Tag Archives: Ally Cohen

This is a post about life, work, kids, balance…

What Would You Do With More Free Time?

Our kids are at camp for a total of 3 1/2 weeks and they have two more weeks there before they come home. When we tell people this they say “Wow!”, “Party Time for you two!”, “It’s like a vacation!”, “Are you going anywhere?”, and “What are you going to do?”

Yes it’s like a vacation in a sense even though we are not taking any trips. When the kids are at camp it means more free time – you don’t have to drive them anywhere or pick them up. You can’t spend time with them because they’re away. We don’t have to worry about planning or making meals for them. So yes we have free time but that hardly means we are kicking back and laying by the pool for a month… Here are some of the things we are doing while our children are away:

We are missing them
We are enjoying the time alone
We are launching a canvas business for other studios with the local folks who have printed our canvas for our clients for the past 4 years and we’ve used some of the time by working hard on this. We are excited about it and there will be more to come on this topic! If you are a professional photographer please give us a try. The quality is top notch as our clients know.
We are meandering and browsing at the library and the bookstore – and we are taking our time when we do
We are going out with friends
We are staying in and reading books, watching movies, sleeping in occasionally
We are meeting with a bunch of seniors and scheduling senior sessions – can’t wait for the class of 2014 – new senior frameables will be gracing this blog soon!
We are strolling around Royal Oak and Birmingham
We are spreading the word about our leap into events with our second photographer Angela Bell
We are working hard
We are loving work
Ally is working on the photography lessons she is offering
We planned a little impromptu 25th high school reunion for Doug’s graduating class
We are taking stock – of lots of things
We are going to Eastern Market and Ann Arbor
We’ve had a drink or two
We are exercising
….and we are missing our kids.

What would you do with some extra free time?

Relay For Life West Bloomfield 2013 – Team Frameable Faces!

July 2, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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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!

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

“Perfect” Children!

May 16, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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Let me explain…. We have photographed plenty of little ones. Newborns, toddlers, kids – and we love all of our little Frameables. Often when we tell parents that our sessions are two hours they react by saying “there is no way my child will sit and pose for two hours”, and we reply saying “that’s why we need two hours!” Sometimes toddlers need a little time to get comfortable, and for newborns in particular we block off 3 hours and try not to schedule anything right after just in case we need more time. With newborns very often there are feedings that need to happen, diapers that need to be changed, and sometimes we need to wait it out while baby falls asleep so we can take photos while they are sleeping. It’s not a perfect step by step choreography, but that’s okay – it doesn’t have to be. We almost always get what we need even if the good stuff doesn’t start to happen right away…

Having said all that, there was one child that we photographed three years ago that we always remember as being so extraordinarily easy to work with as a newborn – we were able to get a ton of perfect shots and it didn’t take long at all. Well, she just came back as a three year old with her 9 day old sister and sure enough, she did an incredible job again – this time with baby sis and the baby was amazing too! These parents are 2 for 2! Like the title of this post says – PERFECT CHILDREN!!! We love love love these photos… and hope you enjoy them too! 🙂

Little Siblings Newborn Baby Photo Newborn Photo Sibling Cuteness

Will Smile For Smoothies!

May 11, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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We have been photographing these cute siblings for a couple years now and they are growing up so fast! They are at the age where they are pushing some of mommy’s buttons which all of us who are parents can relate to. Lucky for us we have plenty of tricks to deal with this – for example this time we sent mom down the hall to get smoothies so we could have some time alone with the kids in the studio, and sure enough they settled right in for some fantastic shots! So adorable, and these two clearly enjoy each other! Enjoy! 🙂

Brother and Sister Pretty Princess Handsome Little Man

Bring On The Little Brother!

May 9, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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We have had the immense pleasure of photographing one particular little girl who is super cute, super smart and full of personality since she was still in utero, and now we introduce to you (actually as you’ll see below she is helping to introduce to you) her newborn baby brother! She was so well behaved for this session, she did a fantastic job with her new brother, and she was so excited!

Siblings

This was such a fun session, and meanwhile just look at all of that blond hair on the little man! He slept for much of the session which is very helpful for newborns – he was only 9 days old! Enjoy!

Newborn baby

Frameable Flashbacks! – Fahad

April 29, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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We received an unexpected visit from one of our seniors from the class of 2011! Fahad is quite the entrepreneur and he was the first senior we photographed with an SUV and it was a very cool session! Fahad is quite a go getter – a very entrepreneurial young man and we thought we would catch up with him in our latest “Frameable Flashback”!

Frameable Faces: Fahad you have a lot going on these days – what’s been happening?

Fahad: I am going to school full time & running three businesses. A fundraising company, home health care and a coffee business.

Frameable Faces: What are your goals for the future?

Fahad: My goals for the future are to get my MBA before I turn 24 and own 10 businesses before I turn 26.

Frameable Faces: What do you remember about your Frameable Faces photo session?

Fahad: I remember doing the photo shoot by the lake. It was a lot of fun! I loved the fact that Ally worked with me throughout everything. She did the shots I was happy with even though it took us a while. I would recommend Frameable Faces to all of my friends!

Senior Picture - Frameable Faces

Class of 2014 Senior Spokesmodels Part 3 – Guys Edition!

April 20, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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Here come the guys….! These two young men complete our roster of spokesmodels from the upcoming class of 2014. We are really impressed with both of them and they both happen to be North Farmington Raiders just like us! Pretty soon we will have all 12 spokesmodels together to create our new mural for the window of the studio which is always a lot of fun for us. These two sessions were both fantastic! Enjoy!

Noah

class of 2014 senior spokesmodels part 3 High School Senior Pictures - Frameable Faces

Danny

class of 2014 senior spokesmodels part 3 Frameable Faces Photography Senior Picture

Class of 2014 Senior Spokesmodels Part 2!!!

April 10, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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We are excited to bring you part two of our series of images of our new class of 2014 high school senior spokesmodels! We posted part 1 last month of the first 5 and now here are the next 5. This is shaping up to be a FANTASTIC class!

Emily B

Frameable Faces Spokesmodel Photo Class of 2014 Frameable Faces Spokesmodel Class of 2014