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.

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:

While we’re sitting in the hotel room waiting out the snowstorm, I thought I would post some of Ethan and Sarah’s pics from this weekend.
We came out to Colorado to photograph their wedding in Morrison, Colorado. We flew in last Thursday and then went out with them for a photo shoot on Friday. We went to the ranch that Ethan is staying at, along with the town of Golden, Colorado which is where we stayed. Then we went up to Red Rocks State Park which was a really cool place to go!! The weather was cold, but Sarah was a champ doing the pics goosebumps and all!!
Friday they had a cowboy themed wedding at Willow Ridge Manor and the weather turned out to be absolutely beautiful for them!
Thanks for a great weekend Ethan and Sarah!!
Here are a few photos from their shoot on Friday:

I just finished creating a brief lighting tutorial from the practice session that we did with Abbey a few days ago. For anyone that is interested in seeing the rooms that these images were shot in along with a brief description of the setup and work done, you can download the tutorial at:
http://www.arisingimages.com/learn/advanced_class/off_camera_lighting/

Here’s just a quick sample showing the image along with the room it was taken in. There is much more detail on the link above.

So as you can see from recent posts on the blog, we’ve been really wanting to do more work with off-camera flash and one of the biggest parts to that like any art form is practice practice practice.
Cheridy and I were ready to give it a whirl. Our friend Abbey from our church needed some photos and we needed a model and she worked out perfect. Everything about Abbey was exactly what we needed for a shoot like this…her hair, her makeup, all the fun clothes and jewelry she brought with her, etc. She was gracious enough to be patient with us as we made adjustments and tried out new things. Cheridy and I worked with her all afternoon and we got some great photos and learned a lot in the process so…thanks Abbey!!!
One of our goals from the photo shoot was to prove to ourselves that we could take cool photos anywhere so we challenged ourselves to shoot a photo in every room of our house including the bathrooms, laundry room, hallways, etc.
I will be putting together an educational page that shows what the rooms looked like and what we did to make the photos work, but that’s coming later. For now, here’s some of the pics:

This weekend is Easter. It’s REALLY early this year and actually is the earliest weekend for Easter for the next couple hundred years!
Our church (Kensington) always has a big production on Easter weekend which is typically attended by between 20-30 thousand people.
The message this weekend was fantastic and for anyone that didn’t go today, hopefully you’ll get a chance to check it out tomorrow.

The volunteers that did the set creation did an amazing job creating a park like setting with trees, a fountain, park bench, etc. There were also lifesize chess pieces that all tied into the theme of the King being Jesus.
It was a great service. I attended the 1:00 service at the Troy campus to take photos and then went to the 5:00 service with Cheridy’s family at North campus.
The music, drama, and message were all fantastic.

Here’s a link for a 60 second slideshow:
http://www.arisingimages.com/slideshows/20080322_easter

Here’s a coupe of preview photos:

Today we had the chance to get together with our friends Brett and Anna one more time. They are really getting their business ramped up and needed some head shots so we did a photo shoot with them today. We planned on doing it outside but it was just ridiculously cold today so we stayed inside and did a bunch of pics.