248.790.7317
We love these girls and we’ve actually known them their whole lives which makes having them in our studio an extra special event! When we first got all of our tutus we figured they’d be great for little babies and toddlers, but they’ve proven to be fun for girls of any age as you can see – the twins had a lot of fun with them! This was a super fun session and it’s fun to see these two growing up!
We love Instagram! For those of you still not familiar with this (it’s okay we won’t tell anyone) Instagram is a social media platform that enables its users to take pictures (generally with their smartphone), apply digital filters to them, and share them. As with all of the different social media platforms we use such as facebook, Pinterest, twitter, YouTube (just to name a few), Instagram has its own unique purpose for us. We generally do not use it to post examples of our work, but rather to post what happens behind the scenes at Frameable Faces. If you don’t use Instagram you can still see ours by going here.
Meanwhile we thought it would be fun to post 7 of our favorite Instagrams here representing 5 typical categories. We hope you enjoy them whether you are a Frameable yourself or another photographer/small business owner looking for ways to connect with your peeps.
1. Behind the scenes on a photoshoot
We love these – showcasing the process of creating the images is a lot of fun. It’s instant gratification since I can snap a quick shot of Ally photographing a high school senior for example with my smartphone and upload it right away while we’re still on location. Instagram also has a location map feature which uses the GPS stamp from the photo to create a map of locations where the images were produced. This way people following us can get ideas for where they want to take their photos by seeing where they were taken.
2. Happenings in the Orchard Mall
The Orchard Mall is our home and it is a very cool place with many other independent businesses and good eats. It’s a central meeting place in West Bloomfield and any time there is an event or even just beautiful new decorations we Instagram it.
Events:
Decorations:
3. Fun Shout Outs Just Because
We like to celebrate our community – our brand, and life in general…
4. Visits From the #Frameables
Nothing brightens our day like visits from our #frameables and yes these visits make us want to share! #Frameables is our hashtag on Instagram which works much in the same way hashtags work on twitter. Our peeps ARE our studio and we mean it.
Seniors:
Babies:
5. Stuff That Has To Be Shared Because…Well…It’s Just Too Good Not To
This speaks for itself – you just know when you have to snap a shot and post it.
There are plenty of others – a banana tree at a greenhouse, a practical joke, our snarky reflector Reflecto, road trips, selfies (of course)….. What are some of the things you like to Instagram?
If you follow us at all you probably know by now that we are huge foodies – we love to eat and we love to photograph food, so when the chance came to photograph some sweet and yummy onions we thought it would be very a-peel-ing….. 🙂
Oso Sweet Onions are incredible! We were familiar with them already since they are sold down the hall at Hiller’s Markets, our neighbor. They have about a third higher sugar content than other sweet onion varieties and they don’t release fumes when you cut them so they are virtually tearless! So yummy… They were great models too – very photogenic and easy to work with (haha). Take a look!
Oso Sweet Onions are ready for their close up!
We learn a lot when we photograph products and we enjoy that part of the business. You may recognize these bins or the Oso Sweet Onion logo at the grocery store… grab them and then go back to the Oso Sweet Onions website for recipes and more information, and then the world can be your onion!
Meanwhile, the Food Channel we’re not but we took some onions home from the shoot and cooked them up…. What’s your favorite way to enjoy onions?
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!
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!
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!
We have been photographing this little superstar since he was born and he’s pretty scrumptious. You can actually see he’s yummy below because his mommy was eating him up and left kisses all over him!!! So this photo will serve as our Happy Valentine’s Day wish to you starring one of our favorite little Frameables!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
As a bonus you’ll see why we’ve referred to him as the “baby for all seasons” because he came to the studio in October and transformed into a tasty little chunky pumpkin, and yes this was a real pumpkin! It was chilly in there but he didn’t complain – he totally rocked that shoot and as you can imagine we had a ton of fun with both of these shoots. Each session attracted a crowd of smiling people outside the studio – how could you look at these and not smile? 🙂
Happy Halloween!
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!
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!
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!
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….!
Sometimes photo restoration can be just as rewarding as creating a new photo. Mike is a client who brought in an incredible photo that was damaged, creased and tattered to see if we could fix it. You can see the results below and after learning that this was what Mike called home while serving our country in Vietnam we can only imagine what this photo means to him. Actually I’m sure that most of us cannot imagine it, but you can feel that you are looking at an important piece of history – personal and national – when you see it. To be able to restore this image to such a pristine state is a very rewarding thing and Mike was gracious enough to allow us to share it on our blog. The next time you get annoyed about your living conditions – you wish your kitchen was a little bigger or you can’t stand the draft along the floor in your bedroom, think about what the soldier deals with while he/she is out there defending our country.
Before restoration
After restoration
We asked Mike a couple of questions about the photo and here is what he had to say:
Frameable Faces: So Mike, tell us what is in this photo?
Mike: This is a picture of what I called home for some time when I was serving in Vietnam. I prefer not to talk too much about my time over there, but the photo definitely means a lot to me.
Frameable Faces: Can you tell us more about the photo? Did you take the photo yourself and did you have it developed once you returned home?
Mike: I took the photo myself with a throwaway camera. I wasn’t going to take an expensive camera over there and my mom actually sent over a disposable camera for me to use. I had to just keep the camera on me since there was obviously nowhere to get it developed where I was. I brought it back to the U.S. when I returned in 1967 and that’s when I got it developed.
Frameable Faces: Well we are glad we were able to restore it for you and we hope you are happy with the way it turned out. Thank you so much for sharing and for your service!
Mike: You are welcome and I couldn’t be happier – this photo deserved to be restored and I’m putting it in a frame so I can display it properly. You guys did a perfect job on this!
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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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