Adam Graham Photography

This is my favourite time of year in our yard. It’s a big job getting our gardens ready for summer. This year I’ve been replacing the wood in our raised herb and vegetable beds too. P and T were pretty excited when the dump truck arrived yesterday with the dirt and compost. P even got to press the button to dump the dirt. T immediately grabbed a shovel and started yelling, “Hurry! It’s quick-setting dirt!” (We have a cute book about a family who has some quick-setting concrete delivered) It’s also my favourite time of year to photograph in the garden. I like it just before the tulips burst into full colour, when the gardens are a carpet of green (and the weeds aren’t at full strength). I’m sure the neighbours think I’m nuts when they look out and see me crawling around on my belly in my old bright red raincoat. I’m also involved with another garden project right now. It’s a show at the Yarmouth Branch of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia that is called ‘In the Gardens’. Yarmouth Garden Club members  have been teamed up with a writer, a painter, and a photographer who each create a work based on that garden. I had the opportunity to work in Judy and Earl Raynard’s garden on the Tusket river in Raynardton. It’s an absolutely gorgeous spot with lots of history. I’ll post some of my shots from there closer to the opening of the show. The works are all going to be on display in the community room from June 13th until July 27th. There will be a reception on June 20th from 5-7pm.

This past week I put up a show at the Firefighters’ Museum here in Yarmouth. It was a blustery day and at least a couple of my canvases had a real chance of blowing into the harbour the morning I was delivering them. But they’re all up and ready for your visit. My first visit to the museum was an outing for our local photo club and I was immediately interested when they asked me if I wanted to show some pictures there. The Firefighters’ Museum is part of The Nova Scotia Museum and the objects they have on display come from various parts of the province. I think my favourite things there are all the old photos (not surprising) and the case of old toys. It is definitely worth a visit anytime (even when my pictures aren’t there). Here’s a link to their website and their Facebook Group. The museum is open 9-4 Monday to Friday and 1-4 on Saturdays.

As an added incentive to get you motivated, I’m giving away a set of three small canvases to someone who visits this month (my show is up until April 30th). There are ballots there to fill out when you stop by. You can see the canvases in the picture below.

Last Sunday was our second annual Southwest NS Photo Shoot. (I’m still trying to come up with a catchier name. I’m open to suggestions.) I had a fantastic time again this year. The day started early at Styles Unlimited, with Jill Goodwin doing hair. Jill took my vague non-directions and came up with the perfect styles. Jennie Surette of Afterglow Spa did a great job on makeup again this time around. For the shooting time in the afternoon we were at the Churchill Mansion. Paul and Susan have just finished a major renovation of the mansion and are opening as a bed and breakfast in May. They were incredible hosts to us for the afternoon, very welcoming and hospitable. And the mansion’s feel of timeless luxury was perfect for our 1920′s inspired theme. Anyone staying there will be in for a treat.

There were fewer of us this year because a couple of photographers couldn’t make it at the last minute. The other two photographers who could were Clifton Saulnier and Michael Carty. We made sure to take part of the afternoon to work collaboratively. It’s always helpful to see how other photographers approach the same situation. And I’m endlessly fascinated by how different our final results are. You can see some of their pics on their Facebook pages (Michael’s and Clifton’s).

Thank you so much to everyone who was involved. I was completely blown away again this year by how willing anyone who I asked to be involved was. And a special huge thank you to Tracey Crabtree Gunn, Danielle Driscoll, and Adrienne Beaudette for modelling for us (and to Adrienne for taking care of a lot of the styling for the shoot). They had the longest day of any of us and were all still smiling by suppertime.

I should be used to it by now, but February always surprises me by seeming to disappear quickly (a little less every four years I guess). So, Happy March! March is a bit of a psychological turning point around here. The snowdrops are poking through and we can start eating out of our garden again (it may be only chives for a while, but every little bit counts). Spring is on its way and there’s not much more encouraging than that.

I picked up a new lens and a softbox recently so I tried them out on my usual guinea pigs subjects. The puzzles the boys are working on in the pictures are Valentine’s notes mailed to them by a sweet friend in Toronto. They were very excited about them. I think it may be the first puzzle P has ever really stuck with until it was finished.

A few of us are getting together to do another SouthWest NS Photo Shoot this weekend. This time we’re inspired by the 20′s and I’m really looking forward to what we’ll come up with. I’ve been absolutely amazed again by how people are willing to help make something happen.

Just a few more pics from that morning walk I took with T at the Chebogue Meadows trail.

In other news a new lens and light modifier arrived yesterday. I’m really excited to try them out. The annual SouthWest Photo Shoot is coming up soon so that will be a great chance to work with them (and with some great people too).

Last year I had the opportunity to work with L’Équipe alphabétisation-Nouvelle-Écosse to create some videos promoting family literacy. Reading has always been a big part of my life (My most recent favourite book is Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann. And if Indian Horse doesn’t win this year, I’ll never listen to Canada Reads again. Probably.) , thanks to my parents’ encouragement. They pretty much embodied the principles in these videos. I’m also really pleased that our boys are so into books. T asks to be read to constantly (I’m pretty tired of Lowly Worm and Curious George right now) and P is already devouring novels. All that to say this project was very fun for me to work on. Everyone I worked with at L’Équipe were phenomenal and all the families in the videos were amazing. The first two are in French and the third is Bilingual. If you keep scrolling down there are also English versions of the first two.

We’ve been trying to grab onto as much snowy winter fun as we can while the snow is here (tomorrow’s rain will be washing it away). Even on those bone-chilling days last week we wrapped everyone up snugly and headed outside. It’s been mostly sledding. P is a surprising daredevil, trying to go as fast as possible and aiming for jumps. This is the kid who normally says, ‘That looks too risky!’ We even got some sledding in last night after supper as the sun was setting. This morning, though, T and I headed for the woods. Chebogue Meadows trail is beautiful any time of year but it’s my favourite place to go in winter. When everything is covered in a blanket of snow, it really is a storybook walk in the woods . I wanted T to be able to just enjoy being in the forest so I took my camera and let him wander. We only made it a couple hundred metres down the path but we both had a wonderful time. And, I got what is probably my favourite picture of him so far.

Sorry for the current lack of website. Everything should be back up and running soon!