As the tulips settled into my arrangement in the vase they reached out, curved, and seemed to combine the wisdom of aging with continued vitality. Not quite an arrangement featuring wabi-sabi—beauty that can be found in decay—these flowers represent the yearning that we have to live life to the full at the height of our posers, while realizing that there is another side to the cycle of life.

I photographed the arrangement on an improvised black background using filtered sunlight from the front and left side. I placed a white card slightly out of the frame-of-view on the right side to better balance the light on the vase.

Great fun to capture such beauty!