Paysanne at thirty
New cookery book celebrates thirty years anniversary of a local restaurant.
It’s always good to see your photographs in print. Especially when they’re in a book celebrating a special birthday of our favourite restaurant, and great for us to do some Conwy food photography.
The delightful Paysanne is a French restaurant is located in the heart of Deganwy. It is opposite the railway station car park if you’re searching for it. This year it celebrates its thirtieth birthday. This is a great achievement for any local business, but especially for a restaurant business when so many others have opened and closed in that period.
Bob and Barbara Ross opened Paysanne thirty years ago. Today it is run by Cai Ross – the book’s principal author – who operates front of house, and top chef David Hughes.
We became involved in the production of the book after photographing David’s wedding to his wife Tracey at Caer Rhun Hall near Conwy in 2017. David mentioned food photographs were needed, and we offered our services.
Conwy Food Photography – the images for the book
The book publisher is located in Australia, so we corresponded by overnight email. They provided a brief for the type of photographs needed, and the photography was completed in three sessions. The first when the restaurant was open for business, and two more sessions photographing freshly prepared dishes using the backgrounds and props available in the restaurant.
The main photography challenge was finding a sufficient variety in the imagery, and all beautifully lit of course. I’m sure from Cai’s point of view the main challenge was producing the large number of dishes needed!
It is easy to underestimate the number of photographs needed for a project of this type. This is best discussed with the publisher beforehand, otherwise, they might resort to using stock pictures to fill in.
Copies of the book are available from Amazon, or directly from the restaurant in Deganwy while stocks last. Paysanne is open Wednesday to Sunday. You do need to make a reservation!
