I assembled the following photos for a book that I gave Emily as a going away present in July 2009. The book was 40 pages, and included about a dozen full page pieces like these, blank pages for writing on, and a bunch of snapshots from our years together. Sorry, folks-in-the-know, but the soft-core shot isn't going online.

Marx Cafe is where Emily and I went on our first date. Whether she was wearing cowboy boots or just slutty non-cowboy boots is a subject of much debate, but I commemorated it nonetheless with these hippie-cowgirl shots of Sonia. She's drinking Makers Mark, Emily's preferred bourbon, and chewing on some grass that I found outside while I waited for her to arrive.

Grace is modeling my DC Triathlon gear (which, due to ongoing hamstring issues, I've never worn), while riding Emily's 1000 pound mountain bike. I'm amazed that she lifted it over her head.

When I first imagined this project, this was the shot I wanted to start with, but I didn't expect Scrub to play along quite this well.

These are at Emily's old house, a few blocks from mine, where she lived for a year before moving in with me. Our friend Annie glammed herself up like a serious rock star, and Em's old roommate Isaac played along, assuming his favorite napping pose in front of the TV.

I'm not going to explain this one. Sorry.

Jerry and Won have been a huge part of the time Emily and I have shared in DC. The lighting, unfortunately, was really awful.

Five of these shots were taken on our trip to Grass Valley / Nevada City in June 2009. The last, in the bottom right, is from my family's cabin at Flathead Lake in northwest Montana a few weeks earlier.

This is the only part of this collection that I didn't shoot myself. Ashley took these delightful shots on very short notice, and I can't thank her enough for the contribution.

This is, amazingly, in our backyard garden in Washington DC. This was the first shot I took for this project, and got things off to an amazing start. The costume was inspired by Halloween 2008.

For Halloween 2008, Evan dressed as Ernie from Sesame Street. Eight months later we topped it with this sexy shoot. Cost: $12 for rubber ducky, bubbles, foam ball (nose), and giant orange towel.

Emily and I made these at a Yoga & Art Retreat at Kripalu just after New Years in 2008. They've been hanging on our dining room wall for about a year. The retreat was a hugely important week for us, in a way that is really hard to articulate -- it just took our relationship to new and unexpected heights.

That's it!

This was one of the more enjoyable projects I've done in awhile, and I'm really thrilled that it gave me an excuse to buy a camera and get back to shooting LOTS of photos. More importantly, though, I'm happy that it all came together before Emily left and that she was really moved by the gift. I miss her.