# Russian Mother Takes Magical Pictures of Her Two Kids With Animals On Her Farm



## Braineack

Russian Mother Takes Magical Pictures of Her Two Kids With Animals On Her Farm | Bored Panda

some amazing work in here.  Beyond impressed.


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## paigew

oh my gosh. I saw her work yesterday on fb and am in love. She is so inspiring.


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## gsgary

I would like to see a shot before all the photoshop work, does nothing for me over processed

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## vintagesnaps

The ones that the background looks as if it was photoshopped in just seem like pictures of anyone's kids - in front of scenery that's really someplace else. At least I hope she isn't putting that toddler in/near that size lake... I guess for me if it doesn't seem believable then I find myself thinking more about the photoshopping than the picture (such as thinking the size of the child and the background don't make sense being in the same picture together).

edit - And taking another look, some of the kids and pets seem to be backlit but the background looks like it's dark and foggy, where's a light source? Notice the area around the dark jacket of the kid with the shovel and the cat, it appears to have been edited. I think there appears to be some external lighting in some of these, at least I can't figure out an existing light source in some.


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## terri

gsgary said:


> I would like to see a shot before all the photoshop work, does nothing for me over processed
> 
> Sent from my GT-I9100P using Tapatalk 2



Well, it's digital photography but excellent is excellent - you can't argue that she knows what she is doing.      She has a terrific eye for composition and uses natural light beautifully - allowing her to process these into something really special.    I didn't see a single one that looked over processed.   Film or digital - you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, so she had good images to work with.

If we all shot the same way it'd be a boring old world.


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## Derrel

Braineack said:


> Russian Mother Takes Magical Pictures of Her Two Kids With Animals On Her Farm | Bored Panda



What was old is NEW again!

Pictorialism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I've always enjoyed pictorialism in photography. AA and his f/64 group went out of their way to quash it. Thank god they are all long dead and rotted, so people with some actual ideas besides a few Zone System numbers can hold some sway. This Russian artist has a flair for the pictorial, but it takes an artist's eye to appreciate it, and today we have mostly technicians.


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## mmaria

glad to see it


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## vipgraphx

WOW, no doubt that lady has skills. 

Check out her other site

500px / Elena Shumilova / Photos

Thanks for sharing with us Braineak!


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## sashbar

Most amazing is that she bought her first camera in 2012

500px / Elena Shumilova / Photos


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## bc_steve

wow, those are pretty awesome!


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## sm4him

Yeah, I saw these yesterday as well. Just beautiful work. As Derrel says she really seems to have an eye for the pictorial; this statement from the Wikipedia article struck me--"For the pictorialist, a photograph, like a painting, drawing or  engraving, was a way of projecting an emotional intent into the viewer's  realm of imagination"--because that's exactly what she's done, imo.
Her photos stir my own creative juices--I could write a short story about nearly every one of those photos.


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## vipgraphx

I wonder how much processing she does, There was a similar comment about the before picture vs after. This would be interesting to see what exactly goes into photos like this.


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## manaheim

That's some seriously amazing imagery and the demonstration of skills with lighting is sorta jaw-dropping.


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## runnah

No "in mother Russia" jokes?


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## tirediron

gsgary said:


> I would like to see a shot before all the photoshop work, does nothing for me over processed
> 
> Sent from my GT-I9100P using Tapatalk 2


What if she took a few shots with terriers?


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## pixmedic

BIG. _*fuzzy*_. dog.  :thumbup:


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## robbins.photo

Braineack said:


> Russian Mother Takes Magical Pictures of Her Two Kids With Animals On Her Farm | Bored Panda
> 
> some amazing work in here.  Beyond impressed.



Wait, she's taking pictures of her kids with the animals on her farm?  What is this, some sort of new sheep cam?  I'm guessing Sony?  Lol


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## BillM

I'd love to see her do a video on her post processing, beautiful pictures with amazing processing.


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## timor

Impressive ! This "Russian Mother" is a full fledged professional with extensive art and digital photography training. She is not average Russian mother.  She is great digital artist, someone to watch in the near future.


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## vipgraphx

timor said:


> Impressive ! This "Russian Mother" is a full fledged professional with extensive art and digital photography training. She is not average Russian mother.  She is great digital artist, someone to watch in the near future.




I read that as well but supposedly she has been only doing photography for about a year.


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## timor

vipgraphx said:


> timor said:
> 
> 
> 
> Impressive ! This "Russian Mother" is a full fledged professional with extensive art and digital photography training. She is not average Russian mother.  She is great digital artist, someone to watch in the near future.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I read that as well but supposedly she has been only doing photography for about a year.
Click to expand...

 Do you know, that in Russia to qualify as an artist (on this level) you have to have full education and certification ? So, this is one year out of school. Or is this one year with professional DSLR.


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## manicmike

I really like her work.


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## vipgraphx

One year with DSLR


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## timor

vipgraphx said:


> One year with DSLR


Notice her seamless use of fill in flash. Most of the shots are made against the sun, yet her shadows are well exposed. This is systematic. The magic of this pictures lays in bright "corona" around subjects. It's perfect, perfect for mood setting. Observe the situation also, most shots have nostalgic mood, this kid never smiles. She is very good in observation, but also may be a master of creating sets.


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## paigew

timor said:


> vipgraphx said:
> 
> 
> 
> One year with DSLR
> 
> 
> 
> Notice her seamless use of fill in flash. Most of the shots are made against the sun, yet her shadows are well exposed. This is systematic. The magic of this pictures lays in bright "corona" around subjects. It's perfect, perfect for mood setting. Observe the situation also, most shots have nostalgic mood, this kid never smiles. She is very good in observation, but also may be a master of creating sets.
Click to expand...


I doubt that's fill flash. As she states she prefers natural light. 


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## MrSleepin

beautiful work!

...although something people forget is how DOF works.

some of these are very obviously photoshopped, beautiful none the less.


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## EIngerson

WOW! Nice find, thanks for sharing.


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## timor

paigew said:


> I doubt that's fill flash. As she states she prefers natural light.


I don't disagree, yet there is a few shots with sun in the frame. You know, how ends this.
Nevertheless here is her larger portfolio:
500px / Elena Shumilova / Photos
There is a lot to learn from her. And hey ! Mothers of America ! Anyone willing to pick up the challenge ?


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## paigew

timor said:


> paigew said:
> 
> 
> 
> I doubt that's fill flash. As she states she prefers natural light.
> 
> 
> 
> I don't disagree, yet there is a few shots with sun in the frame. You know, how ends this.
> Nevertheless here is her larger portfolio:
> 500px / Elena Shumilova / Photos
> There is a lot to learn from her. And hey ! Mothers of America ! Anyone willing to pick up the challenge ?
Click to expand...


Well I looked at a bunch of her exif data on Flickr and saw no signs of flash. She shoots wide open. With fast shutter speeds. Also her photos are in flickr groups such as "natural light photography"



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## vintagesnaps

I'd gotten the impression the photographer was doing photos with existing light but re-reading it she says she likes that but doesn't say she uses available light only. There must be another external light source in some of these; look at the ones with the kid on the sled - there's a shadow along the dog's leg that shows a light source being to the subjects' right front (viewer's left), then in the other sled photo it looks like there's light coming from the boy's left (viewer's right). 

In the photo with the boy looking at the lake there's a reflection of a sky that shows clouds and the sun peeking through, but the sky reflected just isn't there in that photo... the background seems dark and the building across the lake has lights showing as if it's getting dark. If you look at the treeline there are no clouds just above the tree, but the skyline reflected has white clouds just above the treeline (upside down of course in the reflection). 

It might have been more clear if the article said that the photographer uses existing light and external light, does photos and composites etc.


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## paigew

Hey I'm not here to argue. But if you look up the shots in Flickr she groups them in natural and available light groups. At least the ones I have checked...?


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## vintagesnaps

I didn't see the Flickr page so I'll have to look at it.


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## sashbar

timor said:


> vipgraphx said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> timor said:
> 
> 
> 
> Impressive ! This "Russian Mother" is a full fledged professional with extensive art and digital photography training. She is not average Russian mother.  She is great digital artist, someone to watch in the near future.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I read that as well but supposedly she has been only doing photography for about a year.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> Do you know, that in Russia to qualify as an artist (on this level) you have to have full education and certification ? So, this is one year out of school. Or is this one year with professional DSLR.
Click to expand...



She does not need anything to "qualify as an artist in Russia" these days.  
She is an architect, graduated from Moscow Architecture Institute. This is an academic institution, that means 5 years of a rather broad and intensive education, including art, history of art, design etc.  It involves a lot of drawing , painting etc. So she must be well versed in formal things like Bauhaus principles and aestetic, composition, color, shapes, contrasts, perspective, space organisation, landscaping and forms. As for digital photography, I could not find any traces of intensive training. She bought her first camera in 2012,  as she says. Re photography itself it looks like she was completely self taught, just a mother of two sitting home with her kids. And her portfolio is quite small for a serious portraiture pro. Very few images outside her own kids. But the speed of her progressing from simply good shots, that would be praised on this forum, to her later work, that is verging on art, is just staggering. She is claiming that photography became her second profession. She has her own kids photographer blog and a Facebook page that states she is a professional photographer. From what I see she is just trying to promote herself, having realised the potential of her work. Nevertheless, she is not a typical farmer, but a pretty typical affluent Moscovite. Just way more talented than most.


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## mmaria

huh... I feel better now


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## robbins.photo

timor said:


> vipgraphx said:
> 
> 
> 
> One year with DSLR
> 
> 
> 
> Notice her seamless use of fill in flash. Most of the shots are made against the sun, yet her shadows are well exposed. This is systematic. The magic of this pictures lays in bright "corona" around subjects. It's perfect, perfect for mood setting. Observe the situation also, most shots have nostalgic mood, this kid never smiles. She is very good in observation, but also may be a master of creating sets.
Click to expand...


The kid is Russian.  Of course he never smiles.


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## Braineack

paigew said:


> Well I looked at a bunch of her exif data on Flickr and saw no signs of flash. She shoots wide open. With fast shutter speeds. Also her photos are in flickr groups such as "natural light photography"



looks like most her shots are sunrise/sunset as well.


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## timor

sashbar;3139650


She does not need anything to "qualify as an artist in Russia" these days. :lol:  
She is an architect said:
			
		

> Thanks Sashbar, good info. So I was right about her extensive art training in a very renown institution.
> Well her name we should remember. As for me I would wonder, when she will wander outside this current subject.


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## deveaushawn

tirediron said:


> What if she took a few shots with terriers?



I've read that Terriers don't have very good colour reproduction or shutter speed....


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## rexbobcat

gsgary said:


> I would like to see a shot before all the photoshop work, does nothing for me over processed
> 
> Sent from my GT-I9100P using Tapatalk 2



I think they're really great finished photos, but I do think there is a lot of Photoshop going on such as adding fog and superimposing ripples into the water. What's depressing (as a photographer) is that she began taking photos in 2012...apparently.

Plus, I imagine a Russian farm is probably really conducive to taking photos. Ha.


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## timor

rexbobcat said:


> I think they're really great finished photos, but I do think there is a lot of Photoshop going on such as adding fog and superimposing ripples into the water.


 Anything to make a good impression. But this is nicely done.



rexbobcat said:


> What's depressing (as a photographer) is that she began taking photos in 2012...apparently.


I am afraid, that in today's environment, when you can find thousands of smashing portfolios on the net, smashing portfolio is not enough. A good legend is also needed, something dramatic to grab the heart of the public. I didn't see her own website at this moment, but what I see, it looks like a systematic campaign to get known. People like to watch and talk about "miracles" (like we here), they always hope one will happen to them. (How many people play Lotto ? ).


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## vipgraphx

I keep looking at this lades photos and I keep saying WOW. What ever techniques she does, what ever amount of photoshop she does its some of the cleanest I have seen.

All I can say is WOW!




WOW by VIPGraphX, on Flickr


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## DiskoJoe

I totally thought this was this lady here at first.....

Flickr: Elena Karagyozova's Photostream


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## trevorjb1406

Such nice pictures I have posted it to my FB page as I would like my friends to see it!


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## trevorjb1406

I thought they were very nice as well. Some folk seem to be concerned about the use of photoshop but I think the effect is pretty good.


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