Tag Archives: Orchard Mall

Amanda’s Amazing Session!

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We’ve done sessions at country clubs before, but this session was a first for us – we actually took golf carts out onto the course itself and it makes sense that we’d get fantastic results since golf courses are so picturesque.  And this wasn’t just any golf course – this was one of the most beautiful and prestigious around!

Oh – and as the end of the Vine video above shows, did we happen to mention that we had a stunning senior to photograph at said location….?  🙂

For starters Amanda is a North Farmington Raider which we always have a soft spot for as Raiders ourselves.  She’s an ice skater, she’s pretty, she’s smart, AND she’s sweet.  We started out in the studio – first Ally, Amanda and her mom bonded a little sitting on the floor with clothes laid all around and went through them together, and then we got started.  Here are some highlights…   Enjoy!

Senior PictureSenior Picture

Once we were done in the studio we headed out to our location – it was a beautiful day and we had such a fun time!  Amanda’s dad arrived towards the end of the session and we sat and schmoozed for a while after we finished – great family, great session, great senior!

High School Senior PortraitHigh School Senior Portrait

 

Kevin’s Time

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Mother Nature was our friend on this day for sure – we had this session with Kevin scheduled for the morning and when we woke up there was a steady rain outside…

So we started in the studio and worked the water polo angle since Kevin is the captain of his team – for those of you who may not know much about water polo it’s a tough sport – personally I may have played football but I’ve got mad respect for anyone who can handle hand to hand combat, skill and finesse at the same time in a pool!  Talk about needing to be in shape…

High School Senior Portrait

Meanwhile the weather magically cleared up and we headed out.  We got some great shots outside after all so it really was Kevin’s time!  Enjoy!

High School Senior PortraitHigh School Senior PortraitFrameable Faces Senior Portrait

Max – At The Top Of The City!

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Photographers listen up – always get permission before you shoot somewhere you suspect you shouldn’t.  It’s not a good idea to trespass….  We had permission to use this location to capture these incredible shots of Max.

High School Senior Pictures

We got way more than we bargained for when we headed out with Max to get some cool urban shots when we happened across an opportunity to scale a fire escape up to the top of a building!  This was a Frameable Faces first!  Max rocked a suit for this session which we certainly encourage more seniors to do.  We love the look!  Very dapper.  Very GQ!

High School Senior PictureHigh School Senior Portrait

After the city we changed gears for this unique photo of Max surrounded by his collection of soccer jerseys.  We really enjoyed this session – Max brought his own unique approach which made it really cool!

High School Senior Photo

A Beautiful End To A Wonderful Era

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This was a bittersweet senior session but way more sweet than bitter!!!

Senior Portrait

Danielle is the youngest sibling of 4 and we have photographed all 4 of them at one point or another – the latter 3 now for their senior pictures.  We love this family and while we’re sad that this was our last high school senior session with them (that’s the bittersweet part), we have loved getting to know them and working with them all!  We are sure we will always be friends.  🙂

High School Senior Photo

Meanwhile, on to Danielle – what a session!  She is one smart, personable, sweet and beautiful girl.  Danielle did a spokesmodel shoot for us on a nasty winter day that didn’t allow for any location shooting so this time we spent pretty much the whole session outside.  Over the years when we’ve stumbled upon a new spot we haven’t noticed before it has made for some of our favorite photos and the senior who pioneers it gets it named after them such as Rebecca’s tree or Jared’s rock.  This time we found a new spot – a short black wall that was perfect for Danielle!  One of our favorite shots of the session for sure, and now it’s forever hers!  Enjoy!

Senior PortraitHigh School Senior Picture

Doug’s Rant – To Vine Is Divine, Web Redditing and Digging – July 11, 2013

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Doug droid photoVine and Instagram continue to fascinate me and this is the third rant in a row that I’ve focused on it.  In the last couple of weeks I’ve actually become a pretty big fan of Vine and I’ve enjoyed discovering some really creative and funny Vines as well as making a few of our own.  Here are a few ways we’ve used Vine so far – a little humor, focusing on our community, and a fun hello to our second photographer Angela:

 

 

 

 

As for Instagram I must say I barely see any videos there… and I prefer Instagram without videos (apparently I’m not the only one).  Being a fan of Vine and not of videos on Instagram is an outcome I did not anticipate, but that’s where I’m at now.

Can you Reddit?  Can you Digg it?

I recently read an article on Smart Savvy Social that discussed 10 ways to promote your blog posts and the major takeaway for me was #8 about bookmarking your blog on various social bookmarking sites.  I had toyed with Stumble a while back but I had never really spent any time on Reddit, Digg, or Technorati, so I went ahead and registered this blog on Technorati, created a profile on Reddit and checked out the others.  I find Reddit to be the most interesting so far because of the community aspect and the points you accumulate for good “karma” in how positive your interactions are.  While I am not seeing a whole lot of discussion about the photography business there, I can at least report that so far Reddit is the one that has generated some traffic back to our blog.  Collectively they seem to be pretty good resources for web surfing and finding good content.

Quick Hits

  • Ally is working on a guest blog about using reflectors for lighting purposes on MCP Actions – be on the lookout for that for you aspiring photographers!  It may be a little while before it posts but we’ll announce it on facebook and twitter for sure…  I also have a couple of articles being published there soon as well.
  • Here’s a case of “don’t just take my word for it” as the ever reliable Rosh Sillars blogs about the 17 things photographers should not do.  I counted and I’ve specifically discussed 8 of them in blog posts and guest blog posts of my own.  Admission – we don’t bother with our tripod very often…  we probably should a little more.  😉
  • By the way I’m a big fan of Snapchat as well which you may have noticed is the app interface on my photo at the top of this rant.  This is another visual and social mobile app but one that I’m not sure lends itself to use as a brand profile so I use it to have fun with my family and friends just as me.  A social media platform I don’t create Frameable Faces content for.

Mickey…..Kitty!

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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!!!"

I’m King of the World!!!

Photo of a kitty

This couch is just my style…

Mickey the cute kitty

Hey I was told there was fish in here. There are no fish in here.

3 Months Old and A Total Pro!

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This was a day we were looking forward to for a very very long time!  These are old friends of ours whom we are very close to and we are so happy for them – they’ve got the cutest little boy!  He’s a very smiley baby and this may have been the best 3 month old session we’ve ever had.  Sometimes the 3 month old session isn’t the easiest for getting all of the best shots since it’s around 6 months that the little ones start to develop a lot of personality and they have a little more range since they can often sit up by then – but this little guy already has a ton of personality!  He was awesome – in a great mood and so easy to work with – a total pro!  We had so much fun with him!  Enjoy!

Baby PhotographFamily PortraitFather and Baby3 Month Photo

 

“Perfect” Children!

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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 SiblingsNewborn Baby PhotoNewborn PhotoSibling Cuteness

Will Smile For Smoothies!

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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 SisterPretty PrincessHandsome Little ManBrother and Sister

Our 5 Favorite Ways To Instagram!

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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.

Behind-the-scenes Instagram2. 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:

Chanukah Wonderland at the Orchard Mall - Instagram

Decorations:
Valentine's Day at the Orchard Mall - Instagram

3.  Fun Shout Outs Just Because

We like to celebrate our community – our brand, and life in general…

Frameable Faces Photography - Snowy Instagram 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:

Frameable Faces Visits from #Frameables - Instagram

Babies:Frameable Faces Visits from #Frameables - Instagram 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.

Ally Cohen with a nice horse named YukonThere 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?