These pictures by photographer Elena Shumilova are absolutely beautiful and perfectly capture the elusive and magical relationships that children have with animals.
Elena began taking photographs of her two sons interacting with their pets and the animals on their farm when they were toddlers.
She tells Reshareworthy.com, “Children and animals – that’s my life. Because I’m mom of two sons and we spend a lot of time on the farm. I shoot my boys, my dog (he is an Alabai and his name is Misha) and cats and other farm animals sometimes.” She adds, “Pets are members of our family and there’s nothing more natural and more important than the desire to care for someone you love.”
Elena works hard to capture the naturalness of her surroundings. “When shooting I prefer to use natural light – both inside and outside. I love all sorts of light conditions – street lights, candle light, fog, smoke, rain and snow – everything that give visual and emotional depth to the image.”
“I sketch down my ideas all the time, capturing form and arranging body shapes of all my subjects. I believe that it is not your face but the body that communicates emotion. So when creating sketches and envisioning photographs, I take time to figure out the poses and the gestures,” Elena explains to Reshareworthy.com.
“At the same time, I photograph my kids and friends when we go for a walk. The dog and animals that you see in photos are all our animals. So there are no special props.”
“Poses are everything. They communicate emotion and they can also make a photograph look awkward and incomplete. I spend many hours studying different poses and how they translate differently at different exposure times.”
“I don’t look only at the poses of my children but also the poses of animals.”
“I photograph my children because they are here with me and the setting is rural because we spend a lot of time here at the cottage, I use natural light, and the clothes is what my children usually wear so there are no special outfits.”
Elena describes her style as “effortless, capturing life as it is and translating the 3D world into a 2D form.”
“I work hard at it, and I love it when you can instill originality into something very simple.”
Photographs published on Reshareworthy.com with permission from Elena Shumilova.
To see more of Elena’s spectacular photography visit her website. You can also see more of her work on Instagram and Flickr. She also has a set of “Faithful Friends” note cards available through Amazon.
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