Prem and Cheridy / Arising Images - Year in Review 2006

Dear friends, family, clients, etc. Every year Cheridy and I send out our newsletter to keep people up on what we have been doing for anyone interested. This year we will be trying out a new email utility that will manage our contacts and our mailing list. We will most likely be sending out some type of quarterly newsletter along with other occasional announcements. If you do NOT want to receive any emails from us, please use the unsubscribe link on the bottom of the email message. For those of you that are on our blog regularly (ArisingImages.com/blog) a lot of this will be stuff that you've already read about. If this message did not come through with correct formatting, you can always view it online here:

http://www.arisingimages.com/temp_folders/newsletter_2006/

2006 was an amazing year for Cheridy and I, both in our business and our personal lives. We started out the year thinking about our business which was growing fast. Meeting with clients in our condo was not working well anymore.  We decided it was time to look for a house.  At the time, I still had my part time job at General Motors and Cheridy was working part time at Tour Connection. 

At the end of January we had some plane ticket vouchers that were going to expire so we decided to fly down to the Florida Keys to see what the fuss was all about.  All I really remember was 100 miles of road and strip malls...not impressed. Since we don’t scuba dive, drink, or fish, the Keys wasn't our favorite, but we enjoyed just being together none-the-less. We also had a day in Miami which we enjoyed.

Right when we got back, we ended up finding a house that was perfect for us.  It is a quad-level house (in Sterling Heights) which meant that with the multiple levels, it would be easier to separate business space from personal space.  Now, the only problem is to sell the condo.
In February I started teaching my photography and photoshop classes over at the Kensington Art School which has been a lot of fun for me.  The next class starts on January 18th , 2007 if anyone is interested:
http://www.kensingtonartschool.com/photography/
The next few weeks Cheridy and I spent a lot of time working on the back end things about our business along with doing some miscellaneous photo shoots followed by our first wedding of the year.

April ended up being a really exciting month for us.  We went to a photography convention in Las Vegas where, once again, we learned a lot of new things to try and implement over the coming year.  Immediately upon coming back we left for South Africa on a mission trip to Esikhawini which is the same place that I went to back in 2000.  We spent two weeks running medical clinics over there.  Cheridy and I became pharmacists…dispersing the medicines that the doctors had prescribed. 
Here is one of the clinics that we ran up in the mountains:

You can read more about our experience in Africa here:
http://arisingimages.com/blog/?p=48

In May, the weather started to improve which meant the main wedding season kicked off.  In-between shooting and processing weddings, we spent some time trying to implement some of the many things we had learned at the conference in Vegas.  I also spent some time trying to learn Corel Painter…occasionally getting some good results, but it will take a LOT more practice.

The biggest thing that happened in May was that I was finally able to quit my job at General Motors to pursue our dream of having a fulltime photography business.  It was a real relief because I had been working 50-60 hours per week on the photography business for the last few years and it was tough to do while holding another job. Cheridy continued working part time at Tour Connection where she really enjoys her job. Quitting at GM was interesting timing since we had just bought a house and have not sold the condo yet, but we felt that it was the right time.

May and June we did some shoots for our church where they had a few crazy/fun events. They really focus on art and creativity and trying to do things in a unique way.  Can you believe these were at church? The 80's hair band was a wild Sunday morning and believe it or not, it WAS related to the message!! The image below was from a poster that I designed for them.

We also shot the Scleroderma foundation's annual Walk and Run event where we got to meet Barry Sanders. Barry is an extremely humble person who is an amazing role model for kids...I used to draw pictures of him when I was in high school.

The early parts of the summer were spent getting moved in and situated in our new house and we finally have a nice consultation space to work in.  However, most of our time was spent on weddings.

In July we took a 10 day break and went to Austria for a vacation.  We rented a car and drove all around the country and photographed the beautiful sites from the tiny hillside villages to the Austrian Alps to the castle that inspired Sleeping Beauty.

The odd thing about this trip was that for the first time, we were actually starting to get tired of traveling and looked forward to being home.  It was a weird feeling.  We have been incredibly blessed over the last few years to have had the opportunity to travel the world.

August was when things started getting really crazy because on top of the weddings, the high school seniors started coming by for portraits which kept us really busy.

Right in the thick of things, I had a four day convention in Chicago where I learned a ton about marketing.  That was a good thing, except when I came home, my head was full of new ideas to implement. While there, I had the chance to go into the city to shoot some street scenes.

For our wedding work, we really pushed ourselves to get bolder and more “artsy” with the type of images that we are taking, and we are really loving being able to express ourselves in different ways.

In October our wedding season was coming to an end and I started teaching my photography classes again. I also had a chance to get away for a week to go on a road trip out East. Cheridy and I spend practically every waking moment together because we're best friends along with husband/wife along with business partners so every once in a while, it's a healthy thing to get away. She gets some time to just relax at home, and I got a chance to get back to my roots and do some travel photography. This year I drove 2600 miles in 6 days. I went east, for the fall color, from Detroit to Massachusetts and then down through some of the eastern states to West Virginia and then back home. I was able to visit a few friends along the way which was really nice!

In November, Cheridy made her acting debut at Kensington playing a giant fishing lure in one of their dramas. I'm sure she'll just LOVE having this photo in this newsletter!!

We also had a number of really good baby portrait shoots and are hoping to do many more shoots like that over the winter months. Please pass along our info to anybody that might be interested. Thanks!!

One of the highlights of November was when our good photographer friends (Frank Lombardo) took some photos of Cheridy and I, which was a real treat.  I know everyone always says that we don’t ever show pics of us so…here are a couple (thanks Frank!!)

For it being the first year fulltime in business, 2006 was a really good year for us. We are really excited about the jobs we have booked for 2007. We are about 80% booked for 2007 weddings and hoping to really build our portrait business into a high end portrait boutique, catering to those looking for something different. There's always so much to do and learn, it can get overwhelming and frustrating at times, but it's so incredibly rewarding to have the opportunity to work with people at some of their most special times in life. Now, when I work long hours...I love it, and I get to do most of it with Cheridy which is incredible!!

We just want to thank all of our family, friends, and clients for your support and your business.

For anyone interested, we typically update our blog quite often, so check that for more regular updates:
ArisingImages.com/blog

If you know anyone else that might be interested in receiving our newsletters, you can tell them to sign-up by clicking here. Again, if you do NOT want to receive any emails from us, you can click the link at the bottom of the page to unsubscribe.

Please feel free to send us an email to let us know how you’re doing.

Thanks and God Bless!

Prem and Cheridy

PS...We're still trying to sell our condo so if anyone is interested, please call us. 1600 sq. ft, 3-bedroom, attached garage, etc. for $119,000 in Warren right across from the GM Tech Center in a quiet neighborhood.

586-944-7736
info@arisingimages.com