Tag Archives: west bloomfield photographer

Tori Had A “Purple Reign” On Her Senior Session!

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A high school senior who goes retro on the music for their session is a senior after our own hearts, and when Tori told us she liked Prince we were excited – we love jamming to Prince!  Besides Prince goes with purple which we already had in the game plan with our new purple backdrop.  Plus Tori’s school colors include purple and she really owned her session, so yeah – you could say Tori had a Purple Reign!

Tori came in with her mom and both of them are so nice – not to mention her grandma stopped by as well!  We were actually impressed with Tori from our first meeting when she told us her plans for college and postgraduate study – she’s a girl on a mission and she has a great game plan.

So let’s get to her pictures shall we?  We started out on the white background with Tori in her cheer uniform – love this!  Blackhawk spirit!

Purple Reign

Next let’s get to a couple on the black backdrop – love the ‘tude in these next couple photos starting with the hoodie.  A little “fierce” and a lot beautiful – so cool!

Purple Reign

I mentioned in the last blog post that the next two sessions will be one all indoors and one all outdoors.  An all studio or all location session is a nice change of pace and allows us as in this case with Tori to fully explore our studio options.  As I said earlier Tori owned this session and she really had it going at this point…

Purple Reign

Here’s our fun behind the scenes vine of the session…

Lastly we moved to the purple backdrop which we are really in love with and it really worked for Tori as you will see in this last photo!

Purple Reign

And that concludes our highlights of Tori’s purple reign!  We hope you enjoyed them!

Spokesmodeling Outside Was So Great With Cait(lin)!

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After another brutally cold winter we are finally able to get outside for some sessions and it feels so good!!! While it was still a little chilly the conditions were still pretty darn good on this one and we have to say that spokesmodeling outside was SO great with Caitlin!!!  We saw a bunch of deer and were treated to the sounds of a particularly industrious woodpecker too!

As for our spokesmodel, well the pictures will speak for themselves!  Caitlin is beautiful and a total sweetheart!  A total natural in front of the camera, we were looking forward to photographing her and this session didn’t disappoint.

Let’s start with a couple of studio shots before we head out to one of our favorite meadows, beginning with our black background:

Spokesmodeling OutsideWe love Caitlin’s style – so far the class of 2016 is really bringing it!

Next let’s look at one on the white background which is nice and simple and you can never go wrong with it.  As excited as we were to go outside, more often than not our seniors do a combination of studio and on location so we usually highlight both with our spokesmodels wherever possible.  It’s not a rule by any means – we’ve had seniors who have done all inside or all outside.  Either way we go for three hours and it’s really just personal preference.

Spokesmodeling Outside

Here is our fun behind the scenes vine as we get set to go outside!

First we hit the meadow and we were pleased to find it looking particularly “meadowy” with tall reeds and the sunlight was great!

Spokesmodeling Outside

The combination of her outfit with those shoes is fantastic!  The backlight on her hair is beautiful and this was the first time we took this chair outside.  This shot just came together perfectly.

You may know if you’ve followed us for a while that sometimes if a senior uses a new prop or pioneers a new spot it gets named for them.  On this session we found “Caitlin’s rock”!  This is a nice shot to end with for now – hazy and soft.

Spokesmodeling Outside

So that’s it for now – we hope you enjoyed these highlights from Caitlin’s stunning session and we are looking forward to more outdoor shots as it continues to warm up and Spring starts to bloom.  Ironically we have two class of 2015 senior sessions to highlight coming up – one all indoors and one all outdoors – so stay tuned!

Two Little Rock Star Brothers (and their mommy)!

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Photographing brothers at four and two years old in theory can be an adventure, and these two rambunctious rock stars were anything but boring!  They were total hams and they had us cracking up.  Alternately having fun with each other, fighting, smiling, running, and touching stuff – so in other words basically they’re perfect.  Ha – you’ll see that in the end they totally rocked it and they are just gorgeous kids!

We went for the simple casual look with jeans and white t-shirts for the most part and their mom jumped in for a few really cute photos as well.

Let’s start with a couple individual shots of our rock star brothers – one in color of the two year old:

Rock Star BrothersAnd one of older brother in black and white…

Rock Star Brothers

How awesome are they?  They were dancing and rocking out to the “gummy bear song” and various versions of the gummy bear song for most of the session.  It was quite hilarious, and let’s look at the behind the scenes vine of our time together while we’re at it – love this:

Now we will take a look at one of our photos with mommy – there are a few of these from the session and we really like the story of this one.  Little guy looking around while mommy is loving on him and holding big brother while he focuses on the camera.  Everyone touching, everyone connected.

Rock Star Brothers

Love it.

Lastly let’s take a look at a shot of the two brothers together – brothers and friends!

Rock Star Brothers

So there it is – two little rock star brothers and their mommy.  We were so happy to have them here and we are thrilled to have them on our blog!  We hope you enjoyed the highlights from their session!

Frameable Birds and Gators From The Florida Everglades!

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Frameable birds and gators from the Florida Everglades you ask?  Yes!  We recently took a family road trip down to Florida and we did our typical itinerary of Civil War Battlefields such as Lookout Mountain, Resaca, Kennesaw Mountain and Olustee, local eateries such as McKinley’s Bread Shop & Deli in Shelbeyville, KY, The Bear’s Den in Macon, GA, Padrino’s and Flakowitz in South Florida, as well as our traditional stop for Skyline Chili in Ohio.

Here’s a shot of our fam at the Olustee Battlefield in Florida taken by the friendly park ranger with my iPhone:

Cohen family at Olustee Battlefield

Meanwhile part of our Florida trip entailed driving from Delray Beach on the East coast to Captiva Island for a wedding on the Gulf Coast which took us through Alligator Alley which is the stretch of I-75 that cuts straight through the Florida Everglades.  It’s a straight shot without much civilization along the way although there is certainly a ton of wildlife including (of course) plenty of alligators!  You can see them just hanging out on the side of the highway on the other side of the fence that runs along the side of the whole drive – they can’t really get to the highway.  However it’s hard when you’re traveling at 70 mph to get a good look, so we turned down one of the few crossroads where there wasn’t much traffic, put on our hazards, and looked for gators…

Screenshot 2015-03-03 14.46.29

That cross road in the center of the map (route 29) is where we were, and it didn’t take long before we saw one gator after the other just on the other side of the little creek that ran along the side of the road.  Here there was no fence – just a guard rail, so Ally pulled out her camera and shot from the car as you can see here:

Ally photographing a gator

Every now and then Ally shoots some landscapes or wildlife when we are on a trip just for fun and inspiration and while this is not our niche we like to share them for fun!  Plenty of gators and exotic birds – we aren’t bird watchers so if anyone wants to help us identify these please share in the comments!

Florida Everglades Of all the alligators we saw, we only saw one of them actually move…  Most of them were just chilling out.  As a side note I did do a little basic research to confirm that these are indeed gators and not crocs and I’m reasonably sure they are alligators.  Now let’s take a look at some birds:

Florida Everglades

And a few more shots…

Florida Everglades

Florida EvergladesFlorida EvergladesFlorida EvergladesThe best photo op we had was when we spotted two gators hanging out together – the one up on the bank was the one who moved – as we were pulling away he slid down into the water to join his friend for a little swim.

Florida Everglades

Florida EvergladesSo there you have it – some fun photos by Ally in Alligator Alley!  We hope you enjoyed these!  See ya later gators!!!

MAXimum Spokesmodeling For The Class of 2016!

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Time for some highlights of our second spokesmodel session for the class of 2016 – our first boy and our first North Farmington Raider – Max!  We have known Max for a long time and over the last year or so he’s been lobbying for his shot in the spotlight, and we can definitely say that when his time came he made the most of it!  We had a lot of fun on this session – you might even say it was “on fire” – but more on that later…

Max’s mom joined us for part of the shoot and we have also known her for years so this was really a great day.  Let’s get to it…

Much like our last spokesmodel session with Rachel we kept it simple with Max, starting with the white background.  White is always a good look and works on most any wall.  We’ll start with a full length shot:

Maximum SpokesmodelingJust a nice casual look with a cool hoodie – Max is the man.  Let’s change Max into a t-shirt and crop him in a little closer now – parents really like to see their senior’s face!

Maximum Spokesmodeling

Stud!  Next we broke out the black backdrop for a little more of a dramatic look…

Maximum Spokesmodeling

Lastly here is where the session got a little “heated” – if you’ve followed our blog in the past you can guess what we mean – take a look at our fun behind the scenes vine of the day!

And here is the fiery result – this time we had the flames coming off of some sweet Jordans…

Maximum Spokesmodeling

Not to worry – no seniors or Nikes were harmed in the making of this photo.  Haha…  And so there you have it!  MAXimum spokesmodeling with Max!  Looking forward to more of the new class of 2016 crew and sharing them with you!

Class of 2016 Spokesmodels – Off And Running With Rachel!

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Yes it’s that time of the year again when we start preparing for the upcoming class of 2016 senior photo season with highlights of our awesome new spokesmodels!  This is always a very exciting time for us as we enter into these new relationships with these impressive young future leaders as they inspire us and make us laugh.  Making new friends is the best part of what we do and our new roster is shaping up to be another wonderful crew.  While this winter may not be quite as brutal as last year’s was, it’s been pretty cold lately so we’ll probably be starting off with a lot of studio work which is fine since we had to replace some backdrops that we lost in the “great Frameable Faces flood of 2015”.

Meanwhile Rachel is the first spokesmodel we would like to share photos of with you and the only one we photographed before the flood hit us.  She’s a West Bloomfield Laker and she’s great – she’s a dancer, she’s on the pom team and she’s just a cool girl all around.  We’re happy to kick it off with her, so without further adieu here we go – off and running with Rachel for 2016!

First we started with our black background which we played around with a bit – the blowy, a couple outfits and we’re going to start off with this soft black and white shot with this cute headband. Running With RachelRachel looked great and with her we focused mainly on just her – simple, solid colors, a variety of outfits and Rachel’s smile.  Now would probably be a good time for a shout out to Gloria at The Beauty Lounge for the makeup!  Let’s look at the brown background next:

Running With Rachel

This is a great combo for her skin tone, hair and the maroon and beige colors.  As we did last year we are continuing with our fun behind the scenes vines of our sessions and here is Rachel’s:

Let’s move to the blue that you see in the vine next… the different colors seem to bring out different shades of color in her beautiful eyes!

Running With Rachel

And lastly we broke out the red and we love the way Rachel was engaging with the camera at this point in the session – really owning it!

Running With Rachel

So there it is, and yes we’re off and running with a new class of spokesmodels – off and running with Rachel!  Stay tuned as we introduce you to the rest of our crew one by one over the next couple of months as we lead into the new senior class!

An Epic Session And Cake Smash With A One Year Old Superstar!

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We photographed this lovely couple years ago when they got engaged, and now they have added to the family with a precious and yummy little girl who they brought to the studio for some one year photos and a cake smash.  What a day – this little one was as close to perfect as a one year old can be for a session!  She was a total ham, worked the camera like a pro, and treated us to quite possibly the most epic cake smash in Frameable Faces history!!!  She had an audience as well with her grandparents there to watch, and she delivered – a true one year old superstar!

Let’s get to the photos shall we?  Let’s start with our featured model on her own!

One Year Old Superstar

How adorable is she???  Okay let’s get mommy and daddy into a shot and enjoy the happy family together:

One Year Old Superstar

Just a great shot of the three of them.  Now let’s get into a little more fun…  this is where our little princess started to really get going…

One Year Old Superstar

See what we mean?  How awesome is that outfit?  The hat, shirt and tutu – it all comes together for total cuteness.  Let’s take a little look at our behind the scenes vine of the session where you can really see how much fun our little one was having, and you’ll start to see the cake smash.

So as we mentioned, the cake smash was epic indeed.  She loved the cake and really didn’t need much prompting to get going on it.  She made a fantastic mess which is a lot of fun to watch.  Take a look!

One Year Old Superstar

So there you have it!  The one year old superstar with her epic cake smash!  So yummy and so fun – we hope you enjoyed these photos from our session with her!

Our New Neighbors Across The Hall – Cycle And Row!

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There is going to be some sweating, working, cycling, and rowing going on across the hall really soon, and we are so excited about it!  Recently we had a fun photo session here at the studio with our new neighbors – the folks from Cycle And Row!  We had a photo session for their new website and we wanted to share a few of the photos with you!

Karen and Samantha are a mother and daughter team who came up with the Cycle And Row concept together and along with Karen’s husband Paul and Samantha’s fiancé Jeff they are pursuing their dream together starting right here in the Orchard Mall!  Let’s start with a group shot!

New Neighbors

Their website is already up and their schedule is available with class starting on 2/12/15 so you should check it out and sign up.  Cycle and Row is split into two main rooms with rowing on one side and cycling on the other and they have an enthusiastic crew of instructors who we also photographed.  You can meet and read about them all at the website.  As for these four, well as you can imagine they just light up if you ask them about fitness and what Cycle And Row has to offer, which is actually more than just just cycling and rowing.  I won’t try to explain it all in this post, but suffice it to say I was really impressed with their approach.

Meanwhile we had a blast on the photo shoot…  They hauled the equipment into our studio and we got some fun action shots!  Here is the fun behind the scenes vine of our session…  🙂

Now let’s take a look at a photo of mom and daughter…

New Neighbors

And one of daughter Sam and fiancé Jeff…

New Neighbors

They’re a cute pair aren’t they?  Now let’s wrap it up with one more of the whole crew…

New Neighbors

We wish them the best of luck and much success and we welcome them to the Orchard Mall!  As I mentioned before check out their website, and like them on Facebook, and follow them on Instagram and Twitter too.  We are excited for our new neighbors!

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

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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
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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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A Family That Fits Together Like Pieces Of A Perfect Puzzle!

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We have been really fortunate to meet some really special families over the last few months, like several in a row that we’ve just connected with from the first minute we met them and this next family was no exception.  This is a case of a crew that have only been all together for several short years, and yet they clearly fit like pieces of a perfect puzzle and you would think they’ve been together forever – they all get along so well and just seem comfortable together!  Paige and Dean have awesome kids, and as it turned out Dean and I have some shared and unique connections that we discovered that night going back to Dean and my brothers’ college football days.

Meanwhile the oldest son was in town from college on break so this provided the occasion for some family photos while they were all together, and we planned the shoot for their house.  They liked the idea of focusing on black and white photos, and they turned out so well!  We actually shoot in color and then convert them to black and white afterwards, but it’s neat when you know you are shooting for black and white – it forces you to approach the photos in a slightly different way which is a lot of fun.  Let’s start with a nice family portrait of everyone together…

Perfect Puzzle

What a fine looking group!  Next let’s take a look at a couple different combos.  First Dean and his two guys:

Perfect Puzzle

Followed by Paige and her guy and gal!

Perfect Puzzle

Here is our little behind the scenes vine of the evening – gotta love the “brotherly love” – haha!

Now for one more and this is a unique one – shooting down at them from the upstairs landing.  We love the way this one turned out!

Perfect Puzzle

So there you have it – the family that fits together like a perfect puzzle!  When we were done they “made” us stay for dinner and we had a great time!  New friends!