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"When people ask them how they met, Santiago Perez Grovas and Taylor Dee answer honestly: \"Instagram.\" Neither began as a professional photographer, but with over 70,000 and 18,000 followers, respectively, @santiagopgm and @thisgirl_ are a bit like the Jay-Z and Beyonce of the social photo-sharing site.\nGrovas, 26, started his own architecture firm in Mexico City, and Dee, 22, works as a waitress in Colorado. The two might have never met if it weren't for the mobile app, but now their photo feeds read like the script for a reality TV dating show. \nBack when Instagram was new and relatively uninhabited by celebrities, they were the Instagram elite. Both Taylor's and Santiago's pictures were frequently featured on the popular page, which is how Taylor originally stumbled across his account. \nAt first, she thought Santiago was a woman because his feed mainly featured photos of females. \"I thought, 'Wow, this girl's amazing! I love her pictures' for about four months,\" Taylor says, \"and then he posted a picture of himself and I realized he was a guy.\"\nSEE ALSO: 'Data, A Love Story:' How One Woman Found the Secret to Online Dating\n\nA few months later, Santiago posted a competition on his profile. After reaching 50,000 followers, he invited the Instagram community to \"cheers with him\" by submitting photos of their own. Check out the winning picture below. \n\nAfter Taylor won the contest, the two began to communicate via the instant messaging app Kik, and even FaceTimed together that night. Santiago said he would love to photograph Taylor himself, and she agreed. A month later, she picked him up from the Denver airport. \nTaylor remembers seeing him for the first time after FaceTiming nightly for a month. \"He was like, \u2018You\u2019re so tiny! I thought you were going to be bigger.\u2019 And I thought he was going to be taller. He\u2019s, like, kind of short.\" she says, laughing.\n\nAfter seven days of photography and fun, they parted ways. \"I never, never, never thought I would be dating an American girl,\" Santiago says. But the pair has been together for almost eight months. Taylor says she plans to look into flight attendant lessons so that she and Santiago can save on airfare in the future.\nHow Girls in Underwear Affect the Relationship\nSantiago's Instagram feed is full of borderline NSFW pictures of women in their underwear. In a world where one Foursquare check-in or insensitive photo tag can jeopardize a relationship, Taylor's trust in Santiago gets tested with every posted picture. The hardest part, perhaps, is that there's no way of telling when the pictures posted were taken. \n\"I mean, it's hard seeing girls all of the time,\" Taylor explains, wondering, \"When did he take those pictures? Is he doing that right now? What are they doing, are they hanging out afterwards? It makes it hard.\" But her belief in Santiago's professionalism and trustworthiness keeps the relationship going. \nSantiago says Taylor has nothing to worry about, of course. He estimates that 80% of the women he shoots are friends or even family, and the others are paying clients. \nIt helps that their shared followers are quick to tag Taylor or Santiago's name if they spot a photo they think the other should be aware of. \nHow the Pigs Entered the Picture\nIf you follow either of their Instagram accounts, you've probably noticed that green pigs from Angry Birds pop up in a few photos.\n\nThe first time Santiago came out to Denver, Taylor took him to Dave and Buster's. They ran around, won a ton of tickets, but then couldn't decide what prize to get. Taylor found a green pig and claimed it, but Santiago wanted one, too. The two dug around the pen of stuffed animals until, all the way at the bottom corner, they spotted a girl version of the famous pig, with wings and a heart on its face. \n\"Whenever we get together, we bring them.\" Taylor says, \"We spray them with our perfumes too, so when we go away, we have each other\u2019s scent.\"\nHow They Became Instagram Elite\n@Santiagopgm\n\"I was in college, doing my sixth semester of architecture school, and, well, school in Spain is really easy, so I had a lot of free time, so I took my camera and just traveled around Europe,\" Santiago explains. During his time in Europe, a friend asked him to take pictures of her for her portfolio. The results of the photo shoot sparked a series of similar requests from other female friends, and by the time Santiago left for Mexico City, he had five different portfolios full of gorgeous Spanish models.\n\nHe tried to share his photos socially through Deviant Art and Twitter, but only enjoyed lukewarm success. Santiago finally got his big break, however, when a friend told him about \"this app that is like Twitter but for pictures,\" he recalls. Within the first month, Santiago had over 5,000 followers. \n\"I think Instagram was really new, so I joined at the perfect time to get big really easily,\" Santiago explains, \"After that point, every picture I uploaded got into the popular page.\"\n@thisgirl_\n\"I just tried to get my name out there,\" Taylor says. At first, her handle was simply @taylordee, but she later changed it to @thisgirl_ because she believed the latter to be catchier. Interaction was also key to Taylor's Insta-growth. She says she comments on other pictures, especially those with interesting photo apps, and tries to respond to any comments she gets on her pictures. \nWhile Santiago is looking to expand to other social media platforms, Taylor's only social media presence is on Instagram. Why? Ironically, she enjoys Instagram's culture of anonymity.\n\n\nTaylor and Santiago\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n#instalove\nThe couple met on Instagram after Taylor won a contest Santiago started to celebrate his 50,000th follower.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n#photoconnection\nThis interaction between Taylor and Santiago is from over a year ago, before they had met in person.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n#IRL\nThe two met in-person when Santiago flew out to Colorado to meet Taylor and take pictures of her. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n#goodbye\nWhen the two finally met face-to-face, \"We hit it off like we had been together, like we had met before\" said Taylor. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n#twominds\nSometimes Taylor will post Santiago's pictures after adding her own style with photo editing apps like snapseed, afterglow, blender, and others. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n#cuddling\nIf you look at the last comment on this photo, you can see a follower praising the couple. Taylor says that their followers have begun to expect photos of the two of them.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n#travel\nEven when there's not a blatant reference to Santiago in her pictures, Taylor's followers love to ask if they have anything to do with the relationship. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n#fisheye\n\nTaylor flew to Mexico City to visit Santiago over Christmas break. \nThis fisheye effect is awesome, and can be achieved with an attachable lens. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n#instaheartbreak\nNot everything is happy smiles on both of their instagram feeds. When there is trouble in the relationship, they're not afraid to post about it. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImages courtesy of Santiago PerezGrovas and Taylor Dee"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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