Probably another week or so of Irish Grandmother and then we'll move on. It's nice for me to put them all out there, here on the blog. It makes me edit down a little and then whenever I open the blog I get to see them again, and a new understanding of what's working and what's not dawns on me. But now I'm at that point where I'm almost sick of this project and feel the need to move on. This year was the third year that I went to Ireland in December to photograph my grandmother and it's always around now (end of Jan, beginning of Feb) that I begin to feel that it's all been done and that I shouldn't go back next year. Then by the time September comes around I feel the need to go back again. Recently I heard David McMillan talk about his Chernobyl series. He said that the first time he went he thought that he only needed to go once, and yet he has gone back just about every year for the past 15 years. I'm not saying that this Irish Grandmother project is anything as epic as that. There are definitely some problems with this subject that has been done so many times before (as Muse-ings mentions here). As an aside David McMillan mentioned that one of the things that originally inspired him to go to Chernobyl was an article by Alan Weisman. Weisman has since written a great book called "The World Without Us". Definitely worth a read. One of the best books I read in 2008.

2 perspectives.

She uses the window light to read the headlines. The essential window light.

More Irish Grandmother.

My grandmother getting her fire ready as she does every day in the winter.

When I first saw her chop the little pieces of wood I kind of freaked out. Here is my 87 year old grandmother, kneeling down, in the cold, wielding as axe! I asked her to let me do it but she said something like "don't be silly, I do this every day. You go and take some pictures." And so I did.

More images of my grandmother in her daily life.

I've been walking through a lot of cold, ice and snow these days and it makes me realize how lucky my grandmother is not be exposed to a Canadian winter. Winter in Canada must seem very dangerous to the elderly. That and isolating since I imagine they don't go out that much in these conditions.

More images of my grandmother from my December trip. Many shades of pink.

More stills from my grandmother's house in Dublin, taken during my recent visit.

Some stills from my grandmother's.

Sorry for not posting recently. I went to the cottage on the 26th and just got back on Saturday. Lots of shoveling and snow-shoeing and skiing and skating, it was great. I hope you all had a very happy holidays and a happy new year!

Some Christmas themed grandmother photos for you.

So as I'm sure most of you know I've just returned from Ireland where among other things I was once again photographing my grandmother. Well the above photos are from those 10 days when I was her guest. This being my third trip for this purpose I found it hard not to repeat myself, but I still feel that I came away with some gems that add to the overall series. One thing that was great about this trip was that Donie (that's what we call my grandmother) was much more relaxed and comfortable in her role as model. She no longer wondered why I wanted to photograph her food or any other every day moment. As an aside: those are some pretty great legs for an 87 year old don't you think!

I'm sure most of you are aware of Women in Photography, the on-line gallery curated by Amy Elkins and Cara Phillips that features some pretty amazing artists. Well right now they are featuring one of my all-time favourites and that's Laura Letinsky. She writes really well about her work so it is definitely worth a look and a read. It's also worth browsing the archives which contain artists such as Alessandra Sanguinetti and Elinor Carruci. I always think of submitting to them but with such big names I know that there must be some very stiff competition. I will be sure to only submit my absolute best when I'm ready.

Lastly, it is quite rare that people know me because of my blog so a shout out to Samantha who I met tonight. As well Austin and Meghan Kelon from Texas who follow my blog and came to my show at The Visual Voice Gallery while they were in Montreal, that was pretty cool.

Hello all, I am back from the Irish Isle and although I had a great time I am happy to be back in cold and wintry Canada! While I was away I guest blogged on friend Aislinn Leggett's blog Slightly Lucid.

Out-takes from the Irish Grandmother series from the past two Decembers. As per this new tradition I am going to Ireland again this December. In fact I am leaving tomorrow! I will be gone till December 15th and won't be blogging during that time. Hopefully I will be making wonderful photographs instead! Wish me luck, and happy festive season to you all.

Chris between poses during a shoot I did of him last week.

I am excited by this potential political coalition (here in Canada). For once our politics is exciting. Probably good for the arts too.

Images of the wonderful and rambunctious model Jamie. I especially love the top one. The limbs, the darkness, the red hat; a good moment caught.

The top 2 images are from the Montreal botanical gardens, and the bottom 2 are from the Montreal insectarium. The bottom image (which is from a large group of day campers who left their bags outside with a counsellor so that they could run through the insectarium uninhibited, it got pretty crazy in there) could definitely work with the piles of stuff from my October 28th post.

Above are images of my sister, a first year medical student, in her school surroundings.

Nancy in the country this summer.

Things have been busy recently so I haven't been doing as much of my usual random shooting that I love to put up on this blog. So I will be looking into my archives and pulling some stuff from the summer for you guys. I'm sure you won't mind now that the weather is getting so crummy!

From a girls weekend in the country this summer.

The top two are of Aislinn and Annie-Eve.