​

My time in the Basque Country, which was not only the place where I met several key players in my field of scientific research but where I diligently experimented with my digital camera and pondered whether I could eventually sell my travel photography to inspire others.

That summer - and that place - in Germany, where it felt like the world was my oyster, where it felt like my soul was on fire. Alive, capable, passionate and absolutely happy.

Berlin, which was the hub of many impassioned moments, many decisions and many returns. 

Barbati, where, after a very difficult string of months - no, years - I finally shook myself to embrace mindfulness and inner peace. 

Venice - my soul city - in that precise moment where, for the first ever time, it rained on me. The spell, our pact, was suddenly broken and it was absolutely magical. Instead of reaching for my umbrella, I reached for my camera, a love-struck smile on my face.

Have a wonderful week!

From my heart to yours.

"Never give up,
​for that is just the place and time 
that the tide will turn."
- Harriet Beecher Stowe

Turning tides are mystical. As kids and sometimes even as adults, they keep us wondering and waiting, with awe and with hope. 

Your Monday inspiration this week comes from many shores around the world, where the vast horizons are filled by the sea, and where the daily push and pull of the tides plays on your emotions. 

Since I missed last week, here are 10 photos to inspire you. 

Have a wonderful week!

From my heart to yours.

As I'm writing this, IT'S STILL SNOWING. Gah. 

As Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and since we probably all need a pop of color in our wintery days, in this Monday's inspirational post I thought I'd share 10 photographs to start your week, instead of the usual five. 

Head to the shop or to Etsy to shop this post!

From my heart to yours.

Photography is a way of experiencing life; it is above all an exercise in searching, seeing, pausing, feeling and remembering.

​Something I have loved to do from my earliest (and most awkward) days with a camera in hand is to look for reflections. They fascinate me not only because of the laws of physics, but because it's like another world - another reality - lives in that realm. 

Do you pause to look for reflections? Do you photograph them? Leave me a comment below, I'd love to connect with you.

​Have a wonderful week!

Behind every photo is a desire to document a moment, capture a feeling and perhaps dig a little deeper to see something differently than you might at first pass. But, in some special instances, you are faced with a scene that causes an extra bit of wonder.

It's that you've never seen something quite like it before, or just that the light, the mood and the feeling of the place suddenly affects you deeply.

That winter morning when the lagoon swelled and the tide poured into Venice like spilled ink swallows up a page. That morning when there was no clear line between land and sea. That morning when I trudged through knee-deep waters feeling impossibly damp and impossibly giddy. 

That stroll in the Jordaan on a quiet August morning in Amsterdam when I peered into the canal and saw a whole world reflected in it. Although I always chase reflections, sometimes their perfection catches me off-guard, and I feel like magic must exist. 

I had never been that far north. I had never sailed fjords and witnessed waterfalls stemming from the sky. But, most wondrous of all, I had never squinted from the sun at midnight or felt, as I did then, that the practice of telling time was suddenly obsolete. 

Among my favorite of days, my time at the Masseria near Ostuni is etched into my memory. The feelings of tranquility, discovery, significance and insignificance brought up by an old estate and ancient lands. The complete overload felt by all my senses in a paradise of dry heat, crunching earth, deafening crickets, fragrant wines and savory ingredients. The desire to feel connected to others, to oneself and to nature. 

Arriving at Sintra was like travelling to another time altogether. It took time to go through every part of it and really take it all in - all its details, its architectural uniqueness, its fantastical feel. There are a few places in the world that have this effect, but Sintra was my first such experience and one that I cherish.

Tell me: What's one place or time where you've felt struck by wonder? Leave me a comment, I'd love to know. 

Have a wonderful (!) week!

From my heart to yours.

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I'm not one to complain (that much) about the winter, but HOLY COW have we gotten subzero temperatures and a lot of snow in Montreal this month! I appreciate the way shoveling knee-deep snow gets the heart going, and the way waddling in heavy winter gear on slippery streets forces us to take our time in an otherwise hurried daily routine. (There's nothing to be said about minus 40 celsius temperatures, though. Those are just unnecessary in this universe).

But...I miss the scorching sun, the sound of birds, the long hours of daylight, the saturated color palette of summer and walking in and out of the house barefoot. 

This Monday's photo inspiration is a throwback to warm places. 

Staring at these photographs makes me feel the heat on my skin for a moment or two. 

Have a great week! For all those of you in cold places: keep warm!

From my heart to yours.

It's been a while since I shared some photo inspiration with you in my Monday series! But here we are, fresh and refueled at the start of 2018, ready to be inspired and to notice all the beauty around us! 

This week's theme is rugged beauty - places with strong features and the wisdom of the ages at their command.

Have a smooth and happy week!

From my heart to yours.

You may also like:

Let's connect on Instagram!

As I wrote on Instagram a couple of weeks ago, sometimes it's the simplest things that can be inspiring and soothing.

This week's photo inspiration is dedicated to the simple beauty of fresh laundry.

Around the world, there is something strangely poetic about hanging linen and how it changes the feel of an urban or rural landscape. It is familiar and comforting, as though it represents the blessing of having time on our side to tend to our life at home. Our senses are drawn to it - the mix of colors or the crispness of whites, the fresh scent and the gentle breeze that chases the dampness from the cloth. 

Here are 5 of the (many) laundry photographs I have snapped during my travels.

Have a wonderful week!

From my heart to yours.

Autumn is a season where scenery comes alive, even though theoretically it's doing the opposite! I have always had a special fondness for fall, and have been fortunate to live in a place where it is not difficult to find stunning views - whether I stroll about in my urban neighborhood or venture out further into the countryside and mountains. 

This Monday's photo inspiration contains some of my favorite autumn snapshots. 

Since I missed last Monday due to Canadian Thanksgiving, you get some bonus inspiration this week! ​

Have a wonderful week!

From my heart to yours.

Much of the beauty of what surrounds us lies in the balance of opposites, in the metered interplay between what comes and goes -- sunrise, sunset, high tide, low tide, light and shadow.

This week's photo inspiration is dedicated to moments where both light and shadow had their part to play. Since I missed last week (as I spent Monday recovering from our Etsy Fait au Quebec Montreal show), you get five extra photos this week!

Have a wonderful week!

From my heart to yours.

"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."

This quote by Michelangelo has stuck with me since the first time I heard it in Florence, Italy. The idea that something beautiful already exists before art (and the artist) serves to channel it. I have always thought of my photographic art in that way - so much beauty exists in people and places, and the art form is to set it free.

This week's photo inspiration stems from architecture, and how photography can capture its perfection and its mood.

Tell me: Which is your favorite? Leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you.

I remember the early days of dabbling with my camera - it was like I had just (re)discovered basic elements of our everyday existence: symmetry, shadows, reflections, patterns, depth and textures. I have always said that practicing photography has heightened my senses and has propelled me to notice my surroundings differently. As such, some of these simple elements often become glorified in my images, as a form of gratitude for having noticed.

It's always so hard for me to just pick five. So, here's a bonus photo:

Have a wonderful week!

I’ve never tolerated endings well.
​
I have always been the type to put off finishing a book or a movie. I can’t stand goodbyes of any kind – parting with someone I love causes a part of my chest to flutter and constrict and ache in a way that nothing else does. And leaving places – leaving places has always been especially difficult. Even when I was little, I struggled with leaving a place behind. Everyone around me would be ready to return home, while no amount of time was ever enough for me. I’d try hard to fight back tears, which would well up fiercely at the thought of me having to walk away. I learned that what helped feel better was to convince myself that I could return as soon and as spontaneously as I wanted. I thought that it would get easier with age and maturity. But of course, the older I got, the more my love for places became interwoven with my love for certain people or certain pivotal moments, and leaving became even more difficult in a uniquely complex and raw way.

When I was about eight or nine years old, I remember staring out at the sea with my Mom during one of our family travels. We stood quietly, side by side, watching the trees sway in the wind, and she forced me to “make a memory”. I can still hear her voice asking me to focus, to record the scene in my mind, and to remember. Then I would have the power to return there whenever I wanted, just by calling up that memory. 

Before I ever had a camera – before I ever thought about thinking about wanting a camera – I got into this natural habit of “making a memory”, etching a landscape, a light, a feeling of a place into my brain.

That way, even if I leave a place, it never leaves me.

​This week, I thought I would share five photos that I have taken in moments where I paused for a moment to truly feel and truly remember. 

That day I spent hours staring out at the horizon and at the surf in Corfu, listening to my iPod play some of my favorite music until the tide ate up the beach and evening fell.

That light I fell in love with – the way it used to hit the mountains and my face, the way it would make the church, the vineyard and my street glow, and how it would make me breathe deeply and freely. Every day, I felt grateful for my life in Italy. 

I could have stayed up there for hours looking over Her, training myself to identify the hundreds of churches by their steeples, and imagining the past and the future of my lagoon city.

Those afternoon hours I spent staring out into the painting-like waves in the changing light, letting the sounds of Basque and seagulls fill my ears. 

Quite possibly one of the most magical of places and the most magical of days, where ancient olive trees, precious land and inspiring locals taught me about life and passion. 

These are moments and places I can feel at my fingertips. ​Thank you, Mom, for teaching me to record a moment – with or without a camera.

From my heart to yours.

It's been a few weeks since I posted my Monday photo inspiration (I was busy preparing the launch of my Havana collection), so here I am this week with not five but TEN photos to kick off your week!

This week's theme is dedicated to something my eyes and lens are always attracted to: lines. And, although I am a color-loving soul, I love the way black and white photographs make patterns and lines even bolder, bringing them to the forefront in a way that a color photograph would surely not. 

Have a wonderful week!

P.S. Did you know you get a 20% coupon when you join the VIP list? ?

There's been a little hiatus on the blog! Since my last post, I've been on my #venivacay discovering unique Havana and enjoying some much-needed downtime on the gorgeous Cuban coastline. I'll share my impressions with you in a blog post very soon and will be adding my Havana Collection to the shop this month, so stay tuned here and on Instagram! 

This week's inspiration is brought to you by the color blue. So often, you tell me you love blue, that you want to create a blue-hued gallery wall, that you feel drawn to this tranquil color. So, this is for you. Five blue photos to start your week!

Got a favorite? Let me know! I'd love to hear from you.

Have a wonderful week!

From my heart to yours.