donate $50+ and get a spiffy little raffle ticket to win an hour-long pet portrait session from benton park photography co.

but, frankly, what i suck at is selling.  you will find no inkling of a used car salesman in me.  when i was a kid, i could talk anyone into anything, but as an adult, i have become much more introverted.  i don't think that is a bad thing necessarily, however, the ultimate goal of running a business, as enjoyable as it is to do something you love, is to make money.  

as we think about ways to expand our business and create what we see as an unfulfilled niche in the st. louis market, high-end pet photography, we are analyzing all parts of benton park photo co.  passive marketing is easy.  post to the blog every so often, try to be active on facebook, blahblahblah.  we want to go viral, not like STD viral.  did she just write that?  

so, in an effort to step out of our comfortable little, introverted, passive marketing box, we'll be at bark in the park saturday to meet as many pets and their people as we can.  our goal is to network with at least 50 people and photograph their pets.  if you find and approach us and say, "i love my furry friends," we'll hand you a little raffle ticket for a top-secret raffle.  and we'll be super stoked.  

recent photo of us to be posted soon.

seven years ago we had our first date, only you didn't know it was a date b/c you thought i was just asking you to get drinks as a friend.  and you would have had a drink with a log.

i don't blame you.  i did try to get you to go out with someone else a couple of months earlier.  (little did i know you already were.)  little did you know, i had had a crush on you for about a month.  i woke up one morning and thought, hmn, he's hot.

we hit it off, for sure, but i was worried about seeing you all the time and having so many classes with you.  what if it didn't work out?

somehow we kept on truckin' and impulsively decided to take a road trip out to colorado to test the waters.  the trip is a little fuzzy, but i think we started off in denver and had an amazing dinner at sushi den.  sushi den sidenote:  when i lived in winter park, co, and worked for the national sports center for the disabled, we'd take at least monthly trips down to denver to hit up sushi den.  when adam and i got married in new mexico, we took an 8 hour detour on our way home to hit up sushi den.  by far my favorite sushi restaurant of all time.  but i digress.  

back to my love for my love.  we drove south through colorado, soaking up hot springs along the way, and ended up in new mexico before heading back to columbia, mo, where we were in grad school at the good ole' missouri school of journalism.  we came back from the trip as partners in training.  in training, i say, b/c it took me awhile to lose some of my selfishness.

it took me awhile to learn how to be your partner.  it was the best decision i EVER made.

later that year we trekked it to ny for new year's eve before heading to thailand.  you finally got to meet grandma helen and she loved you (except your long hair).  when we returned from thailand you had a much shorter haircut and you convinced her you cut it off for her.

a few months later you moved into my spacious one bedroom apartment.  when we finished grad school, we somehow ended up back in st. louis and you set on your way to hike the trail of tears that summer for your master's project.  the following summer you received the prestigious mcintyre fellowship and left me again, this time in your vw bus.  though i hated to see you leave, i was so proud of you.  somehow you managed to cover almost 12,000 miles around flyover land without breaking down.  any vw aficionado you have since told has been amazed.  whenever you question your skills, remember all the people who have believed in you along the way.

the following may, we bought our first house together, built in 1879.  we created lots of fond memories there.  i wonder if anyone will ever find our time capsule under the kitchen floor?

flash forward to our current life.  i am more in love than i have ever been and in four short months, we will be parents to a baby boy.  how crazy is that?  we spent so many years convinced we'd never have kids until that one fateful august 2008 morning at family square in bolingbrook, IL, where you asked, "what if we had kids?"

i love our history together, boo, and love you.  i hope we continue to follow our passions together for the rest of our lives.  happy seven year anniversary!!!

look at these tones on this b+w!

and on an equally cool and mostly related note, if you are a former client and purchased high resolution files, you received a handcrafted jewel case.  as in, crafted by hand by me.  here are a couple of recent examples.  infinitely customizable thanks to my paper addiction.

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