Breakdown of Я сфотографировала бутон и один белый лепесток, потому что они выглядели очень красиво.
Questions & Answers about Я сфотографировала бутон и один белый лепесток, потому что они выглядели очень красиво.
Because the verb is in the past tense, and in Russian past-tense verbs agree with the gender of the speaker when the subject is я.
- Я сфотографировала = I photographed / I took a photo (said by a woman)
- Я сфотографировал = the same thing, but said by a man
So the ending -ла tells you the speaker is female.
Сфотографировать is a perfective verb, and here it makes sense because the sentence talks about a completed action: the speaker took the photo.
Compare:
- Я фотографировала = I was photographing / I used to photograph / I was taking photos
- Я сфотографировала = I photographed / I took a photo (completed)
In this sentence, the person is referring to one finished act, so сфотографировала is the natural choice.