Tag Archives: Doug Cohen

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!

Doug’s Photography and Social Media Rant – May 31, 2013

May 31, 2013

by Doug Cohen

2 Comments

It’s been an interesting week or so in photography and social media – from a certain Internet-based company CEO’s assault on professional photographers, to facebook’s announcement (finally) of verified accounts. A couple of interesting nuggets happened here at Frameable Faces as well, so while I’m not sure if this is something I’ll do weekly or monthly (or ever again haha), I thought a little column about various current events as they relate to our business, the photography industry, and social media might be a good idea.

Not feeling so “yahoo” about Yahoo.

We haven’t used Tumblr or Flickr before so while Yahoo acquiring Tumblr and making changes to Flickr didn’t affect us, the comments Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer made during the announcement that “there’s no such thing, really, as professional photographers…” caught our attention a little. I watched the news conference and while I don’t like the stuffy overly “professional” suit and tie approach in corporate America, I also think your CEO should sound slightly more articulate than this person. I was not impressed. Scott Bourne has shredded her and she is treating him like some random troll to be ignored. Scott Bourne is a very influential professional photographer (maybe that’s why she hasn’t heard of him) and I believe her comments and her subsequent non-apology will come back to bite her.

Facebookus Promotionus Interruptus

We pride ourselves on being pretty savvy when it comes to social media – we try to do it the right way and follow the written rules and (more importantly) the unwritten rules, but we still make mistakes and we are still learning. Heck, there is something new to learn every day if not every hour. For example we got tripped up last week in some changes to facebook terms that we were unaware of.

I must say I find this “no more than 20% text” policy a little arbitrary and bizarre. We spent 5 dollars to promote a fundraiser for Relay For Life West Bloomfield. We created it as an “event” on facebook, and there is an option to add an event cover photo. The dimensions for this cover photo are 714×264 while the standard timeline photo is 851×315. Not sure why the slight difference here other than to encourage users to create unique content for your event different from your timeline photo? Fine – makes sense I guess. Logically I figured I’d keep it simple and include the three logos of the participating entities with a simple phrase “Let’s Help Defeat Cancer!”. When we created the graphic we didn’t think it represented a call to action with phone numbers, websites etc. which we thought must have been the issue when we received the email. However it turns out that facebook “quietly” updated their terms on March 6th to allow for calls to action so that wouldn’t have been a problem. The problem is this new 20% text policy, which I’m fine with when it comes to a timeline cover for your brand, but isn’t an event by nature a call to action which requires a little bit of text to announce the event? They let me keep the cover photo up, they just wouldn’t let me promote the event. I didn’t think my promoted post was going to include the cover photo in it anyway so I’m still a little confused. Weird… No biggie – I suppose this year (our first year at the Relay For Life) we can take some photos and next year include those as a collage for the cover photo for any fundraiser events we are doing. That will look better anyway than this quickie we put together this year… While I’m at it, here is the link to our team page if you want to donate to help us fight cancer.

Relay For Life Fundraiser - Facebook photo

Our event cover photo which violated the new 20% text rule....

Yes This Is The Real Doug Cohen

I must admit that there have been times when I’ve had to do a double take on fake facebook profiles of famous people – wondering if it’s really them. Some of the fakes are obvious and some can fool you even if it’s just for a second. With twitter you always knew because of the little “verified” check next to the profile. This is finally coming to facebook and facebook will determine who gets the verified label. First will be celebrities and public figures but eventually it will come to highly followed people and pages. I’m wondering since the limit for personal friends is 5000 for everybody what the threshold will be for personal verification. Pick me!!! Pick me!!! I wanna BE somebody!!! 😉

Other quick hits…

Really want Vine to be released for Droid! Hurry up Vine developers!!! Thinking this could be a cool platform for Frameable Faces and this seems to be taking forever…
I’m becoming more active on Yelp (yes this is a link directly to my profile) as a way to connect with people – spend some time there – you’ll see what I mean.
Had a really nice genuine interaction on twitter (I know right?) with a charming Australian tweeter I met named Susan Israel. Reflecto was a little snarky to her of course (remember he tweets) but she took it in stride. You should follow her at @bondi_izzy.

How To Become a Photographer

May 4, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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So how do you answer the question of how to become a photographer? Let’s start by saying that you obviously cannot become a photographer from a blog post. However I’ve gathered a few resources that combined together will give you a good guide for getting started whether you are just interested in photography as a hobby or if you want to become a real pro. It’s certainly not the last thing you should read to become a photographer or a complete guide, but this post along with the links provided will be a good first thing to read.

How To Become A Photographer

Inspiration

Find out what inspires you and pursue it. With photography there are plenty of ways to discover this. One way is to simply take pictures. LOTS of pictures. Odds are you have a camera – even for now if it’s just the camera on your phone. Take pictures every day and find out what moves you. Another is to look at pictures. This link is to the inspiration category at the Photo Argus – these posts of images are designed to inspire and there is some wonderful content here. Here is the inspiration category at PetaPixel. You should also read and follow these five steps by Scott Bourne, one of our go-to experts in the field – and find other articles like these. Think in these terms and follow your dream!

Equipment

Keep in mind it’s not the camera that makes great photos – the photographer does. But having said that, once again here is a fantastic article by Scott Bourne on what you should think about in considering a new camera. As for where to buy one, just check out a local camera store and buy local where possible! If you are in New York City you should visit B & H which is the Taj Mahal of camera stores – the place is incredible and downright inspiring just being there. They also provide fantastic help over the phone AND they provide free shipping on equipment. Once you’ve invested in a camera take the time to learn your way around your camera. As you gain experience make sure you are taking the time to learn technique, lighting, post processing and the tools that go with all of it.

Business

If you want to be a pro you MUST learn the photography business. Photography can obviously be rewarding even if you are just doing it for fun. But if you want it to be your career then you need to really understand what makes it profitable, what makes it sustainable, what makes it rewarding, what makes it special. Go to conventions, sign up for seminars, read books, hire an accountant. Take the time to connect with other photographers, hone in on your specialty, find your niche and become the very best at it. Learn how to use social media as a brand. Learn how not to use social media as a brand. This list goes on and on – there is so much to it. It takes years to perfect your craft, learn the business and build a real studio but it can be done – after all, we are doing it…. and notice I didn’t say we did it – it’s an ongoing process – we are still learning every day.

If you are a photographer what advice would you give to someone starting out? If you are starting out, share with us why you want to be a photographer – what inspired you?

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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
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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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Love For Boston and All Of Our Cities

April 17, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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This post is not about professional photography or social media, or running a small business, but I feel it’s appropriate. We capture images here – that’s what we do day in and day out, and most of what we do is a celebration of life and relationships. After the horrific images that came from the Boston Marathon a couple days ago I got to thinking about that city, the resilience it is showing and how important our cities are. I haven’t been to Boston but I still have some thoughts that I just wanted to put out there – thoughts on our cities in general with Boston as a backdrop. We are all thinking about Boston now like we all thought about New York, D.C. and flight 93 after 9/11, and like we all thought about New Orleans after Katrina and any of the other tragedies that have touched us all. As Americans we wrap our arms around a city that has been hurt and we feel for those who were injured and grieve for those who died.

Boston Marathon

Love for Boston

We have never been to Boston as I said so we can’t rave about it first hand, but we are aware of what an awesome city it is. It is definitely on our list of places to visit someday. It has been noted and emphasized that many people – first responders and ordinary citizens alike rushed in to help after the bombs went off by the finish line on Monday. Locals were helping out-of-towners who may have been trying to connect with family members amid the confusion. Boston, just as other cities have, has given us yet another great example to follow…

Love for other cities

I hope by saying this I’m not minimizing the tragedy since that’s not my intent, but I think we should take this opportunity to remind ourselves that we should love all our cities, and subsequently (as cheesy as it may sound), each other. We should reinforce the sense of community that our cities give us – a mass of humanity all functioning together in a huge and complex living breathing machine. A gigantic display of life and relationships. This might be obvious but when you visit a city take the time to enjoy what is unique about that city – if you go to Philly for example eat a cheesesteak sandwich (even if it’s a veggie version) and check out the history – the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall… Take photos of the skyline. Soak it in. Take the time to strike up conversations with strangers and let them know you are visiting their city and how much you love it.

Love for your own city

Over our Spring Break a couple weeks ago we did not go out of town. We stayed home and worked that week, but we did take one day to do a Detroit “staycation” day where we ate breakfast at Toast in Ferndale, went to the Detroit Historical Museum, drove around Belle Isle, took in an iMax movie in Dearborn, ate dinner at Slow’s BBQ in Corktown, and finished up with dessert back in Ferndale at Treat Dreams. A celebration of Detroit food and history. We love Detroit.

It’s easy to love our snow peaked mountains, our national parks and our beaches with their natural beauty, but in times like these let’s be thankful for our mighty cities too. Let’s work together to make them great. Here are a few (amateur) snapshots from some past visits to other cities…

Independence Hall in Philadelphia – 1989

I always thought this shot I took in 1986 of the Washington Monument was cool…

Snapping our reflection in Cloud Gate – the Chicago “Bean”

Family snapshot from the Empire State Building

Family snapshot from the top of the Empire State Building – New York City 2010

Boston is wounded, but Boston is tough and Boston will get through this senseless act. Boston, the rest of the country is sending their thoughts and wishes your way. I know we certainly are, and we will be adding pictures of your resilient and beautiful city to our collection someday when we come to eat your food, learn your history, and meet your people.

9 Things To Tell Your Kids About Photography

March 22, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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We had a great morning today at West Hills Middle School in Bloomfield Hills, MI for career day! We presented to two separate groups of 8th graders about a career in photography and it was so much fun. The kids had really great and thoughtful questions, and it got me thinking that I should share some things to tell your kids about photography just as we did today.

9 Things To Tell Your Kids About Photography

1. Getting an expensive camera isn’t the only route to becoming a great photographer. It can certainly help, but it’s not enough. If you are truly motivated and it’s in your heart you can hone your skills and become pretty good with almost any camera. Having the most advanced medical equipment wouldn’t make you the best doctor and having a $100 football doesn’t make you a great quarterback. I’d rather have a great person I connect with with a good eye and a $75 camera (or even an iPhone for that matter) take my picture than an arrogant know-it-all jerk with a $10,000 camera. Now keep in mind I won’t want to enlarge an iPhone photo and put it on my wall – you will certainly be limited by a cheap camera and you probably will never be able to call yourself a professional photographer with a basic digital point and shoot camera, but equipment isn’t everything. It’s pretty important (eventually it becomes really important), but it’s not everything.

2. Being a great photographer only comes with experience so just start shooting. Get out there! Learn what photos you like to take the most, experiment and find your style. If you like portraits take your friend or your sibling to a park. If you like landscapes or wildlife go to a nature preserve. Inspiration is available all around you.

3. Being a great photographer only comes with knowledge so don’t only start shooting. Learn how to use your camera. Read the manual (crazy right?). Learn about lighting. Learn about posing. Learn about editing – kids can play with cropping and basic post production techniques with programs as simple as iPhoto. It’s not too early to start to appreciate the craft behind becoming an accomplished photographer.

4. Be aware of what you share online. This doesn’t mean don’t participate and be terrified of the Internet. It does mean be aware of how you represent yourself, how mistakes can hurt you, and the power of enhancing your life and making connections with social media. Social media is obviously very visual and images can be very powerful in good and bad ways. If you are a musician you can post links to your music or you can stream it on soundcloud, if you are a sculptor you can post a picture of your sculpture but it might not do it justice, but if you are a photographer your work is ON facebook if you post it there and it shows up in people’s news feeds – bam. Instagram is built on photos. It is critical that your kids understand the reach of these platforms – how they can use them to their advantage but also the dangers of posting something foolish and opening up their private lives to the whole world if they aren’t careful. Social media is here to stay and we’ve used it to build our business so it’s important to become savvy online – it will continue to get tougher to thrive without it. The 8th graders we met with will be able to take a whole course on social media when they get to high school next year.

5. Taking pictures for a living can give you a ton of freedom but it won’t happen right away. The allure of being your own boss can be strong for an artist. Whether you want to own a studio, be a freelance photographer or photojournalist you may be the type that marches to the beat of your own drum. For me I know that working in the corporate environment and having a boss was a nightmare. I much prefer having my own business, but I know we would not have been able to pull it off if we hadn’t had plenty of experience in the workforce learning how business works (and how it doesn’t work). I don’t think it’s the best advice to tell a youngster to plan on never working for someone else – to go from graduating from school straight to —–> business owner. Just my opinion… We see a lot of photographers fail because they don’t respect and learn the business of photography.

6. Taking pictures is extremely rewarding and a worthy pursuit!!! This holds true for professionals and amateurs. Taking pictures is expression, it’s connection, it’s celebration, it’s history, it’s emotion, it’s a moment, it’s flat out fun. Kids love to snap and share pictures. Instagram selfies, facebook profiles, snapchat, tumblr – this is how they connect and express themselves. What an outlet! It’s a fun byproduct of technology that some old school photographers can’t understand and they lament how it’s devaluing what real pros are doing. We feel it’s the opposite – the more people appreciate pictures the more they’ll appreciate good pictures. We never discourage youngsters from having fun with photography. We embrace this new culture and here is a funny example of a guest post I wrote for another blog where I discussed ideas for good content on Facebook for photography studios. Look in the comments where some angry old school photographer chimed in and just ripped me apart for validating these fun new forms of expression.

7. Find mentors and ask questions. Go to a local studio. Go to a local independent camera store. All of us pros started somewhere and there were photographers who helped us along the way.

8. You aren’t too young to subscribe to blogs and websites like Peta Pixel where you can learn a ton. There are a lot of sites like this one with tips and examples of new and creative photos. We share many articles that stand out on our facebook page as well. In addition to gaming or surfing silly videos on YouTube maybe your kids can mix in a few of these – they might find plenty they like.

9. Think about the businesses you love and why. Whether it’s a certain ice cream shop, or a clothing store, or a gaming store, or some other specialty store, think about why you like them. Kids are consumers – they can learn from the businesses they like if they are paying attention and it can shape the kind of business people they can be. If you are a photographer of people you will want to treat your people the way you like to be treated as a customer. These are simple lessons that shouldn’t be lost on kids.

I hope these help! Feel free to chime in or even better have your child chime in – if you’re local stop by and visit! We would be happy to answer questions.

Check out the Doug&Ally Morning Show PODCAST!!!

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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
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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!

Class of 2014 Senior Spokesmodels Part 1!!!

March 12, 2013

by Doug Cohen

1 Comment

We are excited to present a two part series of images of our new class of 2014 high school senior spokesmodels! We couldn’t be happier with this wonderful group of young ladies and are very proud to have them representing Frameable Faces Photography for this upcoming school year! Some of them we have just met recently and some we’ve known much longer – it’s hard to believe they will be seniors in a few short months!

DANIELLE

Danielle - Class of 2014 Frameable Faces

MARA

Mara - Class of 2014 Senior Spokesmodel

MARISSA

Marissa - Class of 2014 Senior Spokesmodel

TAYLOR

Taylor - Class of 2014 Spokesmodel Taylor - Class of 2014 Senior Spokesmodel

ALANAH

Alanah - Class of 2014 Senior Spokesmodel

Social Media Stream of Consciousness Pt. 1 – Facebook and Google+

February 28, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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Okay so this is a little change of pace… Usually when I blog about social media it’s the standard “5 ways to….” or “7 tips for….” or “the 6 best….” – some type of informative lesson with the perfect title designed to explode our SEO to Jupiter and make our blog the envy of every photography studio East (and West) of the Mississippi. Okay well maybe that hasn’t quite happened (yet) but one can dream…..right?

This time it’s a little different…

This is part 1 of what could be a series of streams of consciousness about social media as it relates to Frameable Faces, being a small business owner in general, or whatever else I feel like ranting about. It is a stream of consciousness after all, so who knows what I’ll say right? And just because there’s a part 1 doesn’t mean there will be a part 2 – that could depend on the response, so be sure to comment and share this post or lose this potential opportunity forever (see – when all else fails just scare them into sharing – that should work).

Facebook Fail?

I am a facebook power user. Have been for 5 years. Facebook has changed and I’ve blogged at length about how to navigate the changes. I practice the techniques I’ve preached when it comes to staying the course, but I will admit that I’m not perfect (HA) and yes occasionally I get a little annoyed at how facebook manipulates the user experience to generate money (this usually happens after I post something boring that no one shares). While you’ll normally find me preaching to stop whining about the facebook changes and create better content, I’m just being honest here – I do whine once in a while. Observe:

Text-only posts are getting the most reach right now by a mile for business pages. I had a text-only post on Friday get a 450 reach with no likes or comments. It was a dud and yet it still went out to almost half of our following. The following day I posted a link to a blog post I thought was a good one – no one agreed with me since no one commented and it only reached 93 – only slightly more than one fifth the reach of the text-only post. Then there’s the recent status of ours that contained a link to a blog post which got 25 likes and 9 comments and only reached 306. Oh yeah facebook – that’s really hilarious. Hahaha. Ugh. BUT – the other way of looking at this is that I’m okay with 306 people seeing a great post and a good percentage of them clicking on it and appreciating it. That’s a more successful post than a post that went to 450 that no one cared about. And if my other post that only went to 93 would have been more interesting then more than 93 people would have seen it. Remember to take accountability for your content. So you see how that goes? I have my moment of weakness, but then I right myself and get back on course creating the best content I can. That’s what happens in my head.

That said, I notice as an end user that my “most recent” items in my newsfeed aren’t recent at all. Sometimes the most recent is two days old – I can see how facebook is holding back the content I want to see, so I have to go find the info manually. Annoying.

Facebook Future?

This all makes me wonder about the future of facebook – it’s not as cool of a place as it used to be. Too much garbage, spam, memes, chains, links, etc. I just wish people would post a little bit less of that stuff and more of their own thoughts, and I wish brands would stop littering with salesy posts, crappy ads and specials begging for business. Sigh. Now I’m in no way thinking about jumping off the facebook bandwagon, but I’ve always been careful to make sure our eggs are never only in the facebook basket either….

Looking on the “plus” side of life….

I’ve actually been thinking about revisiting Google+. I’ve always thought it was a ghost town, but a very interesting thing happened on Scott Stratten’s blog recently where he ripped G+ for inflating their numbers based on total Google usage across all of their products and a lot of people ripped him in the comments… he defended himself for a while but eventually he posted an updated retraction when he was proven to have had a slightly incorrect reading of the numbers. Keep in mind that Scott Stratten is one of the baddest dudes in marketing in my opinion (he calls what he does UnMarketing) and whether it was just a technicality that prompted his retraction or if he is really softening his stance on G+, it was the visceral reaction by so many on his blog defending Google coupled with the changes on facebook that is making me look at adding G+ as a regular spot for us. I’ve referenced Scott here not to point out that he was wrong, but to point out that I think he is almost never wrong and this got my attention. The question now is how we might use G+. We mostly use social media platforms for one of two reasons:

1) The “age old” (at least a few years) social media criteria of be where your peeps are

2) We use the platform for a specific purpose – either for a certain kind of content (like Instagram is our behind-the-scenes platform) or maybe it’s a good place to get info (still our favorite use for twitter – not the only use, just our favorite). I don’t like to simply duplicate content and behavior on two different platforms (part of the reason we don’t automate from one platform to another).

So that leads me back to G+ where I suspect that there is some exploration to be done specific to photography – seems that some photogs/bloggers/hangout-ers are getting a lot out of it. It might be a good time to make some connections there if it’s really still growing. Disclaimer here – we actually have a G+ page for Frameable Faces and yes I have been posting links to new blog posts there, violating my own rule of not simply duplicating content. I only do it because it takes two seconds and early on people were saying to post there to help with SEO. Google is the #1 search engine after all. Is it helping? Who knows… But I do know that G+ is not likely to be going anywhere. We just got Google computers for our kids…. Google is a monster. Do you use G+? Personally? For your brand? What do you like about it? I really would like to know.

So there you have it…. a little bit of my mind in words…. fascinating right? Stay tuned…. 🙂

Our 5 Favorite Ways To Instagram!

February 23, 2013

by Doug Cohen

2 Comments

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?

Oso Sweet Onions Prove To Be Delicious AND Frameable!

February 16, 2013

by Doug Cohen

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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!

Oso Sweet Onions

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?

When Should You Promote A Facebook Post? Part 2 – Results

February 9, 2013

by Doug Cohen

2 Comments

Last month we wrote a piece about when to promote a facebook post which included a case study, and we mentioned that we would post a follow up with the results.

For starters let’s just say the results were….. successful to a degree but also a little mixed and confusing. We spent $15 and it did seem to reach a lot of people. From that standpoint we feel like we got what we paid for, but there are plenty of discrepancies in the numbers. Sure there is a chance I’m just not understanding them completely but I think I’m a bright guy and if I can’t figure them out then I’m guessing I’m not the only one. The engagement level was not quite what I’d expected either but I think there is a learning opportunity there.

Total Reach

First let’s look purely at the number of people the post reached. Above is the graph that breaks it down into three categories. When we selected the $15 dollar (highest) option it indicated that the reach we were paying for would be in the 2.5k – 3.5k range. When I hover my cursor over each category the organic (people who like the page and either clicked on it themselves or had it appear in their news feed before I started the promotion) shows 372, the paid shows 1637, and the viral (people who saw it as a result of a friend liking, commenting on, or sharing the post) shows 76. By my math that adds up to 2085 – not 1894 and still way short of the estimate I was given. However….

They also provide a promotion summary where I’m told that the paid reach of the post is 3215. Uh…. okay…. so which is it? 1637 or 3215? If 3215 is the number then I’m pleased with the reach. We had about 940 people following our page at the time and we promoted this to our followers and their friends so if $15 bought me 3215 people seeing this post I’m good with that. Side note: I have since found out from a friend who manages a page with a much larger following than ours that it would cost them much more to promote a post – facebook charges considerably more to a page with 100,000 followers than they do to a page with 1000 – like hundreds of dollars instead of $15.

Engagement

So far we’ve looked at the pure mass numbers of people reached. Now let’s dig into how the people who saw the post responded to it. First we’ll look at engaged users:

There were 33 engaged users (number of unique people who clicked on the post), 50 other clicks, so there were people in that group of 33 who came back to the post and clicked on it more than once. There were 10 link clicks – this was a little disappointing since I thought that the thumbnail of the damaged photo of the tent in Vietnam would compel people to check out the link. 14 stories were generated (likes, comments, shares) and only 3 out of thousands hid the link (negative feedback) which is nice – it didn’t turn people off. Overall not huge numbers of engagement. This also doesn’t tell me what kind of collective impact the post had by showing up in thousands of news feeds, but I suspect that there was some impact that I can’t measure immediately. We don’t typically advertise and I’m not an expert in open / click through rates etc. but I do know that when I promoted this our engagement level was over 1.5% and it ended up at .63% When I promoted the post it had met the criteria for Jay Baer’s STIR strategy for when to promote a post which includes waiting 6 hours to promote and only if the post has over 1% engagement. I may raise that to 3% going forward especially if it proves to be true that there will be a natural drop off in the percentage engagement once you send it out to people who may not be familiar with your brand. The last graph of data they give you is the break down of the “stories generated” or people “talking about this”:

11 likes (even though the earlier summary says 14), 2 comments, and 1 share. I think it’s great when someone shares a post because the post then reaches a whole new audience. One share isn’t much, but it’s better than a sharp stick in the eye.

Conclusions

So as I mentioned before I would say the results on this one were mixed. The confusing numbers are a little troubling – even if it’s only $15 dollars I at least want accurate numbers. Facebook is a public company now and these tools are part of the ways they are trying to generate revenue to show Wall Street they can be profitable, but they should clean up the data if this is so critical to their future. As for whether we would promote again? I would say yes but still very selectively. This one while not a complete flop was not a home run but that’s okay – they aren’t all going to be home runs. That’s on us to make sure we learn what content has the most value and appeal for our followers.

Have you paid to sponsor or promote a facebook post? What kind of results have you seen?