Sami with rose petals. February 23, 2007.

It was nine days after Valentine’s Day and I had a photo shoot scheduled. Most of the dozen Valentine’s Day roses were done and had been thrown away, but a few were still looking good.

When Sami arrived, I looked at the remaining long stemmed roses and had an idea. I asked Sami to lay on the floor and I handed one long stemmed rose to her. Next I arranged her hair on the floor. Then I stood up and pulled the best looking petals off of more roses and dropped them on Sami, one by one, letting them land randomly. A couple landed in weird places so I moved them. I arranged the lights just so and started creating images.

When I looked at this image on my computer, I decided to remove all of the color except for the rose petals and Sami’s lips. Her lipstick really was that bold. This is one of my all time favorite portraits.