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

TACULAR!!!

Thank you for posting, Amaryllis!!

Thanks

https://500px.com/elenashumilova

(Ignore the NSFW warnings if they come up for you - I didn't find a single one that was NSFW - the breastfeeding one showed more flesh, I can't even imagine what about 3 brothers lying in a bed playing hand-airplanes (for example) that might trigger a NSFW warning.)

Some are just from use of telephoto lenses in low light.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenizer_Method

I think some her photos are compelling while others are a little obvious, as you suggest. Regardless, all are pretty.

was the Kincaide-style light glow. But your'e right about the shallow depth of field in virtually all of them.

They make me feel a little nostalgic not because I grew up a Russian farm but because I live in a city. I miss the woods, wide spaces and no tech in sight.

Thanks for sharing, Amaryllis.

Great photos with the animals. Thanks for posting.

Thanks for sharing them.

I hope she can enter some of these in photography contests.

Thank you, Amaryllis!...........

A great touch with Photoshop.

Can be used or abused. In this case it was used to great effect - but her eye for a photograph is what really makes these images special.

as opposed to skilled control of the camera?

(I create images using both techniques - so not a criticism. It just doesn't seem obvious to me at which stage the lighting and depth of fiield that seems to characerize her work was created. So I'm curious to aobut what you're seeing.)

This is where you can adjust color, contrast, sharpness, cropping, etc. Sometimes shooting like a crazy person is great if you are good at editing from there. I had a friend who shot over a thousand frames a day for over a year (Digital of course... I graduated with a BA in Photo before film had given up the ghost. 1,000 frames a day in film would have been an astronomical cost) He spent most of his time post-processing. All he was looking for was perfect focus. Everything else he could adjust for. My Pentax DSLR can shoot 14 fps... and that's a "prosumer" camera, several steps below a professional camera.

You know all of this of course. This photographer obviously has a good eye. And damn if she doesn't have reliable dependable subjects. I would bet she totes her camera everywhere and goes for walks with the kids when she knows there will be good light. She has baby animals, cute kids, good light... why not take tons of photos?

I didn't get a sense that the photos were manipulated per se. But i wonder how many pictures it took to get to the ones we see?

I cut my teeth shooting large format sheet film. We were trained to capture the right moment, use the right lens, and set shutter and aperture to control effects. Even then, we worked in the darkroom to adjust film development and finally print the print. In the darkroom we adjusted contrast, selectively burned and dodged areas to lighten and darken them. it’s all in the photographers bag of tricks. Now with programs like Photoshop we can also control the color palette of the shoot (color profiling) enhance the image’s vibrance, and do oh so much more.

Ansel Adams once said “The negative is like a musical score. The print is like a performance of the score.

Being a professional photographer, and teaching photography for 31 years informs my opinion that these images have been lovingly enhanced to make them what the photographer felt more than what they saw.

photographer felt more than what they saw" fits with the quote from her in the OP: "I get inspired mainly by my desire to express something I feel, though I usually cannot tell exactly what that is,” Shumilova explained to BoredPanda.

and often I can tell from looking at the photos whether the effects came from post post-processing v. excellent camera skills. I started in the film era, as well - no degree, but plenty of darkroom work for the college yearbook.

I find it a bit odd that people believe that post-processing somehos makes the photographer less skilled, when virtually all of the digital post-processing has its parallel in old-style darkroom work. But somehow photoshop is evil.

I do distinguish between post-processing wtih the image actually recorded (which I still view as skilled photography), and equally skilled manipulation to alter the image (which is art but uses photoshop and the raw image as the medium). I do both (restoration of old photographs & minimizing the impact of death in post-mortem photographs) - and people with a skilled eye can identify when I've crossed the line.

I just wasn't sure wheher you were seeing tells in the finished images, or just guessing based on the current technological capabilities.

Looks this juicy, this rich, and has this dynamic range. No doubt it looked damn fine, but not this good. Since you cut your teeth on film - you might want to take a look at this classic Ansel Adams image, before and after editing.

https://petapixel.com/2018/11/07/the-story-behind-ansel-adams-iconic-moonrise-hernandez/

Ernst Has once said “the art of processing is like running through snow without leaving footprints.”

I hope you are still making photos!

use their images straight out of the camera. Post processing in cheating!

Unfortunately - not much photography recently (although my camera is within 20 feet of me, I'm at work on a Sunday night). Work keeps me busy 80-100 hours a week . . . just waiting for retirement.

I wasn't trying to denigrate it. It's actually its own skill and a difficult one to master. And i wasn't trying to suggest the photographer was cheating somehow. Photoshop or Lightroom or whatever post-processing program is being used... they're ubiquitous. Everyone tweaks their great images a little. I mostly just adjust for contrast and color which is what i suspect this photographer did. Standard dodging and burning stuff but digitally. No big woop. She's got a great talent and excellent subjects. Apparently she mostly uses a Canon 5D with a 135mm lens. It's got a nice bokeh.

Perfect timing - light, shadow, fog, reflections, children, animals.....

Those children.....

that we all have in common - love of, as you say, children, family, beauty, nature and pets!

I love Bored Panda. One of my favorite sites besides DU.

She really knows what she is doing!

A real sense of freedom.

I would never have thought it could be done. Amazing and beautiful.

thanx for posting.

Those are such charming and adorable pictures. They brightened my day.

Thanks so much for sharing these.