Tag Archives: Ally Cohen

Twin High School Spokesmodels Claire And Ethan!

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We have photographed several pairs of twins for high school senior pictures and every single time it has been memorable!  This is the first time we have had twins representing our studio as spokesmodels and we are so pleased to have Ethan and Claire on board.  What a couple of outstanding kids.  A twin session obviously takes longer than an individual, but it didn’t really feel like it – time flies when you are having fun!High School Senior Pictures

Their spokesmodel shoot had a little of everything including Maggie – their pup!  She was a well behaved doggy and she was ready for her closeup as you can see.High School Senior Pictures

As you will see in this fun vine below from the session we got a chuckle out of the fact that the standard dog emoji on the iPhone actually looks like Maggie too…

Capturing Family Portraits Before The Next Chapter!

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If it is known that an upcoming moment is going to be a potentially rare moment then it is the perfect reason to do family portraits.  A milestone birthday or anniversary celebration, a holiday where out-of-town family members will be traveling here for a visit for example are strong reasons to get everyone together for a professional photo session.  This session was special for this family because the oldest is now studying abroad and they wanted to get some family photos before he left the country since it is going to be a little while until they are all together again.

First we started with just a photo of the proud parents which really looks fantastic in black and white…

Family Portraits

Next we brought the whole family into the picture.  Shimmy is the oldest and we photographed him for his high school senior pictures – what a great kid – we really enjoyed our time with him and we were happy to have the chance to wish him well in his travels and studies (that is him below on the far left).  We were also excited to have the whole family here and have the chance to meet the other siblings!

Family Portraits

Here is the fun behind-the-scenes vine from the session!

Ally’s Niece Gets Her Turn In The Spotlight!

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Hi it’s Ally here!  It’s pretty rare that I write blog posts – I usually let Doug do that because I think he just does it better.  But this time, I had to take his job over.  Just for a bit…..

Child Portrait
See, this is my niece.  She is three and I affectionately call her my “demon baby.”  I don’t call her a demon because she is BAD per se, but because from the moment she was born, she has just been very strong willed and opinionated.  She just plain cracks me up.  Remember that poem, “There once was a little girl, who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead.”  Well, that’s my demon baby.  When she is good, she is very good (and crazy sweet!)  But when she is bad, she is horrid!!!  But she is the kind of “horrid” that makes you laugh!  She is so funny!!!
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This was just a mini impromptu photo session with her and I think she did pretty well!  Except that we did get into a little fight.  I wanted her to wear the pretty blue sparkly hat with the pink flower.  Or even the silver hat!  But NOOOO….she wanted to wear the simple beige hat.  I guess sometimes you just need to pick your battles.  And heaven forbid we put down the sucker for a minute!!!!  At least she is cute!!!!!
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And who knows!?  We have photos of her big brothers in the studio.  Maybe it is time for the demon baby to make her public Frameable Faces debut too on our wall somewhere!  It will be so hard for me to pick a favorite though.  There are just too many yummy delicious images to choose from!  So, Frameables, meet my most favorite, prettiest and sweetest “demon.”  Enjoy her deliciousness!!!!!
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Kicking Off Our ’15 Spokesmodel Sessions With Eden!

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We are so excited to present a few images from our first high school spokesmodel session of the class of 2015!  Every year we have a handful of students from the local high schools who represent our studio, and here is a flashback link to a video from the spokesmodel sessions of the current seniors of the class of 2014!  We have enjoyed the time we have spent with them and we love following their senior campaigns!

Kicking Off The New Class

So coming back to the present and now the future, this year’s team is shaping up to be another very special one.  Let’s kick it off this year much in the same fashion as we did last year – with a North Farmington Raider – Eden!  We started with the black background which is always one of our favorites…

High School Senior Pictures

We recently added a new backdrop and we wanted to experiment with it a little, so we moved to that one next.  You will likely see this one a few times over the next few weeks as we play a little with different clothing combinations and different seniors.  We like this one with the Earth tones – Eden wearing different browns against the mustard and the pops of blue.  She looks beautiful!

High School Senior Pictures

As a side note we took a little vine video of the shoot as well and we usually include them in these posts, but at the moment there is a glitch with twitter / vine where they aren’t working at the moment so for now we’ll have to settle for providing you with this link.  When it’s fixed we’ll update it…

UPDATE – new version of WordPress released today (1/24/14) so here is the vine!

Meanwhile this winter is proving to be brutal – bitter cold and tons of snow, so we anticipate more spokesmodel images like these next two photos over the next couple months if it keeps going like this.  The flip side of the cold and snow is that it makes for beautiful pictures!  We love these two of Eden!  So pretty!

High School Senior PicturesHigh School Senior Pictures

This was clearly a great start to the class of 2015 and we are in for an amazing year!  We can’t wait.

Pretty In Pink….and With Grandparents!

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More people should do this type of session!  It is just really nice for a couple to have photos done with their grandchildren, and for these two they were thrilled to be here with their first grandchild and to have a session with just the three of them together!
Photo Ideas for GrandparentsEveryone got dressed up in formal wear and had a blast – you can tell how happy they all are in these photos – the joy really comes through!Photo Ideas For Grandparents

Here is a fun behind-the-scenes vine of the session:

Finally our true little star of the show got her closeup – it’s important to accessorize…  🙂  Enjoy!

Photo Ideas For Grandparents

 

Old Friends, Fun Brothers, Fun Family!

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When old friends come in for a session from out of town it makes for a pretty special time. We get close to many of our clients who then become friends but there is something really great about having friends that you go way back with (like a couple of decades – we’re getting old) to college days here in the studio for photos.  Let’s start with a great family shot…

Family Portraits

…and a behind-the-scenes vine:

Jenny Is A Jewel!

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We love sessions where we get to try new props or setups and we were so happy to be able to do that with Jenny!  More on that later…  In the meantime this photo will give you an idea of why we love this girl and it should make you smile – how could it not?  So fun!!!

High School Senior Pictures

We definitely connected with Jenny and it shows – she is a real jewel to be sure!  We spent this session in the studio and it gave us great results, but as we say – we do great work when we have great seniors!  😉

High School Senior Pictures

Here’s a behind-the-scenes vine from the part of the session that ended up producing the photo above!

Next we moved to the brown backdrop…

High School Senior Pictures

…and then we finished with a new backdrop and set up which we love!!!  So pretty – we hope you enjoyed these sneak peeks from this session!

High School Senior Pictures

 

 

 

We Could See Nia’s Name In Neon!

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Wow.  Nia is such a soft spoken sweetheart of a girl, and when she got in front of Ally’s camera…..  well – movie star status comes to mind!!!  What a session!

High School Senior Portrait

When we stay in the studio exclusively for a senior session they are always a unique change of pace for us since we can really stretch out and take our time here.  We can try many different backdrops and wardrobe changes.

We started out casual with the white backdrop – we love this photo with the leather jacket…

High School Senior Portrait

Then Nia added a little more color against the grey backdrop – fantastic!

High School Senior Picture

As you’ll see in this vine we did some shots on the silver as well – just too many styles to cover all of them in this blog post!  We actually had a funny mix up on this vine when we tagged another girl with the same name and the confused girl commented “why did you tag me?”  Whoops!

Then we moved into more glamorous and dramatic territory with the white dress on the black backdrop – STUNNING!!!  Yeah, we could definitely see Nia on a marquee as a movie star – we could see Nia’s name in neon!

High School Senior Portrait

Doug’s Rant – Show Yourself! Embrace YOU! December 20, 2013

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Yep – time to rant.

You cannot be actively social on social media with NO pictures of yourself.  Your photo doesn’t have to be your profile picture, but if you send me a friend request and I’m not totally sure who you are and you have no pictures for me to see of you then why would I accept your request?  It’s like knocking on my door with a bag over your head.  I’m not going to judge how you look – you look fine – I just want to see who you are.  If you are comfortable enough to reach out then I will likely accept you especially if I know you.  But if you are not a friend offline – close enough for me to recognize you instantly by name – then you have to show yourself to be my friend.  I can’t be friends with a sunset or a landscape or you based on all the other people you have pictures of in your profile instead of you.  If you want to be on Facebook to connect with your close circle, remain private to everyone else and not be found by the public then you can choose to have no pictures of yourself and that’s fine – really.  I’m talking specifically here about people who send me a friend request and expect to be social online.

Embrace You

Embrace You!

Okay – got that off my chest.

Now let’s talk a little.  Listen I don’t know exactly why you are reluctant to put yourself out there.  We have clients who think they “photograph terribly” and “have never taken a good picture” and on and on and on…  I see both sides of the coin here.  On one hand the camera doesn’t completely lie in the sense that yes – that picture is you so it’s for the most part what you do indeed look like, but on the other hand there are plenty of factors that can contribute to a good picture.  I could go into all those factors that a professional photographer brings to the table (there is obviously a huge difference and maybe that is what you need for your profile picture), but instead I want to focus on YOU first.  This may sound cheesy (okay significantly cheesy) but the fact is that everyone is unique and beautiful.  It is as true as the Earth is round.  You are the only one of you – perfectly unique and the perfect version of you.  Sure maybe I look at a picture of myself once in a while and think “ugh” for a second but you just gotta let that go – it’s that simple.  If you can do that, if you can accept yourself, then you won’t “photograph terribly” regardless of whether you are in front of a friend’s iPhone or a pro’s Canon 5D and anything in between.  If you are scrambling to figure out what your resolution will be for 2014 then first resolve right now to forgive yourself of any of your self-perceived flaws and shine!  Embrace you!  You absolutely deserve it.

An A-MAIZE-ing Family Session!

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We love themed sessions!  Donning gear of your favorite alma mater is a popular way to go and it was not the first time a family wore the Maize and Blue in our studio.  It was fitting since it was the day before THE GAME against Ohio!  The Wolverines may have come up just short in an epic edition of the rivalry this year, but this session was still definitely a winner!

We had all three family units here – Grandparents along with their kids and grandchildren in town from two different cities out of state.  We snuck a couple shots of one pair of siblings in cute casual clothes first and here is one of them…

Sibling photo

Then it was time to break out the maize and blue!  Here’s a great photo of the proud grandparents with all of their grandchildren around them.  We had The Victors blasting here in the studio – HAIL!!!

Grandparents with their grandchildren

Here is a fun behind-the-scenes vine of the making of the photo above!  🙂

The second group of siblings were up next with their Michigan gear:

Siblings Photo

Then it was time to get each group of siblings with their parents into the mix.  A great time for all and we all felt like “Leaders and Best” on this day!

Family PhotoFamily Photo