Tag Archives: Photography Studio

A Vic-TORI-ous Senior Spokesmodel Session For The Ages With Tori!!!

What can we say about Tori and the hands of fate that were all over this story from how and when we found her all the way to the epic spokesmodel session with her and her mom Lora in the YAK!  The “yak” would be Pontiac which is where Tori was born hehe…  Let’s just say we already have multiple inside jokes and stories from our short time knowing each other – we just seemed to fit from the first minute.

It all started with Tori’s mom Lora walking into the studio and asking about senior pictures really early in the game for the class of 2019 at the urging of another senior mom we love while we were (and kinda still are) in recruiting mode for our new crew.  When she told us her daughter went to West Bloomfield Ally and I looked at each other right away and both our wheels were turning…  Next thing you know we had Lora and Tori come for a little pow wow and we knew immediately we wanted her on our team!  The rest is his-TORI!!!  See what I did there?  Let’s see how many ways I can work Tori’s name into this blog post lol… 

A Vic-TORI-ous Session

We decided on Pontiac as I mentioned earlier on a fairly chilly day and even with some technical difficulties with Ally’s new off camera flash we still pulled off a handful of outstanding photos!  Let’s get to a few…

Tori

How adorable is she?  Let’s also give a shout out here to Yasmeen at The Beauty Lounge for Tori’s makeup and Natalie at Mandy Rose Studio for Tori’s hair!

Let’s also take a look at the hilarious behind the scenes Facebook Live – we LOVE this girl…. haha!

One more photo outdoors before we move to the next phase…

Tori

Love.  Great style on Tori here and we are pretty pleased with the lighting (when it worked)!  That’s the nice thing about spokesmodel sessions – they are a great opportunity to try out new spots, new equipment and new techniques, and while Ally was a little frustrated fighting with the equipment we do love the results!

At this point we headed over to the Flagstar Strand Theatre which you should check out for a show if you get a chance – what a gem of a venue in downtown Pontiac and special thanks goes to them for the access.  They set us up in the dressing room where we decided on a whim to get a few really fun shots of the star backstage like this one!

Tori

We played around in the theatre and got some cool stuff but the lighting and the angles we tried were a bit challenging.  We’ll go back and try again at some point – you can get a sense of what we were doing in this fun Instagram Live we did from inside…

A couple of behind the scenes shots like the pano I grabbed and the shot Lora took below are pretty cool too – they give you an idea of what we were trying to do even if the finished images weren’t quite ready for prime time…

Tori

Tori

Now we’ll head outside for one more photo which could be our fave of the day with Tori in a cute winter hat…

Tori

Just love that one!!!  Gorgeous girl.

And that’s a great way to end it for now – we are thrilled to have Tori representing our studio and we cannot wait to get her in front of Ally’s camera again!  We hope you enjoyed the highlights of our day!

Equipment used:

These are our affiliate links to the products we used on this session:

BECOME A PATRON!  Subscribe at our Patreon page for the Doug & Ally Morning Show Podcast, tips, tutorials, and even individual coaching on your photography or social media!  
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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
************************************************
***************************************­*******
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!

 

Ally Photographs Alli As We Usher In The Class Of 2019 Spokesmodels!

What a way to kickoff the class of 2019 – with a little “Ally on Alli crime”!  And if producing stunning images of this girl is a crime then lock us up and throw away the key!!!  Alli was here in front of Ally’s camera years ago when she was a pre-teen but now she’s going to be a senior and this is the class that our own Tony is in too so there will be many surreal moments like this one over the coming months.  Alli’s delightful mom Risa joined us in the studio (and even a grandma and a grandpa and an aunt popped in for visits) and it was a bit surreal for her too!

Ally Photographs Alli

Each year we go into the new spokesmodel sessions with some new ideas and techniques for the upcoming season and this year we are focusing on playing around with our lighting.  It may not be something you’ll notice per se but we shifted around our soft boxes a little and got a lot accomplished, and Alli looked fantastic.  She’s a pro – so great to work with, and so these images are quite awesome and we’re excited to get them out there.  We have our typical 4 sneak peeks for you here!

We’ll start with the damask background and we love the way this one turned out!

Alli

Just stunning…

We also have our behind the scenes fun as usual – this year we have been playing around with some Facebook options as well as going live on Instagram.  First let’s have a look at our Facebook Live broadcast of the making of the photo above:

Next we have this tight crop on the red fabric – Ally is a fan of the hands-framing-the-face.  Not all of our seniors choose to do this type of pose but we love it here for Alli! 

Alli

We moved next to the white vinyl background – loving this next look with the ripped jeans!  We also need to give a shout out to Mandy Rose Studio for Ally’s hair and makeup – they did a fantastic job!

Alli

Adorable!

We also recorded our Instagram Livestream and uploaded it to our YouTube channel – take a look and please subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss future vids!


 

At this point we moved to the black backdrop and we’ll show off one of those images before we wrap this one up…

Alli

Love the smile!  Love this girl!

And there you have it!!!  We are off and running with the new crew for the class of 2019 and Alli led the way in style!!!  Be sure to follow along for more upcoming sessions – all the links are below and don’t forget to sign up for the weekly newsletter!

Equipment used:

These are our affiliate links to the products we used on this session:

BECOME A PATRON!  Subscribe at our Patreon page for tips, tutorials, podcasts and even individual coaching on your photography or social media!  
**********************************************
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
************************************************
***************************************­*******
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!

Aparna Is A Sweet Sixteen And We Loved Celebrating With This Session!

Aparna just turned 16 and her mom Manila wanted to celebrate with some portraits and with a half saree no less!  We love the Indian half saree traditional dress – they are so pretty with such radiant colors – a photographer’s dream!  Aparna is a sweetheart too and we had fun with the two of them and Aparna’s little brother came along for support as well!

Aparna is a Sweet Sixteen!

So let’s get to some of these portraits.  We actually did some in the half saree and some in more casual attire.  We’ll start with the half saree:

Aparna

Beautiful!

This is another beautiful view from above as well…

Aparna

Now for this session we didn’t livestream, but we do have some behind the scenes in this brief video – take a look!

Now let’s change over to the casual fun:

Aparna

Love the the “Sweet 16” – and the world – at Aparna’s feet!

And one more on the red backdrop:

Aparna

So fun!

As you can see we loved celebrating this occasion with Aparna and we hope you enjoyed the highlights of our day with her!

Equipment used:

These are our affiliate links to the products we used on this session:

BECOME A PATRON!  Subscribe at our Patreon page for tips, tutorials, podcasts and even individual coaching on your photography or social media!  
**********************************************
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
************************************************
***************************************­*******
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!

Double Trouble? Double FUN! Meet Harrison and Henry!

I got a phone call from Carlos looking to set up a photo session on pretty short notice…..for his twin one month old boys!  I knew Ally would be pretty excited since we’ve had plenty of babies in the studio and plenty of twins, but no twin babies!  We had time available the following day which was exactly 30 days from Harrison and Henry’s birth so it seemed like the planets were aligning!  And what a session!  Are twin boys double trouble to photograph?  HECK NO – they’re double FUN!!!

Double Fun with Harrison and Henry!

Carlos and Gina came to the studio well prepared with some monogrammed burp cloths for the boys which we’ll get to.  In the meantime for one month old babies it’s hit or miss on how easy it will be to get them to sleep which always makes for easier posing and photographing.  So with twins this was somewhat unchartered territory!  Indeed, they were not ready to nap when they got here so we had to wait it out a bit….  a little classical music, some low light, some high heat and an hour or two of patience and we were in business!!!  We always block off two hours but allow for cushion on the back end with little babies just in case we need the extra time.  So without further adieu, let’s meet the boys!

We’ll start with the individual shots – first of Henry:

Double Fun

How great is he?

And here’s Harrison…

Double Fun

Okay how awesome is the tongue…!

We also have some fun behind the scenes action for you – first with the replay of the Periscope broadcast – you can join in the fun and follow us on Periscope at @frameablefaces at this link, or you can just check out the broadcasts from twitter here.

And here is an amazing shot from that part of the session that will definitely make you smile….

Double Fun

Caption that one however you like.  🙂

We have one more broadcast replay this time from Facebook Live and this one was shared and liked quite a bit…

We’ll leave you with one more photo from the session with the monogrammed burp cloths from the Facebook broadcast:

Double Fun

Double fun indeed!!!!  Double adorable, double delicious – the list goes on and we hope you enjoyed the highlights of our day with Harrison and Henry!

Equipment used:

These are our affiliate links to the products we used on this session:

**********************************************
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
************************************************
***************************************­*******
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!

Wow – Jeralyn Is ONE, And What A Year It’s Been Photographing Her!

Boy does a year go by fast…  this story is one of the more epic tales in Frameable Faces lore to be sure and we continue to tell it here.  It started with an “emergency” maternity session phone call from Nick and Jen that you can read about here.  Another photography studio’s mistake became the start of a friendship for us and some memorable moments with Jeralyn (who was once known lovingly in the Frameable Faces community as the “sharting baby” because of a hilarious little poop mishap during her newborn session that you can see and read about here)!  Now Jeralyn is ONE and she returned to the studio for an adorable photo session from which we want to share a few images with you!

Jeralyn Is ONE!

So we have some great stuff to show you here.  We love doing “baby plans” where our peeps come in for maternity, newborn, 6 month, and one year photos because we get to be a part of such a wonderful and exciting year, and then at the end we get to put together some stages – like a “watch me grow” storyboard!  Like this:

Jeralyn Is ONE

Newborn, 6 months, and one year!!!

So much fun – perfectly displayed on a wall printed to 10″ x 30″ in a frame!

As for the rest of the one year session here are some of the other highlights…

Jeralyn Is ONE

How beautiful is she?  Loving the hair…  🙂

Jeralyn also likes blocks.  Who doesn’t like blocks?

Jeralyn Is ONE

Actually props in general are fun…

Jeralyn Is ONE

We also have some fun behind the scenes (of course)…  let’s start with the replay from Facebook Live:

At this point we broke out the sari that we used for all three sessions as you saw above in the storyboard – so pretty as the backdrop for this adorable close up!

Jeralyn Is ONE

LOVE the thumb…

What’s great about our Periscope replay is often when people say you should photograph the parents being silly trying to get the kids to smile……well we got Jen at the beginning of this broadcast.  Haha!  If you want to join in the fun on Periscope download the app and follow us at @FrameableFaces here or if you just want to check it out from Twitter you can do that here.

The last thing we’ll leave you with you could say is the coup de grâce from this session…

Jeralyn Is ONE

Just all around cuteness with the one year expressions!  So yes Jeralyn is ONE and it really has been a delightful year photographing her!  We hope you enjoyed the highlights!!!

Equipment used:

These are our affiliate links to the products we used on this session:

**********************************************
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
************************************************
***************************************­*******
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!

 

KICKING OFF Class of 2018 Spokesmodels with Olivia! BEAUTY & BEAST!

When we say we’re kicking off our class of 2018 spokesmodels we actually mean we’re kicking it off!  With a kicker – a female kicker!  We are thrilled to have Olivia representing our studio and this is always an exciting time for us as we start to look towards the upcoming senior class which we’ll start photographing in earnest this summer.  Some our favorite people of all time and very close friends started out as spokesmodels going all the way back to the graduating class of 2009 and we’ve already become fast friends with Olivia and her mom Liz.  But first let’s back up a bit to the fall of 2015 in the bleachers of Bloomfield Hills High School…

“Check It Out!  How Cool Is That?”

Our son Tony plays football at BHHS and when he first went out for the team as a freshman we were at one of his games sitting in the bleachers.  The freshman team was down on the field and they play before the JV so the JV came up into the bleachers to wait and watch until their turn came.  Ally being a nervous mom saw the size of some of the sophomores walking past and then….Olivia comes walking by in her pads and Ally and I said to each other “Check it out!  How cute is she?  And how COOL is that?”  There were no girls on the football team to speak of back in our day.  You see it more now but it’s still not that common and we think you need to be a pretty cool girl to be able to hang on a team of guys, and be a kicker where all eyes are on you every time you take the field to begin with!

Needless to say our wheels started turning back then as they often do when we’re on the lookout for spokesmodels.  So flash forward to the varsity banquet at the end of Tony’s JV season a couple months ago and there is Olivia looking stunning, so we texted a couple people during dinner to ask about Olivia and we were given the thumbs up.  Ally makes a break for it.  So creepy right?  Like, “we’ve had our eye on you for years and we want you to be a spokesmodel for our studio”!!!  Haha!  But we still had to see if she was actually interested, meet her and her mom at the studio and make sure it was a fit for everyone.  So sure enough Olivia called and said she would be interested and when she and Liz arrived we fell in love with them immediately.  Such sweethearts both of them!!!

Kicking Off With Olivia…

While we may be kicking off the proceedings we should also mention that Olivia plays lacrosse and she’s nice and she’s smart – she’s the whole package.  But before we get to the beast part we started off with the beauty part of the session….  First we’ll share this one on the brown backdrop – we find the brown to be a great option to go with pink – a good color combo for this year.

Kicking Off

We actually played around with a few different backdrops and combinations as we usually do with our spokesmodels and you can see some of the behind the scenes fun here…  Let’s start with the replay of our Snapchat story from the day which ends with the “squad selfie”!  🙂

Next we have the replay of our live Periscope broadcast – if you aren’t following us on Periscope and want to join in the fun and be a part of our shows download the app and follow us at @frameablefaces, or you can watch from your browser and/or on Twitter too!

Now let’s take a look at some of the photos we did on the black backdrop.  First we have this relaxed and fun shot on our black couch – black on black anything looks cool when it’s lit properly and we are looking forward to more of our black couch which is still a relatively new addition here on the black background.

Kicking Off

Plenty of Beauty right?  Now time for beast…

What’s fun about these next couple of shots is that it was actually hard to get Olivia to keep a straight face, because as much of a bad ass as she is, she’s actually very humble and sweet and she was giggling.  Haha!

Kicking Off

How awesome is that shot???  The football / lacrosse mashup!

Let’s take another look at some behind the scenes fun with more live video this time from Facebook Live:

And now one more lit photo in beast mode….

Kicking Off

AWESOME!  What a way to be kicking off the class of 2018 spokesmodel sessions!  Much more to come from our new crew which is starting to shape up to be a very strong class!  We hope you enjoyed the highlights from our time with Olivia!  Stay tuned….

Equipment used:

These are our affiliate links to the products we used while kicking off this session:

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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
************************************************
***************************************­*******
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!

Doug’s Rant – Why Is Social Media “So Quiet”?

So quiet

Why is social media so quiet lately?  It just doesn’t seem to me that there has been a lot going on.  Let me explain.  For a few solid years there it seemed like it was the “golden age” of major platforms – such as:

  • Facebook Pages switched over to “likes” from fans in April 2010 a month after we set up the Frameable Faces page.
  • Instagram launched on October 6th, 2010 and we joined it in May of 2012.
  • Pinterest launched in April of 2010
  • Snapchat launched in September of 2011 (more on that in a minute).
  • Google Plus pages for businesses launched in October of 2011 and they added Google My Business last June.
  • The major Twitter redesign launched in April 2011.
  • Vine launched in January of 2013 and at the time we had to wait until June for Android since T-Mobile didn’t have iPhones yet.

Since then……not a whole lot.

All of those platforms seem to still be thriving and growing as a general rule and it has now been two years by my count since a new “major” platform has made a splash.

Is a lull a good thing?

I can’t decide if I like the fact that it’s been a little quiet or not.  The thought of feeling like I have to manage additional platforms can be stressful especially if we are only adding more and not dropping any, but the rush of starting out on a new one is exciting and a lot of fun.  For example I was pretty excited about Pano Perfect which I thought might be the next big social photo sharing platform but that one has gone nowhere…  I hear people talking about Swipe and sure there are others.  We can debate all day about what a “major” platform is – I am not using any scientific criteria here…  I’m just ranting after all.  Feel free to jump in in the comments and add your two cents.  What do you think is the next big thing?  I want to know.

Meanwhile Snapchat is the one I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.  Of the big ones I listed it’s the one that we don’t have an official Frameable Faces profile for, and after weighing it I don’t know if it’s right for us as a brand at least for the moment.

Edit*** – A Curve Ball

I wrote that last paragraph earlier today and one of our spokesmodels just happened to pop in to the studio and we were chatting about Snapchat since it was on my mind, and I think I just changed my mind again.  She showed me a couple things that convinced me that it could be a good platform for us.  For example I didn’t realize how it notifies you how many people have viewed your snapchat stories and which people viewed them.  So look for it – my wheels are turning now!

So as it turns out I have Snapchat to work on.  I started out wondering why it’s been so quiet in social media, but now that I’ve got another platform to play with I’m hoping things stay quiet for a bit!

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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
************************************************
***************************************­*******
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!

 

 

9 Things To Tell Your Kids About Photography

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
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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!
************************************************
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
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Pinterest: http://pinterest.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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Join the Frameable Faces Community – sign up for our email newsletter for the best of the week in the Frameable Faces World!  Click here!

 

 

 

An Interview with Reflecto!

Those of you who have been on location with us have very likely met Reflecto.Interview with Reflecto  He’s our sometimes rogue, somewhat snarky, and quite often arrogant reflector.  He is really a character and while sometimes he gets a little out of line he’s definitely never boring, so we thought we would sit down for an interview with Reflecto and find out what’s on his mind….

 

FF:  Let’s get right to it – it’s been said that you are a sometimes-rogue, somewhat snarky, and even arrogant reflector.  Is that fair?

Reflecto:  Listen, haters are gonna hate, so let ’em is what I say.  It’s pretty simple.  If I am awesome and I say so does that make me the bad guy for speaking the truth?

FF:  Okay…..  Uh – we won’t try to answer that question.  How about you tell us about your childhood?

Reflecto:  I try not to talk about my past too much.  My family moved around a lot and had various jobs – wrapping York peppermint patties, getting odd jobs as foil – stuff like that.  I decided when I was old enough that I would never settle and I was able to snag this gig with Frameable Faces.  Now I run the place!  Haha!  Follow me on twitter at @reflect_o!  Winning!  I’m the be-

FF:  Hey easy – let’s stay on topic okay?

Reflecto:  Whatever – fine.

FF:  What was your best moment on a photo shoot?

Reflecto: When you are supremely talented like me there are just too many to choose from.  I enjoyed smacking Doug in the face on a shoot once.  It was quite genius really – I waited for a really windy day and then “bam”!  I really think he just thought it was the wind that caused it.  Hahaha!

FF:  You must have other moments that don’t involve violence…

Reflecto:  Okay I’ll admit that I do get some satisfaction when my beautiful reflecting makes a senior look great.  It definitely validates how great I am, and if the #frameables (yes I’ll appease Doug and Ally and call them that) are happy as a result then that’s a bonus.

FF:  Who is Blocko?

Reflecto:  I don’t know what you’re talking about.

(side note – “Blocko” is Reflecto’s alter ego and he’s nicer than Reflecto – we’re not sure why he didn’t want to talk about it)

FF:  We know that sometimes you try to blind the frameables by reflecting the sun into their eyes.  Do you think they deserve that?

Reflecto:  The media embellished that story.  My talent can be “blinding” – whoever made that comment meant it figuratively not literally.  Like Michael Jackson told Paul McCartney I’m a lover not a fighter.

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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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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!

 

 

7 Tips For Getting The Most From Professional Headshots

In today’s world of social media and with the opportunities available for online networking and Professional Headshotsmarketing,  great professional headshots are more important than ever.  So where do you start?  How should you go about it?

7 Tips For Getting The Most From Professional Headshots:

  1. Go to a pro.  Okay so we’ll admit that this tip is a little self serving – this is a blog for a professional photography studio after all…  But whether you live in Metro Detroit and come to us, live in Metro Detroit and don’t come to us, or wherever you might be reading this, the point is do NOT leave your professional reputation and image to a friend with a camera phone, and choose your studio carefully.  Headshots are not that expensive and you need to make a good impression – it’s worth spending the extra 100 or even 200 dollars to have a high quality photo.  A good headshot by itself is not likely to land you a million dollar deal, but a crappy unprofessional headshot could potentially lose you one.
  2. Have your headshot match the type of business you are in and your approach to that business.  For example, if you are an attorney you will want a different headshot if you are in the business of putting away the bad guys or enforcing non-competes for corporations than if you are an amicable divorce attorney.  If your job requires you to be tough and serious than you may want to look serious in your photo.  If your job requires you to be helpful and understanding than you may want to look caring and inviting – with a nice smile.
  3. Try to stand out a little.  Depending on your business it helps to not be boring.  If you are in a creative business and you are trying to increase sales based on your ability to come up with a wow factor then it’s okay to be edgy.  A cool hat, an unconventional expression, a different color background – if you are an artist be true to your style.
  4. Be careful in trying to stand out.  Don’t go overboard.  If you are trying to stand out and it comes off as silly or unprofessional it can backfire.  If you find yourself asking if your idea is a little too cheesy than it probably is.  Use the advice of your pro who is in the business.
  5. Be prepared.  This would seem to go without saying, but think about your clothing ahead of time.  Make sure your hair is done/combed properly, and if you are a woman a good rule of thumb is 30% more makeup than usual.
  6. Make sure you update often enough to match how you look.  If you gain or lose a considerable amount of weight, if you have decided to shave your head or shave your beard after wearing one for 5 years, if you have gone grey since your last headshot, it’s time for a new one.
  7. Update your profiles.  Once you get your headshot make sure you update every profile you use online – especially the personal profiles you use for business.  This includes your website as well as your LinkedIn, twitter, and others for example.  As an extra tip within a tip, consider how you use your different profiles.  For example you may use facebook purely for personal purposes and therefore you may not want to use your professional headshot for your facebook profile.  That’s fine, but be aware that just because you’ve distinguished your personal profile as personal that doesn’t mean that how you conduct yourself there may not impact your professional reputation.  It can – absolutely.

We hope this helps and we wish you success!  What other tips do you have that have helped you for getting great professional headshots as a client or taking them as a photographer?

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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
************************************************
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!