trip to Russia yet, but this was still a setback to be sure.

So back to the drawing board they went to find a baby girl here in the states, and after 5 anxious months the journey finally led them to Utah where they found their beautiful daughter! They brought her home to her new and excited siblings and they all came to the studio shortly thereafter. They are finally complete and we are so happy for them!

Family Portrait

Newborn Baby

Older Siblings with Newborn

Newborn Portrait

Doug’s Rant – Instagram vs. Vine and Getting Hacked – June 20, 2013

June 21, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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Yep – turns out I’ve got more to say….

Insta……death of Vine on Droid?

I became intrigued from the time Vine was launched as a potentially awesome platform for Frameable Faces. We have used video quite a bit – mainly on YouTube. It’s an effective platform for testimonials, slide shows from sessions, various interviews and behind the scenes features. The idea of Vine is exciting because it provides what I have seen one guru refer to as “snack sized” social media bites to go with videos on our YouTube channel which are more like “main courses”. Vine could be to video what Instagram has been to photos for us – just fun quickie behind the scenes shots – visits from friends, events, photo shoots, and even some silliness now and then. Vine was released only for iOS (iPhone/iPod touch) on January 24th. We are an Apple shop for everything but our smartphones – we have Droids because T-Mobile didn’t get the iPhone until April of this year. As Droid owners (Samsung Galaxy Blaze 4G to be exact) we had to wait from January 24th to June 3rd before Vine was released for Droid. That’s a pretty long wait, and when it was finally released it was a mess……. and it’s still a mess. There is no way to search for other users which totally takes the social aspect away from a social media app. Totally useless. Sure we can be patient and wait – it’s frustrating but what else can we do? We’re not ready to buy iPhones just yet.

Well, yesterday I opened instagram like I do a few times every day and there was a notification there that Instagram has added video! 15 seconds vs. Vine’s 6, with the familiar feature of Instagram layers (specific video layers) and the option to pick a cover image for your video. To me this means Vine’s window for Droid users could shut. Why would I bother trying to build a following on Vine when I can share the same (if not better) content on a platform in the same fashion where I already have a following? I also have to say that while the 6 second limit on Vine forces people to find creative ways to tell a story in 6 seconds, it is just so short. Unless Vine proves to become so overwhelmingly popular with our high school seniors that we can’t ignore it, I think I won’t bother with it. I’m not adding another platform if I don’t need it. Sorry Vine, I could be wrong but I think you blew a huge opportunity by releasing such a buggy mess for Droid and not fixing it before Instagram had their own video option ready. We’ll see how it plays out. Meanwhile here is a blog post with a great breakdown comparison between the two.

UPDATE – I tried to use Instagram video since I finished writing the section above and since T-Mobile doesn’t want to release an update for the Samsung Blaze 4G from Android 4.0.4 to 4.1 or better I can’t make Instagram videos for the time being. Instagram videos can only be made with the 4.1 version or newer. Ugh. The struggle continues…

UPDATE TWO (June 24th) – Vine added search! Now I’m using it and enjoying it. Seeing the updates being pushed to my phone is like watching two heavyweights battle it out – the other morning it was happening in real time! Meanwhile there seems to be a bit of a backlash going on about videos intruding on Instagram feeds… Anything else I have to say on the topic will go into the next rant…

Hacked….

Yes we were hacked. What a nightmare – someone (apparently from Poland) got into our website and uploaded some malware. Google flagged our website and blog with a warning basically preventing anyone from getting to either site with a computer for what ended up being a couple weeks. It’s a good thing we don’t survive by an online ordering business or we could have been in huge trouble. They didn’t change any content on either site or ruin either of them, it was just a pain in the butt having to identify what happened, have our host reset the passwords, check for any bad files, clean the bad files off, and then submit a request to Google to remove the warning. The folks at EPK Design who originally designed this blog for us were hugely helpful in getting this sorted out. That was a bummer and that was why you didn’t see any new posts here for the first half of June.

Other quick hits…

We are excited for our new class of 2014 senior mural in the window of our studio! It’s up and it looks fantastic!
I find Steve McCurry’s photos to be fascinating. If you haven’t checked out his blog before you should bookmark it and you can start with this photo essay on the monsoons on the other side of the world.
This was our first year at Relay For Life West Bloomfield as Team Frameable Faces! It was a great day and there will be a blog post about it here soon…

Mickey…..Kitty!

June 20, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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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!!!

This couch is just my style…

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

Return of the Fantastic Four!

June 18, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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

Silly siblings and cousins Cousins in black and white Photo of siblings and cousins

Frameable Flower Pot Babies For Valentine’s Day!

February 14, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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This is actually our second Valentine’s Day post – here’s the first. Meanwhile who doesn’t love flowers on Valentine’s Day right? Well here are some Frameable Flower Pot Babies today from us to you! These fun little ones are all right around 6 months old and as you can see they all really enjoyed themselves! These photos should put a smile on your face for sure… Enjoy!

Flower Pot Babies

The Whole Family Was Here and it Was A Blast!

February 7, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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When the impetus for a session is to have both children with their spouses and all five grandchildren together it’s as good a reason as any, and when one of the children has a connection to Ally going back to college days that makes it even more fun for us! What a joy for the grandparents to have their whole family together and captured to decorate their walls!

Multi-generational Family Portrait

We had some laughs on this one to be sure – if you follow us on facebook we shared a “photography tip” that arose from this session. Ally needed to make the youngest kids laugh so she told them that she pooped in her diaper. They were CRACKING UP at this announcement! It was hilarious. There was lots of talk about photography and music and all the adults were jumping around and acting silly to get the kids to smile at one point which was pretty funny…. We hope you enjoy these images as much as we enjoyed producing them!

Family Portrait Siblings and Cousins

These Adorable Sisters Are Growing Up!

January 30, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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When we met these beautiful young sisters three years ago we were taken with them immediately! They were comfortable in front of the camera from the very beginning and that hasn’t changed at all. Younger sis was one of our very first “flower pot” babies when she was 6 months old! She’s 3 1/2 now with personality to burn and her older sister who was 6 then is quite the 9 year old young lady now!

Adorable Sisters

They were very well prepared and coordinated for this shoot and we had a great time with them. It makes for a very special photo shoot when you can reconnect with the kids you knew from so little and watch them grow up right in front of your camera! Enjoy!

Pretty In Purple Pretty As A Rainbow Cute Sisters

The Frameable Faces 2013 Campus Tour Continues at U of M!!!

January 25, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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And so the campus tour rolled along… this time into Ann Arbor to see a couple of our favorite Frameable Wolverines! The cold front was just moving in and the weather was bitter cold but we didn’t let that stop the fun……or the FOOD! Shocking we know…. 🙂

The Frameable Faces Campus Tour checks in at Pizza House!

Nicole and Cheyenne met us at Pizza House – one of the most popular spots on campus and home of the best chipatis you’ll find anywhere. A chipati is a yummy salad wrapped in yummy and warm chipati bread served with chipati sauce. The pizza and garlic bread rocks as well – actually pretty much everything is good at Pizza House… It was a historic MLK day with this year marking the 50th anniversary of the “I Have A Dream” speech and it was also inauguration day. The girls didn’t have classes and we were able to relax and catch up for a couple hours in the late afternoon for an early dinner.

Chicago style deep dish pizza and a chipati! Mmmmm....

Ally and a couple of her favorite Frameable Wolverines!

Doug with Nicole and Cheyenne

In keeping with the theme established in East Lansing, we took a stroll over to Insomnia Cookies for dessert… and we can only say that it’s a good thing there isn’t one of these in West Bloomfield. It’s dangerous enough with a Just Baked right across the street from the studio (YUM), but late night cookie delivery could be a big problem. 🙂

Yet again at Insomnia Cookies.... So goood...

Another fun trip with two of our Frameables who are also responsible for two of our greatest images ever – Nicole standing in the water with the beautiful orange sunset many of you have seen and the stunning image of Cheyenne printed on the big beautiful plexiglass which still hangs in the studio. We love our Frameable Seniors and we love to share in their successes as they enjoy their college experience!

The Frameable Faces 2013 Campus Tour! First stop… MSU!

January 22, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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We have been saying for a long time that it would be fun to visit our seniors when they go away to college, so this year we launched the first annual Frameable Faces Campus Tour! We started out with a trip to East Lansing to visit our Frameable Spartans, and we had a great time!

Frameables at "El Az"!

As usual this get together centered around food. We arrived on campus and picked up Lainie, Jessica, and Chelsea at their apartments/dorms and headed over to El Azteco which is a Mexican dining favorite at Michigan State for the famous Topopo Salad. We had lots of laughs and it was great to catch up! If you enjoy a good salad and you haven’t had one of these you are missing out….

Two Topopos! Yum!

Ally with some of her favorite Frameable Spartans!

Doug with Jessica, Chelsea and Lainie

We then walked a few blocks over to Insomnia Cookies – one of the best concepts ever. Cookies served warm and even delivered until 2:45 AM – wish we would have had this when we were in college….

The Insomnia Cookies didn't last long...

Each one of these girls were responsible for some our best “iconic” shots of all time – Lainie actually IN the water with a dress on, Jessica in the snow in a white dress, and Chelsea on the pink background on a huge canvas that hung in our studio for a long time. Three of our all time favorites! All in all it was a great night and we hope to do this every year! Next stop, Ann Arbor….!