Christmas time is here again

Don't worry, be merry


Have a super holiday


But if the tree starts to look like this, it's time to put down the egg nog


Much love and happiness to you all in the new year

Going medieval on winter

Thanks to Ellita on Etsy, I'm going to be warm and stylish this winter in one of her unique, knitted wearable works of art. She makes the most gorgeous scarves, collars, stoles, cowls, and capelets. Many have a hint of the medieval or Elizabethan about them. And she has some of the most gorgeous product photography in her shop.

I bought the first one pictured: the Royal Leaf Button Collar. Not only is it stunning, but it is so well-designed. It keeps the entire back of the neck and shoulders covered, which seals in the warmth. I love that the collar can be rolled down, or on those colder days, rolled up to cover the ears. Not being a hat person, I just love this about it.

Eat it winter.

City of Love

When I went to Paris this past summer, I knew that the greatest challenge in photographing such an iconic city would be to find a new way and my own way of capturing it. This series captures my love for this most beautiful city as well as expressing the notion of Paris as the world's capital of LUV.

And I have some exciting news related to the first photograph, "Paris is for Lovers". An art buyer from Urban Outfitters contacted me because they were interested in licensing the image to sell as a canvas print in their stores. I'm pleased to announce that the deal was recently finalized. Zut alors!

A haiku to bokeh

bare winter branches
quick, cover them up
with bokeh*

*Bokeh is photographic term that derives from a Japanese word that roughly translates as "blur". The qualities of good bokeh are smooth gradations and spherical out-of-focus highlights (as opposed to those with jaggies).

Souvenirs de Paris

I'm feeling a little nostalgic for Paris these days, imagining what it must be like around Christmas with all the lights decorating the city. I've been to Paris in the spring and the summer. I think it will have to become my mission to visit in the fall and in the winter one day. Until then, these photographs I took this past summer will have to do.

Love is all around

The other weekend I did my first engagement photo shoot. The extremely handsome and photogenic couple, Mark and Sarah, made my job pretty easy. They're so good at making the googly eyes at each other, don't you think?

You may be old, but you're beautiful too

Yesterday was just so gorgeous (especially for a November day in Montreal) and it was a perfect day to go out and do some location scouting in Old Montreal for an upcoming engagement photo shoot. I love that location scouting is part of my job description :)

Happy weekend!

Marking the days

Ever since I saw many wonderful calendar ideas on Etsy last year, I've been wanting to design my own calendar, and now I have! It features 12 of my photographs and is now available in my Etsy shop. It's a desk calendar, which uses a special jewel case which is designed to hold the calendar pages and folds back to create a stand. Pretty clever if you ask me.

Have a spookylicious Halloween!

How did it get to be October 31st already?!?! Right, that time thingy. It just keeps chugging along.

I'm going to a Halloween costume party tonight for the first time in years, so I'm off to try on my costume. Fingers crossed it's not lame (my costume that is, not the party).

Happy Halloween everyone!

p.s. If you live in Montreal, you might want to watch out for the mummy invasion. Last I heard, they're past the Olympic Stadium now and are headed straight for downtown.

Cemetery sorrow

We have an especially photogenic cemetery here in Montreal (Cote des Neiges) that lies along the side of Mont Royal. I love wandering around it, photographing small details, especially in the fall. There are so many textures and little vignettes to be found everywhere.

A girl and her tutu

Last weekend I had a wonderful session with Naomi, the adorable daughter of my friends Dina and Steve. She was happy to frolic around in the park while I photographed her for well over an hour. All she needed was her tutu, her army green hat (purchased on Etsy), and her little plastic dinosaur, and she was good to go. Can you even bear all this cuteness?

October gave a party

The annual autumn show is winding down, with more leaves on the ground now than on the trees. October is such a bittersweet month for me. Autumn would probably be my favorite season, if it wasn't followed by winter. As such, the beauty is always tinged with a bit of sadness, and the knowledge that the days will continue to grow colder and shorter. If I'm lucky though, we may get a few more glorious days like these.

The suitcase photograph is available as print in my main store and my Etsy shop.

Wash your mouth out

With soap that smells so yummy, you may well be tempted.

My soap order from Etsy seller CrowleyManor arrived yesterday and I almost ate my Kahlua soap upon smelling it. There are so many great sellers of natural, handmade soaps on Etsy and I thought I'd share some of my favourites with you.

1. Kahlua - coffee sweet almonds and vanilla by CrowleyManor
2. Chai tea shea butter soap by Dennis Anderson
3. Coconut mochi by Savor
4. Black raspberry vanilla soap by Morgan Street

Truth or fiction?

I recently discovered the fascinating work of photographer Alison Jackson, who ostensibly shows us celebrities caught unawares, causing us to do a double-take. Here we have, for instance, a typical morning in the Cruise household:


Or is it? In fact, she uses lookalikes to create private moments that fill in the gaps of our imagined celebrity landscape. It's an intriguing study of our perceptions of celebrities and how we feel we know them.

It's easy to blame the media entirely for this phenomenon. But, as a former student of Psychology, the psychological aspect of a phenomenon is always of interest to me. And, according to the research, celebrity culture is merely playing to our innate tendencies, not creating this phenomenon. Basically, our brains don't realize that seeing a face on TV or in a photograph is not the same as actually meeting that person in real life. While our brains were evolving, anyone with a familiar face was considered an "in-group" member, and, therefore, someone who it was important to keep track of. Obviously, due to our saturated media culture, we now can recognize hundreds or thousands of people that we have never actually met, nor will likely ever meet. However, our wiring hasn't changed, and so, on some deeper level, we really do feel that celebrities are our friends (or enemies I suppose, if our values are vastly different).

All in all, it's a fascinating topic, and to that end, here are a few more of my favourites:

Martha in jail:
Bush choking on a pretzel:
Mick doing a spot of ironing:
Bill Gates dancing with his ipod: