Artist Diary

  • CHECK OUT THE NEW AUDIO FEATURE

    I have added a new audio feature to my articles. Now every post can be read out loud to you. You will not see this player on my main blog feed page where all the post titles are listed. Instead, the audio player lives inside each individual article itself. Browse through the feed, find something…

  • ROCKS AND ICE IN SHANDONG

    We travelled to Tai’an to see the mountains. It is a less popular attraction during the winter. But I do have to say that it is worth going to. The waters streaming from the mountains are frozen and it offers a spectacular sight to behold. The rock formations are stunning with its vibrant colours and…

  • THE WATERS OF JINAN

    One of my favourite city stops on the tour was Jian. Jinan is known for its hot spring waters, and so even the hotels had hot spring water coming out of the faucets. We went to Daming Lake Park (as seen above), which had picturesque views. That day was hazy, and so you see it…

  • BURIED IN SNOW- CHANG BAI MOUNTAIN

    Our tour took us to Chang Bai Mountain, which is along the North Eastern coastline that borders North Korea. Getting to the mountain top, you have to take a bus that drives you to the trails. It was snowing as we climbed the mountain, and it blocked visibility of most of it sights. It made…

  • ICE COLD ADVENTURES IN HARBIN

    In December, I took a two-week trip to China. We traveled to the North Eastern region of China. In the next month or so, I’m going to be posting photos from my trip on this blog and Instagram @andreamaicreative. I post here every Sunday, so you can follow my journey to China. I’m not going…

  • THE JOY OF FLOWER PHOTOGRAPHY

    Flower photography has really become one of my favourite areas of photography. There is something so amazing to capture the blossoming beauties and knowing that its blooms won’t always be there. You have to be present and enjoy the moment as it is. It’s not about wishing for something better or waiting for the future. Flowers…

  • CHRISTMAS AT ALLAN GARDENS

    I only got a sneak peek of the Christmas show at Allan Gardens, just a taste of it was enough to leave me with a good impression. Totally worth going to! It makes for such an enjoyable outing. The show will still be up even after Christmas, so you will still have time to check it…

  • CHRISTMAS IN THE CITY

    As you are reading this, I will be away in China. I will have escaped the overload of Christmas frenzy. I personally think that Christmas is the most boring time of the year, as its marketing calendar is extended for two months. They start marketing it right after Halloween and I feel it’s too much…

  • EVERGREEN GARDEN

    I returned to Allan Gardens, and to my surprise, everything was moved and replaced with plants and flowers in preparation for the Christmas show. Here’s a preview of what’s on show starting today! (The show official starts on December 6, 2015) #trees #evergreens #gardens #winter #Christmas #Toronto #birds

  • EXOTIC FLORALS

    Here are more photos from Allan Gardens. I am not a fan of Poinsettia flowers, maybe because they are associated with Christmas, but these Shimmering Pink varieties, I do have to say, are stunning! I love pink! Also, there were white orchids. The photos for them turned out even more amazing than I expected, because…

  • A SYMBOL OF HAPPINESS

    I went to Allan Gardens in Toronto to check out their conservatory. It was a larger greenhouse than I thought it would be! It was quite an enjoyable outing for me. They had their Chrysanthemum flower show on, and I took these images. Did you know that these flowers are traditionally used in Chinese herbal…

  • PORTRAIT OF ERICA ROSS

    Last week I photographed my friend, Erica Ross at her home. Erica is an incredibly dynamic and vivaious woman. She teaches about the Divine Feminine and she told me how important it was for her to teach her daughter to trust in her own instincts about making decisions. I found this so refreshing and relevant. So often…

  • THE RUINS OF TORONTO’S PAST

    I finally got around to editing these photos from the summer. These are from Guild Park in Scarborough, a hidden gem in the outskirts of Toronto. The park houses the selvedges of old bank buildings, some dating as far back to the 1800s. It amazed me to see that Toronto once had buildings of this ancient…

  • AUTUMN IN ST. LAWRENCE MARKET

    There’s something about visiting traditional food markets that connect us back to humanity. The live interaction with shop keepers, the simplicity of handwritten signs, the beauty in the way the food is displayed. It takes us back to a time before highly packaged foods and the complication of an over-abundance of choice on the supermarket…

  • BIG FISH IN A SMALL POND

    Last week when I was at the conservatory taking photos of the chrysanthemums, I also saw these beautiful goldfish in the pond. I was quite amazed at how big they were. They swam quite quickly, so it wasn’t easy to get good shots of them. This reminds me of the saying about being a “big…