Winter can be a polarizing season.
For some, it means glistening snow, skating on frozen ponds, and enjoying the holidays, while for others, it amounts to bitter cold, short days, and enough shovelling to create sore backs.
But what would it be like to experience winter for the first time, with fresh eyes?
Many residents of the Pembina Valley are cold-weather veterans, so it’s difficult to imagine, but for Ade Adediran, the milestone came last year.
For him, it was a unique opportunity — and he made the most of it.
The experience also contributed to his growing love of Morden.
Adediran’s photograph of snow on a branch.
Documenting the magic of winter before it becomes ‘normal’
Adediran moved to Morden in 2024 with his wife, Jola, after living in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city.
As a trained biologist with an affinity for nature and a photographer accustomed to documenting landscapes, people, towns, and products for companies like Samsung, Adediran naturally turned his lens to his first winter in Canada.
He realized that, before long, the quirks of winter might become more routine, or maybe even lose their sparkle.
“I know that being here for a while, I’ll start seeing these things as normal, but before they become normal, [I’m] documenting the unique things I’m seeing and enjoying,” he explained.
Hoary trees and the amber light of a snowy sunset
Some of the photographer’s unique experiences — which all combined into the magic of a first winter — included the sensation of experiencing subzero temperatures for the first time, seeing the landscape change daily as the snow shifts, melts, and falls again, and witnessing the special way light bounces off the snow during a winter sunset.
He also said that when he told his friends in Nigeria he had seen the northern lights before the snow arrived, they said he was “living [their] dream.”
Adediran’s photograph of the northern lights.
For the photographer, the silence of winter was also something to get used to.
“You have few people walking around the streets because it’s cold, obviously, and [it’s so] quiet and silent,” he said.
“I tried to take pictures of empty streets and everything, and it was really, really interesting. I’ve never seen a space where people live [be] so quiet and almost empty because people are all cooped up in their homes.”
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For Adediran, who is keen to capture fine details, all these features were well worth documenting.
“I took so many pictures, from leaves and twigs and trees with snow building up on top to park benches where you could see how many centimetres of snow had fallen overnight,” he said.
“It was such a beautiful thing. These are the things that I know a lot of people would ignore and … not see anything special in, but I did, because it’s new to me.”
Learning to shoot in winter
Learning how to take pictures in a snowy environment was also a part of Adediran’s first winter.
One task was finding the light settings that work best in the snow, but this came quickly thanks to the photographer’s experience capturing white beaches in Nigeria.
Even so, an important hurdle remained, and Adediran smiles when he thinks about it.
“The hardest part is trying to get your fingers to work through the gloves,” he said, adding that snapping pictures was slightly challenging at Morden’s Winterfest last year.
A Morden tree in winter. Photo by Ade Adeiran.
“I remember how hard it was. I would pull my gloves off and try to take a picture.”
This year, Adediran is ready — he practiced taking photographs with a pair of gloves throughout the summer in preparation for the hand-seizing temperatures.
A philosophy that the Pembina Valley complements
Nature as a subject aligns with the method behind Adediran’s craft more than almost anything else.
The photographer considers Morden the perfect blend of nature and history, and he finds the harmony of brick buildings, aged trees, and stretching landscapes inspiring.
Adediran with his camera.
“I prefer doing a lot of inanimate photography because I am keeping history,” he explained.
“I’m taking a moment in time that might not repeat.”
He added that many of the things he sees are also new to him, including the presence of wildlife like squirrels.
It all helps grow an appreciation for Morden.
“I like [that] it’s in the centre. If you go towards the left or towards the east or the west, you’ll see a vast expanse of land where you could also do some nighttime photography. It also has beautiful lake — where you could just spend your time sitting down [and] taking pictures of the whole landscape.”
Lake Minnewasta captured by Adediran during autumn.
An impulse to protect nature
While the photographer jokes that you can’t throw a stone in the air without hitting someone in Lagos, which has 20 million people, life in southern Manitoba is very different, and he likes it.
“City life does have its appeal and everything, but coming to Morden, I think you just appreciate life more, and appreciate your environment, and want to protect it,” he said, adding that with his biology background and being taught to respect nature from his botanist father, conservation is also something he explores through his work.
“[I] understand why people work so hard to protect this environment. The air is clean, and there’s no noise pollution.”
The friendly (and impactful) faces of Morden
Through his art, Adediran has also come to appreciate the people of Morden.
He said that beyond feeling safe in town no matter at what time of day he takes pictures, people are always quick to share a wave or a smile.
This picture is special to Adediran because it’s the first one he took when he arrived in Morden.
His experiences in the city reflect what he’s learned about it.
“I’ve been learning a lot about the history of the town and how … it has come to where it is right now, and as much as it’s developing, the soul of the city is still being kept,” he said.
“I’m one person who believes if I live in a space, I have to make the best of it, enjoy it, understand it, because if you’re going to stay here longer, then you have to be part of it, and when [you have] kids, you’ll also teach them the values that the town upholds.”
Adediran’s picture of an empty street in Morden.
He added that in winter, one act in particular during the cold months represents a facet of Morden that he enjoys being a part of.
“During the winter, I’ll be walking from afar, and somebody will open the door and wait for me patiently at the door. I say, ‘No, please go inside,’ but no, they’ll insist. They’ll wait for me till I get there and open it,” he said.
“I will also do the same thing for other people because this is something they will do for me, and everybody’s smiling, everybody’s happy. Nothing beats that. It just makes your day easy.”
‘Just take pictures’
As a self-taught photographer who learned primarily through online videos, Adediran’s advice for those who might also want to record winter through their own experiences is simple.
“Just take pictures — there are no hard and fast rules. Everybody has a style, everybody has an approach. Start with your mobile phone and take pictures,” he said.
He added that one shouldn’t be pressured to purchase a top-of-the-line camera right away, because, in the end, it’s not about that, despite the changing landscape of the craft.
A black-and-white picture of a flower captured by Adediran.
“It’s sad now that there’s [competition] from AI images … but I think people should not be intimidated by that and still keep taking pictures because what is real is real. You are freezing a moment in time. Take pictures of your family, your environment, your pets, everything, and you’ll see over time how much you’ll appreciate it,” he said.
“It allows you to control your own narrative of things and let people see through your eyes.”
Adediran added that, for this winter, he’s looking forward to capturing a sundog, which he missed last year, and to finding a single snow-covered tree in the middle of a field.
Another tree in wintertime. Photo by Adediran.
As he enters his second cold season with a little more experience, the magic of winter remains.
“It’s a whole lifestyle. It’s interesting, it’s unique, and I love every bit of it,” he said.
Click here to see Adediran’s prints or follow his Instagram page.