I get asked "What is your favorite image you have ever taken" quite a bit.  So today's Blog entry is dedicated to my ALL TIME fave!  It's called "She Loved Her Roses, He Loved Her."

The story of this image was born at a photography convention in Indiana where I was judging and teaching.  During the lighting course I was teaching, there was an older man, very tall and still handsome, that was picking at me just a bit.  Not really giving me a hard time, but making me earn my keep for sure.  Sooooo.... of course I made him stand up and be the model for one of my lighting demos to give it back to him.  He was a great sport and we had several laughs as did the rest of the class, however his laughs seemed to require more effort than I would expect.  Afterwards, I went on and completed the class, had dinner that night and was very excited to sit in on a very talented JuliAnne Jonker's course the next morning.  

I found my seat in the front row and then noticed the same tall, elderly gentleman heading my direction.  I invited him to sit next to me and we started into traditional small talk.  However, very quickly his head lowered and his face suddenly looked very weathered and worn.  He began to tell me that his beautiful wife of many, many years had recently passed away the previous month.  He explained that she was his everything... his life.  He told me how one day she was there and fine, then the next day just gone, passing of a heart attack with no warning.  He said they shared a very large, old home and now he just wanders through the rooms feeling so alone and lost.  I imagined him there... so tall and strong, but seeming so small and frail with the tall ceilings, large furniture and soft grainy light coming through the window sheers.  I didn't picture him sitting in his overstuffed chair, I didn't picture him sitting at the kitchen table or lying in their bed.  I imagined him just standing in a large open hallway, the only light is the sunlight that is filtered by the curtains hung on tall, stain-glass windows.  He's dressed in nice, gray pants, black dress shoes, and a button-up shirt with only the top button open.  He's lost...

All I could do was reach over and hold his hand and thank him for sharing something so personal and special with me.  It startled him just a bit, as if someone hadn't gently touched him in a very long time and then he just exhaled.  Then I said, "She must have been a very wonderful woman to have a man love and miss her so much."  He nodded slowly as we looked up noticing the class was about to start. 

I had to leave class early to head home before the weather and was never able to speak to the man again, but the love he had for his wife and the loss that was so evident on his face left a permanent mark on my heart.

The next couple of months flew by as Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went.   It was January and we were in the middle of Print Competition craziness.  I was at a complete loss of what to photograph.  Jason knew exactly what he wanted to shoot... flowers.  I was NOT excited.  For me, if my subject doesn't have eyeballs, I'm just not interested.  But I decided to go with him to find his flowers.  A friend of mine, owns a flower shop and she gave us free reign to search the store.  Jason was busy finding the perfect lily, rose, daisy, etc.  I was bored...  Looking around, I noticed several pink roses; hanging and wilted but still in water buckets in a back corner.  They were so beautiful, but so sad at the same time.  I couldn't help but think of the old man I had met in Indiana.  I asked about them and my friend said they were from a wedding the weekend before and I could just HAVE them.  I loved them even more at that point... FREE! 

Immediately, the image started to form in my mind.  How could I translate the impact the old man had on me through these flowers?  They were so similar, there had to be away. 

I called my father-in-law, who has been struggling with a chronic illness for quite sometime.  He was tired but, as always up for anything I wanted to do.  I needed him to look small and frail so I put him in my husband's, who's almost 100 lbs more than his dad, dress coat.  I chose a lighting pattern that emphasized the wrinkles and character in his face and hands.  In the end, not only did the vision come together, but I also got to use one of the most amazing men I've ever known as my model.  Such an honor in so many ways... So blessed...

Inspiration is Priceless... Art is Forever.