I’m offering exclusive 4×6 & 8×12 prints of your choice, the COMPLETE proceeds of which are going to AIDS!!! I rarely offer prints for sale, so this is big!! :D

Also, 50% of proceeds from ALL of the other awesome items available in the store will also be donated to the cause.
There’s never been a better time to get Pleiades the book or a limited edition 16×20 print!

Click here to get an exclusive 4×6 print of YOUR choice or click here to get an exclusive 8×12 print of YOUR choice… & help a GREAT cause at the same time!

If you want to make a direct donation, please click here!

If you lovely readers also clamor for one, I might even have another print auction (much like my HELP HAITI NOW auction in February). Let me know in the comments!

The goal is to raise $1,000… LET’S DO THIS!!! :D

You know what to do ;)

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Help spread the word! PLEASE link, email, tweet, and share it! Thank you ♥

Oh, and why not follow me on Twitter & Facebook while you’re at it? ;)

Shoes, a friend on your leg, gathering for honey, mini-cheesecake & key lime tart, a lonely island, the only fish I eat, the sweetest fruit I’d ever tasted (local, organic pluots at Berkeley Farmer’s Market).

(And one of Montreal!) Thunderstorms, walking under highways, on railroads, and one of my favorite things in the world yet again: breakfast.

Fruit tart & tiramisu from Montreal‘s favorite boulangerie.

For my last dinner with friends & family in Canada, my Xiao Qiang jiejie baked me a heart-shaped tiramisu cake herself.

Now that’s love. ♥

So I never shot people. They were too difficult to capture.

And when I finally did start taking portraits, I took mostly self-portraits. At least my own self was a subject more easily directed. I could be myself around, well, myself. And I had a motivation, fueled by those awkward adolescent years: I wanted to show the world how I saw myself, how I felt I looked like. Not what everyone else saw: the tired girl at school, the bad hair day, or the candid photo usually with my mouth full (and open), hand raised in a feeble attempt to block the camera.

When I finally started taking portraits for other people, I realized I wanted to do this not just in my own self-portraits but for every single photo I took of someone else.

Portraits are to reflect you– not how your best friend or employer or neighbor sees you, but how you feel, how you perceive yourself.

And I’m here to do just that.

I photographed Alec in public several months ago. Back then I didn’t know his name, neither he mine. I was just a far-away admirer of a lone guitarist who happened to be playing lovely music.

Then, I happened to post this photo somewhere, and one of his friends happened to send it to him, and when I came across it recently (he was using it as his profile photo on Facebook) I messaged him, eager to introduce myself to my accidental subject.

He replied:
I don’t mean to sound campy or anything, nor overtly tmi confessional with a near stranger but,

you have a really fantastic talent.

To express exactly how you as an individual feel and see yourself…

I don’t know if I’m there yet– I’ll always be striving– but at least, maybe, I’m a little closer.

Sometimes the perfect thing to do is just to take an old point & shoot and simply watch the wind embrace the trees.

The pre-order period for Pleiades ends in 5 days, on Harry Potter’s birthday– July 31st– and with it, the personalized special gifts & the pre-order price of $15.
(What’s Pleiades? What special gifts? Can I read a never-before-released story from the book?)

Hurry and preorder Pleiades at this special preorder-exclusive price now before the price goes to $19 for all non-preorders.

Click here to get a free photography print & pre-order Pleiades today!

If you still need convincing, read an excerpt from one of the short stories in the book.

The sky always looks epic in Brossard… especially before a storm.