Professional Services in Forest Hills

Fruit Basket Flowerland’s 20 acres of nursery space contain beautiful hanging baskets, annuals, and perennials. The nursery has seen those perennials bloom dozens of times since it opened back in 1949, and today the business has blossomed out to three locations. Home gardeners can peruse a huge selection of soil, fertilizer, and plants, or sign up for instructive gardening classes, which teach participants to care for their plants and to exterminate weeds without running afoul of weeds-rights activists. Fruit Basket Flowerland also houses a vast selection of patio furniture and three lines of Weber grills.

Open every day of the week, Uptown Cleaners prizes promptness as much as it does availability. The family-owned business dry-cleans an expansive assortment of garments, both formal and casual, with a typical turnaround time of one to two days. To ensure tangible wedding memories without locking the band in their basement, guests can rely on the cleaning staff to preserve wedding dresses.

Skilled shutterbug Dusty Brown snaps images that capture candid expressions and draw out interpersonal dynamics during in-studio and on-location shoots. To tell the unique story of each family, Brown encourages everyone to be themselves. He clicks away as moms smile, teenagers remain in their comfort zones, and toddlers play and pretend to invest in real estate. His family portrait sessions depict kin's togetherness and moments of genuine laughter, whereas his engagement and wedding shoots delve into the special relationship of each couple, memorializing their union with giddy interactions in fields, on carousels, or at the diamond store they first robbed together. After Brown has recorded a story with his camera, he invites patrons to view images on an online gallery and order prints or photo CDs of high-resolution images.

Jessica Christensen has spent much of her decade-long career photographing models prone to unexplained screaming fits—babies. Families in her First Year Baby Club enjoy a year’s worth of quarterly photo sessions, which document their tot’s transformation from a baby to a baby who makes mortgage payments. For subjects with more birthdays under their belts, Christensen captures lifelong connections in vivid, high-contrast shots of parents and children or newlyweds.

Christensen also helps budding photographers to compose their own professional-quality images with hands-on photo courses. Her introductory sessions focus on camera settings for point-and-shoots and DSLRs alike. More advanced workshops explore the shores of Lake Michigan and other outdoor venues, and they frequently involve portraiture practice with live models, rather than the less expressive faces of text-message emoticons.

Dan Johnson fell in love with photography using a simple point-and-shoot in high school, toting his lens to summer camp, onto rollercoasters, and through marching-band performances. This love has grown into a successful career as a wedding and portrait photographer—one he pursues with his wife, Jodi, in their spacious Grandville studio. Dan and his team deftly capture senior portraits, snap romantic, lively wedding photographs, and preserve images of babies and newborns for use in embarrassing one's children in front of their future spouses. The pair also creates wholesale prints through their sister company, GoProPrints.com.

When Brandon and Emily Mulnix became the owners of Modern Photographics, they inherited a 30-year legacy rooted in capturing quality portraits. Honoring the business's namesake, Brandon has brought the company into modern times, exclusively snapping digital images of digital images. With a style that combines the raw emotion of photojournalism with the allure of fashion photography, he shoots posed and traditional photos at weddings and portrait sessions before focusing on candid, natural moments. Brandon harnesses natural light at every on-location appointment, while inside his studio he works with professional lighting and each client receives full hair and makeup treatments. After shoots, clients choose their favorite poses to preserve with one of Modern Photographics’ extensive print options.