This morning at the incredible Royal Park Hotel in Rochester, MI, they held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the annual gingerbread house.
This isn’t just ANY gingerbread house. It’s an 8ft x 8ft x 8ft gingerbread house on a rotating platform and it’s incredible!
The mayor of Rochester was there for the ribbon cutting ceremony and this marks the unofficial start to the Christmas season for the city of Rochester.

House of Hope is a day care that is part of Grace Centers of Hope in Pontiac, MI. We’ve been partnering with them for the past few years to get photos of the kids for their annual calendar. “Grace Centers of Hope is Oakland County’s oldest and largest homeless shelter providing hope and help since 1942. Today, Grace Centers of Hope is considered one of the leading faith-based organizations in Southeastern Michigan daily confronting issues of homelessness, addiction, poverty and spiritual emptiness. On any given night, Grace Centers of Hope will accommodate between 150-200 men, women and children. Each year we serve over 127,000 meals and provide over 55,000 nights of stay.”

For more information about children’s photography in Michigan, please go here arisingkids.com

2010 was an amazing year for us and I put together a collection of images shot throughout the year that includes photos and paintings from weddings, landscapes, babies, high school seniors, etc.
These images were created through a lot of hard work, but we feel blessed to have been a part of all these things and hope you enjoy this video slideshow.

Last weekend we had the pleasure of attending and capturing images for the 85th birthday of Frank Shane. The extravagant party was put on by his son Steve and held at It’s a Matter of Taste in Commerce Twp, MI. It was our first time there and we found it to be a great venue for social gatherings, plus the food was great! The entertainment for the evening included a DJ, two swing dance teams and a fun photobooth. From the sound of the speeches, Frank has led a full and exciting life and is surrounded by a lot of people that love him. Cheers!

A few weeks ago at our Rochester Hills, MI studio we took some amazing artistic pregnancy photos for Amber, whose baby is due to arrive in early December. We had photographed her awesome 2005 wedding and were delighted to hear from her again now that she is with child. Only Amber knows if she is having a boy or girl since her husband wants to be surprised! Amber showed up to the shoot all smiles and was incredibly relaxed and easy to photograph; this is one confident woman! It’s easy to see why, she looked quite the part of a goddess!

We recently photographed children at the Grace Centers of Hope in Pontiac, MI in order to help them create their 2011 Calendar with proceeds benefiting those in need. Grace Centers of Hope is a non-profit Christian organization committed to positively changing the lives of the homeless, addicted and unwanted through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, personal accountability, life skills education and work-related programs. The organization also has several thrift store locations where you can donate or shop and proceeds go back to supporting the mission.

See more of the inspiring childrens photography from this shoot

Cheridy just called me outside to take a look at a weird looking spider that was about to much on a bee that was still alive!
Nature is disgusting but intriguing at the same time!!

This afternoon we got to do some photos with Liz. We photographed her senior pictures a few years ago and now we’re working on another project with her.

We had a really fun and different project recently. There is a great local organization called NACE (National Association of Catering Executives) . They are doing their annual awards banquet and throwing in a bit of a murder mystery element to it.
We had to take some of the board members and make them look like murder suspects which was pretty odd considering how these people are all respected business owners. We had a blast doing these photos because they were all REALLY good sports about it!!

Kurt – Mike Staff Productions

Sue – Royal Park Hotel

Linda – No these are not her real teeth – it’s just photoshop!

Todd – Chair Covers and Linens

Nolan – Shutterbooth

Ryan – Epic Motion

Kelly – Governors Events Director

This morning we had a great photo shoot with Jim and Joan with their yacht at the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club. Jim is the father of Paige and a couple years ago we filled Paige and her husband’s Doctors office with large fine art canvas prints for their office. We also photographed their son Jake’s senior pics so it was nice to be able to photograph yet another part of the family. Jim and Joan have an amazing yacht and it was really cool to be able to photograph them on the boat and in/around their yacht club.
Here are a few favorite pics from this morning:

Our friend Amber works at Grace Centers of Hope which is an amazing organization in Pontiac, MI. They were in need of photographs for their next calendar which will be used as a fundraiser so Cheridy and I went out there this afternoon and took a bunch of shots of the kids playing and goofing around.
Grace Centers of Hope is Oakland County’s oldest and largest homeless shelter. They are considered one of the leading faith-based organizations in Southeastern Michigan daily confronting issues of homelessness, addiction, poverty and spiritual emptiness. To learn more or to donate to their cause, please go to their website: http://www.gracecentersofhope.org/

The people that work there are all so dedicated and passionate, we were glad to be able to see just a piece of what goes on there.

On Friday I had a mini art show as part of the Eyes on Design Show at the Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills. It was an event that focuses on automotive design but this year they expanded it to include, a fashion show, live museum, and other types of art. I was able to have a number of fine art pieces on display in the VIP lounge along with a few others around the main part of the museum.
It was a really interesting dynamic for me since I used to work at Design Center at GM. Seeing all the car models and concept cars really brought me back. I even ran into a number of people I used to work with back in the day. Being there reminded me how much I’m glad to not be working in the automotive world any more.

If anyone is interested in purchasing any large framed or canvas wrapped art work, please see our fine art page at www.arisingimages.com/fineart.

I spent some time walking around the museum to check out some of the cool displays.

Cheridy brought Mayz up to hang out for a little while: