In my last post I wrote about how my still life photographs are like love stories between me and a moment. If you're not sick of hearing about my time at the Orquevaux residency, I must tell you about another love story - the one between me and the château's roses, which greet you upon arrival, growing slightly wildly in a great ring just past the gatehouse, in front of the stables-turned-art studios.

Of course, upon first seeing these beautiful flowers, I fell in love and wanted to photograph them. But a little inner critic said, no - that's "too easy" or "too obvious" and "I did not come all the way to this residency to 'just make pretty pictures' " so I refrained from spending time longing, and just made myself focus on other things.

But the crush was real, and by the time the last art-making day rolled around, I could no longer resist. I asked the director if I might cut a few stems to bring into the studio, and she graciously said yes. After nearly 2 weeks of admiring the roses, I told that inner critic to stuff it and I gave myself permission to make pictures that were pretty just for the sake of being pretty. I enjoyed the process immensely, celebrating these delicate beauties that had played such a key role in making me feel like I was living in a fairytale for 2 weeks.

Pink roses symbolize joy, happiness, grace and often friendship - how fitting for this place, which brings together strangers from all corners of the world, and after only a short stay, manages to send them away, friends.

To be honest, I think I could have dedicated the entire 2 week residency to photographing those roses, ha! I'm almost curious what that might have looked like, but alas, there's no rewinding time and I had other photographs to make and other lessons to learn while I was there.

One day with the roses truly filled me up as I reached the end of my residency and started to think about heading home to winter.

I'm excited to get home to my studio (soon!) so that I can print some of these. Which do you think would be good printed larger than life, and hung on a wall to keep the warm château magic alive through the coming cold months?