My Girlfriend in Paris

That is my girlfriend in Paris. No, not the one on the left, the prettier one on the right. Here is the story behind this picture: In March of 2005 Sara Jo and I went to Paris. During our visit we went to the Louvre (of course) and saw the Mona Lisa painting. And no, that is not SJ next to the painting itself. That would almost be impossible. First, the painting is tiny and placed high up on the wall, too high to stand next to and be photographed. Second, the throngs of tourists trying to snap photos with their phone-cams makes it difficult to get even close to the painting.

It was on the way out of the section that houses the Mona Lisa that I spotted a kiosk selling posters of the painting. So I asked SJ to pose next to one of the posters and give me her best "Mona Lisa smile". Being an accomplished actress this was no problem for her and she nailed it the first time. The image is not Photoshopped (I did not compose two separate images). The image is exactly as I shot it on my Nikon D100. I made a T-shirt with the image and whenever I wear it I get many comments and questions. I always love telling the story.