Tag Archives: photography

Such A Cute Smiley Shmushy Boy!

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Such a cute smiley shmushy boy was here with his parents recently!  That’s really the only way I can describe him.  Okay I guess you could use sweet and squishy too – any way you put it he was awesome and his parents were really nice too.  We had a lot of fun – lots of laughing and lots of Spanish too!  Ally just wanted to eat him right up.

Smiley Shmushy Boy

See what I mean?  Love this kid!  You can really get a feel for someone’s personality even at this young of an age – he is just a good natured smiley happy little boy, and why shouldn’t he be?  That’s how his parents are.  Peek-a-boo games are fun with the little ones to get them going sometimes and this session was no different with calls of “Donde esta Leo?” from his mom!  If you follow this blog you know I often like to include behind the scenes vines from the session.  This session was notable for producing one of my all time favorites!  Leo was totally in motion while his mom was holding him, and then it was like the little man was completely entranced when he saw that he was on camera – look:

Siblings Bubbles and Flowers!

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Siblings bubbles and flowers can’t possibly be anything but pure wonderful right?  Right!  You may remember a post from back in December where we presented a family that was growing “right before our eyes” with maternity photos followed by the beautiful new little baby with her family?  Well they are back and a lot can happen in 6 months…  🙂

Siblings Bubbles and Flowers

Yes indeed babies bloom!  We love our little 6 month flower pot babies.  This little one was one of the easiest newborns to photograph we ever had and she was a joy again this time around!  Six months is a great milestone and we especially love it when the six month old brings an older sibling back with her!  Big brother did such an awesome job in this session!  Mom and Dad were not sure he would be totally into sitting in the right spot and posing for the pictures together with his sister but he totally rocked it.  It did not hurt that this little guy has an affinity for bubbles, and the parents were prepared.  Take a look at this little behind the scenes vine of the fun and check out her face while you do!  Priceless.

A Family Session With Four At Five And Under!

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A family session with four at five and under can pose a challenge on paper no doubt, and Ally loves a challenge!  Of course we do a lot of planning and take plenty of time to make sure we get the photos we need, and when the kids are well behaved and cooperative that certainly helps.  There is a fine line however – “well-behaved” at a young age can mean “not allowed to be kids and have fun” if you’re not careful, and we do want to capture their personalities.  This particular crew struck the perfect balance – they had plenty of fun, but they also listened and stood where we needed when we needed and we were able to get great results!

Four At Five And Under

Such a fun family!  We would be remiss if we did not mention that we have met Rabbi Yarden before since our daughter has volunteered at Friendship Circle for some time now – an outstanding organization that is doing phenomenal things around the globe.  If you are not familiar with Friendship Circle I encourage you to take a look at the important work they are doing for people with special needs.  He and his wife Bayla are both on staff there so it was nice to have them and their family here.  This vine should give you a little behind the scenes flavor of how this session went…

A Mom and Two Daughters Together Is A Work Of Art!

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A mom and two daughters together is a work of art without a doubt!  We would love to see more sessions just like this one with a mother and grown daughters.  Having them together is very special especially if they are not living in the same city and so are the results!

A Mom and Two Daughters

Meanwhile I’ll apologize if this is cheesy (and she doesn’t know I’m putting this in this blog post) but Amy is the mom and I want to give her a plug.  Part of the reason I worked “art” into the theme here is her business is Artworks by Amy and we love our very own “Frameable Faces Artworks” she made for us which we display here in the studio.  Our business card holder that greets you when you enter the studio and our outgoing mail holder were both made by Amy.  She does fantastic work on all kinds of items.  Here is the vine we posted when we first got ours… as you can see Ally was pretty happy!

Relay For Life West Bloomfield 2014 – Team Frameable Faces!

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Relay For Life West Bloomfield 2014 was another successful and meaningful day for Team Frameable Faces!  This year we set out with a goal of raising at least $1500 to fight cancer and we are happy to say we reached our goal!

Relay For Life West Bloomfield 2014

Photo by Hala Eliya Photography

Our friend and member of our team Kelly Taylor who manages the Orchard Mall joined our family for the team lap at the beginning of the day in the photo above.

This year’s theme for Relay was “Relaywood” and every team had a movie theme.  If you follow our blog you may know based on this post we are big fans of Pulp Fiction so that’s what we chose.  Our tag line was “Cancer’s Dead, Baby.  Cancer’s Dead” (as opposed to Zed).  We had Marsellus Wallace’s briefcase at our tent which may or may not have contained the cure for cancer.  It’s still a mystery what’s in that briefcase…  We were also joined by Saundra Hood who generously donated her time for massages at a dollar per minute.  In the film a gangster who went by “Tony Rocky Horror” was tossed over a 4th floor balcony for allegedly giving Mia Wallace a foot massage so we stayed away from foot massages just to be careful – haha!  We also may not have had any Big Kahuna Burgers or 5 dollar shakes but we did have a Jack Rabbit Slim’s dance contest – here is a vine of our winners – the Freedlands!

The Cutest Expectant Couple Ever!

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The cutest expectant couple ever came to our studio for a maternity photo session and we loved having them here!  Tetyana and Cergiy are having a boy and they are so excited. We were happy to be included in such a special time in their lives and to take some fun photographs.  Allow us to share some wonderful sneak peeks from their session!

cutest expectant couple

Tetyana had some really fun ideas when we met for the consultation including a couple we had not done before.  One of them was the idea of painting Cergiy’s hands blue and creating hand prints around the growing baby in the womb.  It wasn’t even really that messy!  We made a fun behind the scenes vine of this.  Take a look!

Persistence Paid Off With This Happy Family!

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Yes persistence paid off with this happy family!  Sometimes life, scheduling and various circumstances can get in the way of a scheduled photo session.  What are you going to do?  Sometimes it happens and that is just the way it goes!  This fun family was supposed to come to the studio once before but it didn’t end up working out.  We stayed in touch and ended up getting it rescheduled.   Then, the day before the session a minor sports injury occurred which threatened to “leave a mark” on one of the boys the day before the shoot!  Could the session be foiled again?

persistence paid off

Well as you can see by the fun family photo above the little guy shook it off and we were able to do the session without even resorting to any injury retouching!  I am not even going to tell you which brother it was!  Nothing to see here people!  Nothing to see that is other than just great pictures!  We hope you enjoy these sneak peeks.  Next we have a couple of individual shots of these handsome young men.  We like the way these look in black and white of both little brother and big brother:

persistence paid off

persistence paid off

Next we have a fun behind the scenes vine and as you can see we worked with several cute poses!

5 Reasons You Are Not Photogenic

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Photogenic

Photogenic is defined as “suitable for being photographed: likely to photograph well”.  It seems about half of the people who come to Frameable Faces warn us that we are going to have a tough time with their session because they are NOT photogenic.  Usually we just tell them we can’t help because we just don’t want the burden of trying to make such bad looking people look good.  It’s probably hopeless right?  WRONG!!!!!!!

Photogenic

Ally did NOT take this photo. I repeat – Ally did NOT take this photo… haha

Some people will go on and explain to us that “No – I’m serious.  I don’t photograph well at all.  I just don’t”.  If you are one of those people then in all seriousness there are likely some legitimate reasons you feel this way.  Here are 5 reasons you are not photogenic:

5 Reasons You Are Not Photogenic

  1. You are not pleased with the way you currently look.  Maybe you aren’t in the best shape of your life, or for whatever reason you aren’t thrilled with the way you look at the moment.  Hey no one is perfect, but you are the best and most unique version of you!  I wrote about this recently here.  Embrace and love yourself!  It’s okay!  If you indeed have not been taking good care of yourself then make that change and start now!  Meanwhile this is not the only reason you are “not photogenic”.
  2. You aren’t naturally comfortable in front of the camera.  Some people on a moment’s notice can just light up when someone is going to snap a photo.  They take more pictures, they practice more, they are prepared.  You are already convinced that you are not photogenic so you aren’t confident about being in a picture and you are not comfortable.  That does not mean there cannot be an environment created with proper planning where you will be comfortable.  There absolutely can be.
  3. You are being photographed by non-photographers.  This can impact a photo in a number of ways.  The person taking the photo may not have an eye for it and/or you may not connect with them.  Those two factors are really important for making a good photo – it doesn’t matter if it’s a ten thousand dollar camera without those two things.
  4. You typically are not lit (or posed) properly.  This is a continuation of the last point.  There is so much more than just knowing how to work a camera to produce a good photo.  Lighting (and posing for that matter) is a huge factor.  For example when we first opened the studio a photographer friend asked us why we had our main soft box set up on the side of our studio opposite our window.  He said that our main box was competing with the light coming in from the center court of the mall and impacting our lighting set up negatively.  He was right.  It wasn’t a difference I would have noticed but Ally sure noticed it after we made the change.  This is just one example of many factors that contribute to the composition of a photo that all combine to make you look better.  Real pros go to seminars and work with their peers – constantly honing their craft to improve all of their skills all the time.
  5. You typically are not prepared to look your absolute best when a random photo is snapped.  Maybe because of your line of work, your daily schedule or your hectic life in general you don’t have your best clothes on and your hair looking its best at all times.  If you are female your makeup also might not be done when someone says “C’mon!  Let me just get a quick picture!”

In short, not everyone is always at their perfect weight walking around 100% totally ready for their close up at a moment’s notice in perfect lighting with their favorite outfit on and hair perfectly styled to be taken by a random family member or friend with an iPhone who doesn’t know how to use the camera on it.

Here is the shamelessly self-serving part of this article – as you have probably figured out, these 5 reasons you are “not photogenic” can largely be addressed by going to a real professional whom you connect with.  I don’t just say this as an ad for Frameable Faces.  I mean it in general.  It applies to any professional who knows what they are doing.  Just don’t be hard on yourself if you haven’t always been pleased with how you look in photos.  It is not necessarily your fault!

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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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Hanging Out With Mitchell (and Teddy) – a Boy and His Dog!

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Hanging out with Mitchell (and Teddy) was really a great time!  It’s always fun when pets are included in a senior session and this was no exception.  Mitchell is a great guy – a personable and accomplished young man and his dog Teddy is not so bad either!  Let’s take a look…

We started off in the studio with a suit coat and dress shirt in front of the grey background.  We usually like at least one formal look like this one for the guys and Mitchell has a cool confidence that comes through in this photo.

Hanging Out With Mitchell

Then we headed out on location – in this case to Mitchell’s house where we met Teddy, Mitchell’s pup and Mitchell’s delightful mom hung out with us as well.  Teddy was pretty funny sprinting around in circles and generally having a blast of a time!  There were a few really nice textures and backgrounds for us to work with there and Mitchell did a great job.

Hanging Out With Mitchell

Hanging Out With Mitchell

Here is our fun behind the scenes vine of the session:

Maddy The Bat Mitzvah Model!

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We had so much fun with Maddy the Bat Mitzvah model recently!  This photo session was a collaboration with Guys N Gals here in the mall since Ms. Maddy’s dress was designed and special ordered from them.  We had to keep these photos under wraps until after the big event since these images were on display for all to see at her party, “Club Maddy”!

Bat Mitzvah Model

First Maddy went to Guys N Gals where she was able to try on various dresses for style and size…

Dress selection

Then she picked out the type and color of fabric she liked…

Color fabric swatches

And here is the fabulous result!!!  Beautiful!!!

Bat Mitzvah Model

A Bar or Bat Mitzvah is really such a special time for a young person and their family, and a professional photo shoot is a fun and unique way to mark the occasion!  The images are great for decorations at the party and they can be based on the theme for the party as well.  The photo session itself can also be a great gift!  Here are a couple more photos from Maddy’s awesome session!

Bat Mitzvah Model

Bat Mitzvah Model

While we are at it… I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention that we are now available to photograph your upcoming event!  In the past if we were asked if we photographed mitzvahs our answer was “not really…”.  For starters it was too difficult to work on weekend nights since we have kids of our own.  So now our event photographer Angela is available and has photographed several bar and bat mitzvahs for us and she has done a fantastic job just as we knew she would!  There will be more details and photos on this to come and in the meantime Angela is available so call us and you can come to the studio to meet her!