Kylie Killed It On Her Senior Session – Not Even Kinda Kidding

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Kylie killed it on her senior session.  What does that mean exactly?  It means she owned it, slayed it, rocked it, kicked major butt, looked amazing, had fun – you know, all of that stuff.  It wasn’t the first time Kylie had been in front of Ally’s camera since she used to come here to the studio for dance photos, but this was completely different.  We planned this session out with an epic sprawl of locations, technique, timing, style and general awesomeness.  Kylie’s mom Kelly joined us and we had a great time – we’ve been excited to show these!

First In The Studio…

We started out in the studio where we worked with our signature “black and blowy” setup which we love – sometimes black clothes against the black backdrop looks so cool when you know how to light it, and Kylie looks beautiful here…

Kylie Killed

Stunning!

Before we head out to the location photos let’s take a look at some of the behind the scenes fun from our day shall we?  First we have our 6 second looping Vine:

Next we have the replay of our live Periscope / Twitter broadcasts for a more extended view of the session!  If you haven’t downloaded the Periscope app or followed us on Twitter you can do that here and here.

First we have the studio broadcast…

And next the beach broadcast – really more of our walk to the beach – we’ll get to those photos in a sec…

Kylie Killed It…

So as you can tell the session got off to a good start in the studio and the location photos followed suit!  First we headed over to Birmingham to get a few photos in the city like this one:

Kylie Killed

Then to finish up we headed over to Dodge Park at Cass Lake to get a couple photos at the beach and with the water in the background – these are fabulous and this was Kylie’s idea!

Kylie Killed

We’ll leave you with this one with a pretty sailboat that came right into the frame – very cool!

Kylie Killed

So yeah Kylie killed it as you can see, and we are thrilled with the results!  We hope you enjoyed the highlights of our day with her!

Mad About Marie And Her Wonderful Senior Session!

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We’ve been mad about Marie for a long time now.  From the time she joined her older twin sisters on their session for a few photos a couple years ago to her spokesmodel session earlier this year and now culminating with her own senior session in Birmingham, we’ve been fans from day one!  We planned a total city photo shoot in Birmingham with her and she really nailed it – not that we were surprised.  She’s a real pro and so yeah, we’re mad about Marie!!!

Session in the City

We started at the top (of a parking structure) and worked our way down, and we had great conditions even getting a few well timed breezes before the storms came in.  We’ll start on the parking structure here:

Mad About Marie

Love the little hair lift from the breeze!

At this point we headed over to Quarton Lake because we liked the light we had and we knew a storm might roll on in…  It was a good move – this photo is perfect!

Mad About Marie

Let’s pause here for a minute for some behind the scenes action from the shoot shall we?  First we have our 6 second vine for your looping pleasure…

Next we have the replay of the live Periscope broadcast from the session.  If you haven’t downloaded Periscope yet and / or watched our channel on twitter you can do so on Periscope here or on Twitter here.

Fun right?  Okay let’s get back to a couple more photos…

Mad About Marie

At this point we headed back to downtown Birmingham to get our last set of shots – here we have a pop of color with some beautiful flowers to complement our girl…

Mad About Marie

Beautiful!!!

We heard some thunder and the skies were looking ominous as we captured this last photo that we’ll leave you with.  Marie is a pro – you’d never know we were rushing to finish before the storm hit!

Mad About Marie

And there you have it!  You can see why we are mad about Marie and we hope you enjoyed the highlights from our day!

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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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Facebook: http://facebook.com/frameablefaces
Twitter: https://twitter.com/frameablefaces
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Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/frameablefaces
***************************************­*******
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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Join the Frameable Faces Community – sign up for our email newsletter for the best of the week in the Frameable Faces World!  Click here!

This Bold Business of Being Brandon Has Its Benefits!

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The bold business of being Brandon ain’t so bad.  It’s actually a pretty good gig – goes to a great school and plays in the marching band there, great parents, a brother, a dog….  and he’s a good dude!  On top of all that he was totally psyched for some photography fun for his senior pictures.  He was totally prepared which is a great way to be.  He dropped off some things at the studio the day before (he has the advantage of being a West Bloomfield Laker and he lives close by) and we had a great game plan.  We started on location in Birmingham with an earlier start than originally planned based on the weather forecast since we needed to beat some rain… so we’ll start there.

Bold Business

Our first spot was on the industrial side of town – bold and edgy!  Brandon’s mom Suzanne came along too and she is a delight!  She was helpful as Brandon’s assistant too – see?  Benefits!  Hehe…

Bold Business

Good look on that kid!  Love the grungy spot.

Next we turned to a bit of a more upscale scene – love the scope of this photo – Brandon in the city!

 

Bold BusinessAt this point we started to feel raindrops, so our timing was perfect – just as we were wrapping up in Birmingham…  At this point it was time to head back to the studio, but before we do that let’s take a look at a little behind the scenes action from the day.  First we have our Vine for your 6 second looping pleasure:

Next we have the extended replays of the live Periscope broadcasts from the session!  You can follow our broadcasts live on Periscope at this link or on Twitter as well!  First the location broadcast:

And now back in the studio…

Being Brandon

So here are a couple of great photos from the studio – first with a casual look reppin’ the WBHS!

Bold Business

And last but not least, the formal shot… all GQ like…

Bold Business

And there you have it!  Bold business indeed being Brandon, and it ain’t so bad!  We hope you enjoyed these highlights from our day!

**********************************************
Frameable Faces Photography
**********************************************
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!
************************************************
Ally & Doug can be reached at the studio at tel:248-790-7317 or emailed at mailto:info@frameablefaces.com
************************************************
Snapchat: http://snapchat.com/add/frameablefaces
Facebook: http://facebook.com/frameablefaces
Twitter: https://twitter.com/frameablefaces
YouTube: https://youtube.com/frameablefaces
Instagram: https://instagram.com/frameablefaces
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/frameablefaces
***************************************­*******
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?
**********************************************
Join the Frameable Faces Community – sign up for our email newsletter for the best of the week in the Frameable Faces World!  Click here!

 

 

MacKenzie Brings Mad Magnificence To Her Senior Photos!

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We’ve known MacKenzie for quite a while now, and I’ve known MacKenzie’s dad for about 40 years… Crazy!  So having MacKenzie here was a little surreal and a lot awesome.  She has amazing red hair as you’ll see in a minute and she definitely brought mad magnificence to her session!  🙂

Family Affair

Now the whole family didn’t come but both parents Glenn and Jennifer did and we had a blast.  It’s rare that both parents are available to make it to the session and we had great weather as well so everything was working out in our favor – the conditions were right and MacKenzie brought the magnificence – let’s take a look starting with one in the studio from one of our new backdrops this year from Peek A Bootique:

Mad Magnificence

What a beauty!

At this point we’ll head outside for some location shots but before we do let’s take a look at some of our behind the scenes fun from the day!  First with our little 6 second Vine for your looping pleasure:

Next we have the newly-embeddable (for you tech geeks) replays of our Periscope broadcasts directly from Twitter!  If you haven’t followed us there yet you can do so either on the Periscope app at @frameablefaces where you can join in with comments in the app, or you can watch right on Twitter!  First with the broadcast from the studio:

And then the location broadcast!

Now let’s get back to the photos!  We covered a lot of ground on this day!

Mad Magnificence

First we spent some time at Heritage Park where we grabbed this photo on one of our favorite little foot bridges there:

Mad Magnificence

Love the lighting on her hair in that one…

Next we headed up to Quarton Lake in Birmingham to finish it out where we captured these two winners with our heroine…   🙂

Mad Magnificence

And this last one….

Mad Magnificence

And there you have it!  Mad magnificence from MacKenzie indeed!!!  We hope you enjoyed the highlights of our day with her!

**********************************************
Frameable Faces Photography
**********************************************
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!
************************************************
Ally & Doug can be reached at the studio at tel:248-790-7317 or emailed at mailto:info@frameablefaces.com
************************************************
Snapchat: http://snapchat.com/add/frameablefaces
Facebook: http://facebook.com/frameablefaces
Twitter: https://twitter.com/frameablefaces
YouTube: https://youtube.com/frameablefaces
Instagram: https://instagram.com/frameablefaces
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/frameablefaces
***************************************­*******
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?
**********************************************
Join the Frameable Faces Community – sign up for our email newsletter for the best of the week in the Frameable Faces World!  Click here!

Sal Was Smashing On His Birthday! It’s How He Looked And What He Did!

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Sal is a smashing young lad to be sure.  We were excited to get this call since we have photographed many members of Sal’s family before including his two older siblings, but this was our first time photographing Sal.  And….we got to do it ON his first birthday!  What an honor to be able to spend some time with someone on their very first birthday!!!  That’s about as good as it gets.  We photograph plenty of first birthday sessions but they aren’t always on the day of their birthday so this was very cool.  Oh – and yes there is a cake smash – an epic one at that which we’ll save until the end…  🙂

Sal Looked Smashing…

We started on location and Sal arrived displaying a real sense of fashion!  The kid looked fantastic!  Haha…  We went to one of our favorite spots and started on the bridge and Sal turned it on immediately!  Check him out:

Smashing

How awesome is he?  And the vest rocks.

It was hot out but Sal was a champ and we got a few more photos before we headed back to the studio to cool down…  Here’s one more…

Smashing

Before we head back to the studio let’s take a look at our behind the scenes action shall we?  First we have our fun 6 second vine for your looping pleasure:

Now we have our extended replays of our live Periscope broadcasts from the day on our YouTube channel which are a ton of fun – and here is where you’ll see the real smashing come into play!!!  Lol…

Sal Was Smashing…

Now it was time for the real smashing – a cake smash!!!!  But before we let Sal “take the cake” we had to get a couple of him just being his awesome self – like this one:

Smashing

And now for the smash!  I think he enjoyed this….

Smashing

And there you have it!  A smashing session indeed!  We hope you enjoyed these highlights of our day with Sal!

A Is For Abby And The “A” Game She Brought To Her Senior Session!

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A is for awesome, astounding, admirable, amazing and it’s also for Abby and the A game she brought to her senior session which had a little of all of those aforementioned and appropriate words when describing the results.  Haha – see what I did there?  The whole relationship started off in hilarious fashion when Abby and her mom Sharon walked into the studio for the first time and busted us doing our zany “Sir Doug & Lady Ally” Periscope act and it turns out they just fit right in!  Both of them are cute funny and snarky and we had an amazing time together on Abby’s session!

Hi Abby…

So let’s say hello to our beautiful senior….  We started out in the studio and we’ll highlight one photo on the brown background:

"A" Game

“A” also stands for adorable….  🙂

Before we head out to the location photos let’s take a look at the behind the scenes action from our day as we like to do.  First we have our vine for your 6 second looping pleasure and I really love this snippet since it captures much of the story with Abby’s sweet personality!

Next we have the extended replays of the live Periscope broadcasts from our YouTube channel we did which are plenty of fun!  You can download the app and follow us on Periscope at @FrameableFaces at this link.

Abby Brings Her “A” Game!

Keep in mind that Abby is a North Farmington Raider (just like us) and we only expect greatness from Raiders so we weren’t surprised at what a pro she was…  She killed it – take a look:

"A" Game

Fantastic…

Our conditions were perfect for this shoot – a little hot maybe but not unbearable.  And we had some nice breezes here and there out on the dock for the series that produced this winner…

"A" Game

We’ll leave you with this last one in front of the Quarton Lake waterfall in Birmingham which serves as a nice background…

"A" Game

Beautiful!!!  And there it is – Abby’s “A” game and an amazing session.  We hope you enjoyed the highlights of our day with her!

Ryan Leads The Way For The Guys For The Class Of 2017!

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Ryan’s session is the first official senior guy session for the class of 2017 and he definitely led the way in style!  We have known Ryan for a long time but not well – one of those things where we’ve known his family and more specifically his mom Jodie going back to high school days.  We photographed him before when we did family photos for them, but this was the first time we really hung out with Ryan for an extended time and we really had a lot of fun with him!

Focused dude…

One of the things that impressed us about Ryan (and you’ll see this if you watch the Periscope replay) is when asked by a couple of viewers of our live broadcast what subject he likes the most and what he wants to study he didn’t hesitate – just matter of factly answered “Econ” and “Business”.  I didn’t really have a clue at that age, so kudos to Ryan!  As for the session, he came solo and had two different dress shirts for the formal shots to go with the casual stuff.  Totally prepared – clean cut and ready to rock (not just with the photos but the kid likes classic rock too – which instantly makes him cool).  So let’s get ready to rock here, starting with our studio photos…

We started with the formal look with the grey fabric backdrop – this is a combo we like a lot!

Ryan Leads

GQ!  What a stud.

Next we moved to a little bit more of a casual look with a sweater for this one…

Ryan Leads

Looking good with the black background!

Before we head to the location photos let’s look at the behind the scenes action shall we?  First with our fun 6 second looping Vine where Ally is having a little fun with Ryan – haha!

Even his Snapchat story was pretty epic which you can check out on Slinger at this link!

Next we have the replay of our live Periscope broadcasts from our YouTube channel for your extended viewing pleasure!  Download Periscope and follow us at @FrameableFaces and/or watch the broadcasts on Twitter!

Ryan Leads Us…To The Location!

Heritage Park is a great location for outdoor sessions and we got some great stuff with Ryan.  This was a later session where we planned to get some off camera flash going and the results are fantastic…

First we have a nice close up with the barn in the background…

Ryan Leads

And lastly an off camera flash photo…

Ryan Leads

Cool!

And there you have it – Ryan leads the way for the guys and we are really off and running with this senior class!  We hope you enjoyed the highlights of our time with Ryan!

Senior In The City – Taking On Chicago With Taria!

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Where do we begin with Taria and her EPIC senior session in the city – the city of Chicago that is!!!  Okay let’s start with Periscope – impossible not to start there…

We met Taria’s mom LaTannya on Periscope about a year ago and loved her right away.  She’s hilarious and we started hanging out in each other’s broadcasts which led to a visit to our studio when she was in Detroit with her sweetheart of a daughter Taria!  That night a random person in the mall popped into the studio with a British accent which is a whole other backstory in itself (which some of our Periscope peeps will be familiar with) and without going into too much detail let’s just say all heck broke loose!  Here’s a snippet from Vine…

You can see Ally, LaTannya and Taria all dancing with the friend we made that night!

Flash forward to this year and LaTannya had been saying that she wanted us to take Taria’s senior pictures which we were so excited for!  The original plan was for them to come to Detroit, but we received an invitation to speak at Podcast Movement 2016 about Live Video in Chicago so we thought how cool would it be to do the location part in Chicago while we’re there?  The invitation to speak at PM16 didn’t come with a ton of advance notice so we got on a Skype together to plan the whole thing out, and we made it happen!

A Taste of Traffic, Weather, & General Madness…

This was a session that had a little of everything in the way of obstacles and challenges – a ton of traffic for LaTannya and Taria coming downtown, A Taste Of Chicago going on in the area we were shooting, storms hovering in and around Chicago, protests, blistering heat, and a couple of creepy dudes.  And yet, teamwork prevailed and we kicked some butt, Taria was a superstar and the session turned out amazingly!  And we made another friend which we’ll get to later, but in the meantime let’s get into the photos!

We started at Grant Park and this was the part of the session we broadcasted live on Periscope.  That alone was a surreal experience since we met on Periscope and it wasn’t lost on us that an app brought us together in such a wonderful way!  We’ll start with this smiling close up of Taria:

Taria

What a beauty!

At this point the rain started to come down and we took shelter for the delay…  Before we get back to the rest of the photos let’s take a look at the behind the scenes action from the day – first with our fun Vine for your 6 second looping pleasure:

Next we have the replays of the live Periscope broadcasts from the day from our YouTube channel.  The second part includes the hilarious Uber ride to the Adler Planetarium for our night time skyline shots.  Denise the Uber driver was amazing and once again it turns out that making friends seems to be a theme when we get together….lol.

Once the rain let up we headed into the Taste Of Chicago for an idea we had for Taria posing with a bunch of people around in the background.  We got a few great photos but it was amusing to see people walking in front of Ally oblivious to the fact that a photo shoot was going on – not that it was their fault at all – we were the ones who picked a crowded event to just plop down and start taking photos.  Meanwhile we got some great results including this one:

Taria

We did have a chuckle at one point when LaTannya took matters into her own hands and decided to “direct” traffic a little…. here’s a shot of that scene that didn’t quite make it into the proofs…  Haha!!!

Taria

…and that’s why we LOVE LaTannya.

At this point we headed back over to Michigan Avenue where there are some great old buildings with some great textures for another series of photos in another outfit.  Here’s one of those:

Taria

Love it.  Taria was really feeling it at this point – such confidence!

Taria In The City…

And here is the coup de grace…  After a break for dinner and some deep dish Chicago pizza we had our awesome Uber driver Denise take us out to the Adler Planetarium as you saw in the video for the best night time vantage point of the skyline for some off-camera flash photos.  Denise waited for us while we hopped out to set up the shot, and this was no easy task.  This is where I personally marvel at Ally’s ability under pressure to change camera settings, position off camera lighting, bump the flash power up or down and even position LaTannya with the hand held Ice Light to get the proper lighting and focus.  Here is one of the results….

Taria

 

And there you have it!  This may actually be “part 1” here on the blog, because there may still be some follow up studio photos here at Frameable Faces with Taria in the near future.  Until then…. we hope you enjoyed the highlights of Taria’s session!

Mikaela Leads The Way For The Class of ’17 In More Ways Than One!

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There is always something special about our first official senior photo session of a new class – we love photographing seniors and the first session signals so many things for us – new friendships, a new summer, and tons of fun!  Mikaela was no exception on all three fronts – great girl (and great mom Jill), great summer day, and lots of fun!

A Session of Firsts…

Not only was the session fun but it represented some true firsts for us.  Not only the first senior of the season, but our first session on the ice, and our first time photographing in Royal Oak!  But before we get to the ice and the outdoor fun let’s start in the studio briefly where we began the session:

Mikaela

Stunningly beautiful on the black background!

Mikaela Leads The Way…

Before we head out to the location sneak peeks let’s take a look at some of our fun behind the scenes action!  First our 6 second vine for your looping pleasure!

Next we have the three part replay from our live Periscope broadcasts from the day.  Mild disclaimer here – the second snippet when we are on the ice starts with me shaking my head… I didn’t start the broadcast that way but for some reason a piece of it was missing on the replay…  Haha – ahhh technology!  If you haven’t followed us yet on Periscope you can download the app and follow us at @frameablefaces at this link.  Enjoy!

For now you can watch the replay on the YouTube channel HERE.

Okay now back to more awesome photos…

First we have a close up against a natural backdrop – like I said we had a perfect day!

Mikaela

….and a perfect model.

Next we have a photo from the ice.  This was a fun challenge – ice is actually kinda slippery you know….  It was a little treacherous – I was out there with the off camera flash and Ally – well let’s say she’s been known to wipe out once or twice in her day…  Okay so have I….  But we pulled it off and got some great results including this one:

Mikaela

Last but not least we have one more photo up close and personal with our wonderful first senior with a little city texture:

Mikaela

Those eyes!!!  And there it is – we hope you enjoyed the highlights of our epic day with Mikaela – a fantastic way to kick off the new class!

Doug’s Rant: Twitter Stickers, Photos on Social, Apps Chase Apps

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Yes it’s been a while since I’ve posted a rant!  Let’s do this….

Twitter Stickers

Twitter Stickers

You may have seen Twitter’s recent announcement about the new “stickers” feature which allows you to add emojis and other things to your photos.  Fortune points out the obvious play on Twitter’s part to keep up with Snapchat with a headline that gives the new feature a positive spin.  Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal is completely and inexplicably oblivious to the chasing of snapchat with a slightly-less-than-flattering headline about Twitter….  Note in particular the second paragraph in the WSJ article about the other “communication” apps with stickers.  C’mon….  Really?  ZERO mention of Snapchat there?  That’s amazing.  I’m not totally sure how I feel about stickers yet since I haven’t used them but I have plenty of thoughts and you can look at this from a few different perspectives which we’ll get to.

A Couple Thoughts On Social Photography…

Meanwhile as photographers the ongoing debate of whether iPhone pics and the ease of entry is “ruining” the industry is an interesting one to us.  This article on Popular Photography while not overtly addressing the big picture in that regard seems to come from that mindset, claiming that using Twitter stickers is a way to “completely ruin your photos”.  I always find these types of opinions a little troubling.  We’ve always embraced the idea that the more people appreciate everyday photography the more they will appreciate professional photography.  We’ve always looked at Snapchat and Instagram as opportunities to have fun just like everyone else and we actually use them to highlight aspects of what we do at Frameable Faces.  To call attention to stickers being a way to ruin pictures is silly to me.  If you take a picture you don’t want to ruin with a sticker, then DON’T ADD A STICKER…… duh.  Right?  Maybe the fun you can have with stickers can help you build community to draw people in to see the stuff that is meant to stand on its own without the stickers.  We actually covered this topic today on our photography show “The Photo Shop” on @ParachuteTV1 on Periscope if you’re interested in taking a look.

Social Media Apps chasing Other Social Media Apps…

So while the photography studio owner in me doesn’t have a problem with stickers, the social media guy in me might.  Here’s what bugs me a little about them – keep in mind that I have not used them yet.  This is an overall statement about social media platforms that I think applies here, even though I may be admitting soon that stickers are the greatest thing to happen to twitter (although I doubt it).  I have no problem admitting when I’m wrong…

Here’s my issue.  Each time a unique social media platform adds a feature to chase and become like another platform, it blurs the lines between platforms that make them cool.  I like the different uses for each platform.  I like the different etiquette and the different cultures of the different apps.  Here are three other examples I thought were somewhere between silly and annoying when they rolled out and still do:

  • Facebook hashtags  Good try Facebook but you are NOT twitter.  Hashtags totally flopped on Facebook – they just really don’t belong there in my opinion.
  • Instagram video  I believe Instagram did this as a reaction to Vine at the time.  I can’t stand videos on Instagram.  There was nothing “insta” about pausing while scrolling though the pics in the feed to watch a 15 second video and now the videos can be up to 60 seconds – good grief.   I know not everyone agrees with me on this but it is my rant…
  • Periscope sketch  Rolling out the ability to sketch on the screen while you’re broadcasting was, well…sketchy.  I can only conclude that this was a way to chase Snapchat (?) even though the two are completely apples and oranges.  Sonia Figueroa is the only scoper I’ve seen who consistently makes me smile when she draws hearts on the screen to “give them back” to her viewers (she’s one of my faves), but at a time when everyone was waiting for other more practical features this was a bit of an annoyance.

So there it is…  had to do it.  Thoughts?  Are you using Twitter stickers?  Can you think of other app fails from apps chasing apps?  Please comment, share your thoughts, and share this post!