The red and the white roses are a simple metaphor of youthful beauty, briefly flowering in early summer and changed by biting frost or age. The photographer has filled the frame to overflowing giving the image a very direct quality, but by showing her subjects out of focus, she's made it very melancholy too. The two girls were Kate and Elizabeth Keown, the daughters of an artillery officer living near Cameron's house at Freshwater on the Isle of Wight.