Benton Park Photography Co. | St. Louis Portrait, Wedding, Pet Photography

Where to begin?  Another rockin’ family session.  Andrea, Melvin and Jack came up to visit from Mississippi and I knew from the moment I first spoke with her that we would have a blast.  Andrea is a talented photographer herself and it’s always an honor when another photographer chooses us.

We spent the steamy evening at Castlewood State Park, one of our favorite places.  I am really enjoying photographing in more natural environments and the heat last night actually wasn’t that bad.  This will be my last session for a bit until after baby arrives.  Though I didn’t move as fast as I usually do, the casual observer may have caught me laying on the ground or crouching in a creek.

Adam and I feel truly lucky that we have such awesome clients.  C family, welcome to your first blog appearance!!

Onto the images…

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I will be back in wedding action next year and am looking forward to it!  As we will have a little one at home, Adam and I will no longer be photographing weddings together.  I will be working with a super-awesome yet TBD second shooter instead.  (Photographers, if you’re interested in second shooting with Benton Park Photography Co., drop me a line including your experience and a website link.)

What does this mean to you?  You won’t see Adam’s thoughtful expression as he composes an image, but know that he will be at home being the best papa he can be!  And with another talented second shooter, you will still get the same high quality imagery you always have.

That said, Baby Williams is due September 18th, so if you are thinking about booking us for next year, make sure you set up a consult in the next few weeks.  I won’t be available for meetings again until mid-October and at that point, it will be on a very limited basis.

In addition to portrait sessions, I will be photographing a maximum of only 15 weddings next year, so don’t be left hanging!

Yeah, I know.  It has a whole new connotation now, but I promise, even though I’ve not seen the show that it’s not an accurate representation of New Jersey.  From what I’ve heard, the characters are actually from New York.  But I digress.

I grew up in NJ and spent time every summer with my extended family at the shore.  And somehow, 15 years have passed since the last time I was here.  We’ve since added 9 kids to the family with a 10th on the way (ours) in September.  But the boardwalk at Seaside Heights hasn’t changed much.  It was always a seedy place in an intriguing sort of way.  I don’t remember so many raunchy t-shirts or scantily clad youngsters being around, but maybe I was too young to notice.

Yesterday my mom threw us an awesome baby shower with many family members I had not seen in 5+ years.

And on to the images…

Adam and I have known Zoe as long as we’ve known each other.  I call her my grad school mama.  Zoe is recently retired from the MU J-School, where Adam and I met and shared several classes, one or two of which were with Zoe.  She was also the committee chair for my Master’s Project about the College Hill community in North St. Louis.

Over the years Zoe has essentially become part of our extended family.   After racking up some major karma points for the last few years, she met Jim and the stars aligned for their intimate Friday evening wedding in Columbia.  We knew we’d like Jim b/c he is a general manager for an NPR station.  In a nutshell, NPR=good people.

After the ceremony I had to ask Zoe and Jim if they heard anything the pastor said, b/c they appeared to be so smitten with each other, I wondered if they were completely oblivious to the words being said.  They weren’t.  :-)

We’re off for weddings this year as evidenced by my growing belly, but we kind of had to make an exception for this one.

Congratulations!!!

Here are a few favorites…

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