248.790.7317
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
Emily S
Courtney
Danielle
Erin
We have done BFF (“Best Friends Forever” for those who aren’t down with the lingo) sessions before, but we have had a couple of specific requests lately that compelled us to come up with an option for graduating seniors.
The Details:
The shoot takes about 15 minutes, the images can be uploaded, selected, slightly retouched and burned to a disc on the spot. The whole process is completed in an hour. The prints are ordered during this time and take up to two weeks to arrive.
Perfect Graduation Gift
When two best friends leave and go their separate ways to different colleges this can be a great way to make the separation a little easier by having a nice professional photo framed on a dresser in a dorm room and an extra few professional shots on a smartphone, tablet or laptop. It works great for two seniors, or as in the case of our awesome models shown here (they are two of our all time favorite #frameables) one senior who is leaving and a younger BFF who still has some high school to go… We have had seniors do BFF sessions for their senior pictures and we will continue to do that – our regular senior sessions are up to 3 hours so when BFFs do them they both pay for their session and we block off up to 6 hours to do plenty separate and together with locations, outfit changes – the whole experience. This is a simpler option for two friends to do towards the end of their senior year or during the summer before they leave just as a nice memento to take with them. Take a look at a few ideas with our models below!
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.
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
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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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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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We love maternity sessions and they are especially fun when they are the second one with the same family! To be a part of this the second time around with a soon-to-be older sister who we have been photographing since she was a newborn is really special.
Older sister’s name begins with an “H” and something else she is that starts with “H” is a HAM. She is so funny and we love her – such a character! Great family and great session!
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
MARA
MARISSA
TAYLOR
ALANAH
We love these girls and we’ve actually known them their whole lives which makes having them in our studio an extra special event! When we first got all of our tutus we figured they’d be great for little babies and toddlers, but they’ve proven to be fun for girls of any age as you can see – the twins had a lot of fun with them! This was a super fun session and it’s fun to see these two growing up!
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?
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!
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?
This is actually our second Valentine’s Day post – here’s the first. Meanwhile who doesn’t love flowers on Valentine’s Day right? Well here are some Frameable Flower Pot Babies today from us to you! These fun little ones are all right around 6 months old and as you can see they all really enjoyed themselves! These photos should put a smile on your face for sure… Enjoy!
When the impetus for a session is to have both children with their spouses and all five grandchildren together it’s as good a reason as any, and when one of the children has a connection to Ally going back to college days that makes it even more fun for us! What a joy for the grandparents to have their whole family together and captured to decorate their walls!
We had some laughs on this one to be sure – if you follow us on facebook we shared a “photography tip” that arose from this session. Ally needed to make the youngest kids laugh so she told them that she pooped in her diaper. They were CRACKING UP at this announcement! It was hilarious. There was lots of talk about photography and music and all the adults were jumping around and acting silly to get the kids to smile at one point which was pretty funny…. We hope you enjoy these images as much as we enjoyed producing them!
