This past weekend I had a chance to go down to Zion National Park in Utah with 40 guys from my church (Kensington Community Church in Troy, MI.)
It was like a mens retreat with hiking, camping, fellowship, etc. I got to meet a lot of great guys and enjoy the outdoors for a few days.

Zion is located in southwestern Utah and is one of the most impressive national parks in the United States. I’ve been to Zion a few times, but never with a group like this.  On this trip I didn’t take too many photos and instead just enjoyed the scenery and the people I was with.

The rest of our images from the Zion and Bryce region can be found on our website. Here is the direct link:
http://www.arisingimages.com/fineart/00_all/index.html?show=__Utah

Here are a few pictures:
This first one is from Observation Point which is the highest lookout point overlooking the park that you can hike to. Tom Wilson and I hiked up there on Saturday. It was a steep climb that definitely got the heart pumping, but it was well worth it for the views along the way and at the top:

Here is one of the views from the trail up to Observation Point. We got to walk through a really cool slot canyon:

This is just a quick photo showing part of the trails in Zion. The trail on the lower half of the picture is what goes up to Observation Point and the split and then zig zag on the upper half of the photo goes to Hidden Canyon.

This is a pic of our campsite with the moon about to rise over the majestic Watchman peak.

I brought an infrared camera with me and spent some time on Sunday shooting some pics around the valley. This one is down by the river right by the Court of the Patriarchs bus stop:

Here is another one from the same area:

I just wanted to say a quick thanks to the mens group that organized this trip. Planning a trip for 40 guys is no small chore, and they did a fantastic job!!

Tonight we had dinner with Marcin and Marzena from marcinharla.com who are fellow wedding photogs and friends. Marzena is going to be giving birth any day now ( a week overdue already!!) Since we just had Mayz a few months ago and had gone through some really helpful parenting classes, we had a lot to talk about!
We had a $50 gift certificate for the Melting Pot (which I typically refer to as “that melty place”) that was about to expire so we figured it would be a good opportunity to use it. Lots of people rave about that restaurant so it was our chance to check it out.
The food was ok, but to be honest, I don’t understand the hype. To pay $80 per couple (without drinks) and have to cook your own food seems pretty stupid, but I guess I’m just not fond of fondue! When the bill came, we realized that our $50 gift certificate that is expiring any day now is not valid on Fridays. Apparently I should have read it first.

Marcin took this quick photo of our family:

Here’s a quick one of them. I should have gotten more of her belly in the photos. She’s one of those pregnant women that stays quite thin but then has a little basketball belly. She definitely didn’t look or act like she was a week overdue!!

Here’s the gift certificate that would have served better as toilet paper:

Today the weather was amazing for Michigan in April. 75 degrees and sunny. But in the evening, the storm clouds rolled in with a cold front. I always love dramatic sky photos, so I had to take one since I had my camera.

This afternoon, we went to visit with our friends at Luigi Bruni Salon in Birmingham, MI. They did Mayz’ first haircut for us and man was it ever cute. The staff of the salon is super friendly with nothing but smiles. We love those guys!! Thanks to Jaime for setting this up for us and to Josie for doing an awesome job on the haircut, we had a great time!!
For anyone that’s interested in a great experience, make sure to check them out at
Luigi Bruni Salon
248-723-1500
706 N Old Woodward Ave
Birmingham, MI 48009

Check out this cute kid…he was a champion in the chair!! Hopefully now people will think he’s a boy and not a girl!!

He was feeling so cool and stylish after getting his haircut that he decided to hit the town and go do some shots!
Unfortunately he didn’t realize that shots meant immunizations and that wasn’t fun…he’s still hurting a little bit…. ouch!! Sorry buddy!!

Today I had the pleasure to hang out with Marcin Harla who is a great photographer and friend. We spent some time playing around with off-camera flash.
We played around with everything from a single flash to four flashes just to see what we could do.

Due to us both being business owners and professionals, we felt that it was very important to take some good photos that convey the utmost professionalism.

Here’s a couple of images that Marcin took of me:

This one was one of my favorites that he took with a fisheye lens:

Here is Marcin:

Despite the weather and road issues, we still had some good family time in Colorado.

Here’s one of Mayz hanging out on the bed at the hotel.

On the way back to the airport, we found a little stop on the side of the highway with a little river so we stopped so Mayz could see the water and we took a couple pics with him.

We have NO idea where Mayz got his crazy hair from. I guess it will just remain a mystery!!

Cheridy and I are out in Colorado right now. We shot a fantastic wedding (I’ll post images once we get home!). We planned on staying in Colorado for a few days to enjoy the beautiful mountains. Those of you that know me know that I’m very anal retentive about planning. This was one of the first trips that I didn’t plan very much and it’s been interesting.
Our first day we were going to head out to Dawn and Jay’s house who are Cheridy’s aunt and uncle but we found out that their daughter Devanie was in the hospital in Denver (I won’t go into details) so we ended up heading out to visit with them at the hospital which was really nice to have had that opportunity (we’ll be praying for ya Dev). After the hospital we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was mostly snowy and gloomy and due to my lack of planning, I was an idiot and didn’t realize that the road crossing the park was still closed for the season, so we drove out there, stayed in the hotel and planned on heading back towards Denver and then on to Vail the next day. I had some time in the hotel to do some planning so I found our new destinations, hotels, etc.

Today we headed to Vail and it was very snowy and miserable outside. We decided to stop for lunch in a town called Frisco which is near Vail. We stopped for lunch and then got back on the road and we saw a sign that said the main highway was closed due to an accident. They had put a road block down and we were the first car after the road was closed. We figured that it might take an hour to clear so we found an alternate route. We started driving that way but the weather was crazy and after looking at the new route in more detail, it was going to take us over two 11,000 ft. mountain passes and we were right in the middle of a severe weather warning. So, we decided to wait it out by the main expressway and hope that the road was cleared soon. We saw lots of ambulances and firetrucks go by and with each one we figured…only a few more minutes and they’ll open the gate. Two hours later, a guy came by informing us that there was a 70 car pileup at Vail pass and that the road would be closed for another 10-12 hours. So, we went back to Frisco and checked into a hotel.
We realized that if our lunch had only been 5 minutes shorter, we might have been right in the middle of that pileup. Thank God for that!
After we checked into the hotel, we got online and found that ALL the highways in the area were closed due to other accidents. All the hotels in Frisco are sold out and the red cross is considering opening up a shelter for all the people that can’t get a room. This is crazy!!!

Outside the snow is blowing so hard you can’t see anything…so much for the beautiful mountains!!! Now we just want to get out of here and get home, but after waiting on hold with United Airlines for 1 hour, I finally gave up.

Here’s what the roads looked like today:

This is what we looked at for 2 hours:

These were also painted off of images that I took at the Easter service last year.

This morning I dabbled in Corel Painter a little bit and did a painting of Jesus coming out of the tomb which was fitting since it was just Easter this past weekend.
This was painted from a photo that I took at last years Easter service at Kensington church…it was a really cool visual that I thought would be a great painting.

We just wanted to wish everyone a happy Easter.
For our family Easter represents the rebirth of Jesus Christ. As they talked about in church yesterday, the beauty of Easter is that when you think all is lost the King still has ONE MORE MOVE. That was one of the themes during church to point out that no matter how defeated you feel, you still have to trust that God can provide.

So…a lot of people wonder…where the heck did the Easter bunny come from and how did this religious holiday turn into a day where kids find colored eggs around their yard. This is what I found:

“The legend of the Easter Bunny is far from a modern invention. Long ago, the rabbit was the earthly symbol of the pagan goddess Eastre, and was worshipped in the pagan festival of Eastre. Germans brought the legend of the Easter rabbit to America, though Easter itself wasn’t widely celebrated in America until after the Civil War.
The hare has long been a symbol of fertility and renewal of life — which fit in with the Christian tradition of Easter and the tradition of Easter eggs.
In the United States, the Easter Bunny is fabled to lay the eggs in the nests prepared for it or hide them for children to find.”

From: http://www.knbc.com/easter/570562/detail.html

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:

So, we’ve heard about facebook for a while but just never had the time to look into it until now.
It’s really addicting and it’s pretty cool to learn some new things about friends and family.
If you have a facebook account, you can look us up on there because we all have pages now:

Prem Mukherjee
Cheridy Mukherjee
Mayz Mukherjee

Mayz might not be too responsive but…we’ll see.

Our church (Kensington Community Church in Troy, MI) is currently involved in massive fundraiser project that will not only help around local communities in Detroit and Pontiac, but also extend a loving hand to those that can’t help themselves. Part of the project is to help build small but fully functioning hospitals in one of the poorest areas and India and another one in Kenya. Places where people have no access to any type of medical care.
If you would like to learn more about that, you can watch the video by going to the site below and clicking on the “India and Kenya Hospitals” button at the bottom of the orange video list on the right side. Click here

Some people ask why we are so involved with overseas mission work when there is so much to be done right here. The answer to that is that there is work to be done everywhere and you have to help where your heart is calling you to help.
Cheridy and I just feel so blessed that we are here and that we have the opportunity to receive medical care and attention when we need it. Last week I had a cold and Cheridy was able to get me cough medicine and cough drops to help me to sleep better. It made me think of the people that can’t even have that. This morning actually I went in for some minor surgery and my biggest gripe was that my insurance company wouldn’t pay for my initial visit because it was billed as an office “consultation” instead of an office “visit”. Apparently they pay for “visits” but not for “consults” which is stupid BUT…when I think of these people overseas… we are just ridiculously blessed. In the video I mentioned above, they talk about a woman who died recently during childbirth because the baby’s hand was coming out first and both the mother and baby didn’t make it through the delivery. The nearest hospital was 50-100 miles away walking. That obviously reminded me of Mayz’ birth where Cheridy and I got to be in a nice comfy room in a hospital that we drove for 3 miles to get to. She had an epidural to keep her comfortable and when there was even remote risk of problems, she went in for a c-section and 20 minutes later we were all together as a happy healthy family. We are truly blessed!!

Here’s a photo of some kids that we met while working in a remote part of Nicaragua a few years ago. These are the lucky ones that made it and I would bet money that none of them were born in a hospital.