Taking pictures

taking notes

A few weeks ago I woke up with an idea. I wanted to document the day to day of running Roses and my life in general. We live in a time when we all have phones in our pockets at all times and I often take mine out when there is something beautiful or something funny. It is convenient and I wouldn’t go back to a time without it but I wanted to capture roses more as I see it and that can be difficult with the stark representation found on an iphone.

Roses has always felt, even more so in this iteration, like an art project. We serve food yes and have the mechanics of a restaurant but what makes it exciting to me is the sensory experience of being in a room with a group of people bringing a vision to life. It helps that food is so inherently gorgeous.

I am attempting to capture the rush of dopamine I feel when the elderflower bush is full and all I have to do to make magic is pick the lacy blooms and make a syrup. Something that may look like landscaping to the untrained eye becomes a player in this specific time and place. I think that is the main allure of a restaurant. It should represent the time and place, the people making and eating the food and what is readily available. When we are successful this is felt throughout the space. The intangible feeling that something special is happening.

How can an iphone photo handle all that nuance lol! These thoughts led me to the canon Ae-1, a beginner 35mm camera purchased at Woodward Camera A super cool store that has been serving the photo community for decades.

I have been practicing shooting in different scenarios around the restaurant and garden and even when the pictures come out blurry or weird they make me feel something. I think it is what we all know, life and living are imperfect. Full of foibles and mistakes and bad hair days but the beauty and joy of it all are undeniable. I see all of that when I scroll through my snaps of this place in time. I think we should all get a manual camera, it is actually so so fun.

xx molly