Michelle Maria | Photographer: Blog

Canadian Tulip Festival

July 8, 2021/By Michelle

The Canadian Tulip Festival occurs each year in mid May in the beautiful capital of Canada! The festival's origins date all the way back to World War II when the Dutch royal family sought shelter in Ottawa during the Nazi occupation in the Netherlands. After the war, in 1945, the royal family sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa to show their appreciation to Canada for keeping them safe. 20,000 bulbs are still sent each year as a continual reminder of the friendship between the two countries.
When I first learned of this tulip-themed festival, I was intrigued and eager to photograph the beauty of so many colourful flowers! So, my mom, aunt and I ventured off to the capital in 2016 and I enjoyed it so much that I went back again a year later. Ottawa is such a beautiful city, especially in spring!

Grimsby Beach

July 8, 2021/By Michelle

During my time in college studying Early Childhood Education, I completed one of my placements at a child care centre in Grimsby, ON. On one particular day, I decided to explore a little of the surrounding neighbourhood during my lunch break and came across the nearby Grimsby Beach just a couple streets over. There's not much to this little beach nowadays though it was a hot spot years ago, first starting out as a religious camp before becoming home to many attractions such as an amusement park and casino in the early 1900s. Today it's a quiet, little beach perfect for getting away from it all, complete with colourful 'gingerbread houses' dotting the surrounding streets. It's where I spent most of my lunch breaks for the duration of my placement and it's still somewhere I visit regularly, a happy place where I can take photos, skip rocks, walk along the shore, and just enjoy the sound of the water.

Website and Etsy Launch!

July 8, 2021/By Michelle

Here we go! It’s been a long time in the making and it’s finally here. I’m excited to launch this website and my Etsy shop, hopeful that you’ll enjoy my photography as much as I’ve loved capturing these moments. Each photo is taken at a different time and location and with a different perspective. Each has their own story; follow along for more details of how these photos came to be!