Girl with the black eyes

Happy birthday, dear Theresa! You have such a beautiful soul, and stunning eyes.
It was a great pleasure for me  to travel to Schwerin on a weekend last time I was in Germany.
Photographing Theresa was a little dream of mine and I'm very happy that it came true.

Vienna encounter

What amazes me the most about traveling is the wonder of unexpected encounters.
After my wonderful trip to Germany (more about it later) with stops in Vienna

I didn't expect to meet someone very special in the last hour of my stay in Austrian capital.
I was already exhausted after the early travel from Berlin to Vienna and several meetings when I met Hoa. She found the message on Couchsurfing about my desire to do a photo walk, was kind enough to respond late at night to my emails and meet  the complete stranger the next day.
You just send a message to the void of Internet, and somehow wonderful people catch them and then meet you. I still can't believe that it works. I wasn't sure how Hoa would look like, but when I stepped out of U-Bahn 15 minutes later than planned, I saw a girl taking a picture of a homeless man, pointing a camera straight into his face,neither being nervous nor shy. I thought: "That's a good start".

I didn't expect that one hour with a stranger would be too little. And when I was literally jumping onto my train to the airport, it felt like tearing apart with a sister you've never met before. She told me: "The pictures I made of you do not look good. You have to come back, so I'll make the better ones." And I definitely will, Hoa.

 Here you can find Hoa's project about strangers on Facebook "Pieces of Life", and her YouTube channel with cool stories.

Що мене найбільше вражає у подорожах, так це невичерпна присутність неочікуваних зустрічей.
Після чудової поїздки до Німеччини (про яку згодом) із зупинками у Відні, я не очікувала зустріти когось особливого у мою останню годину перебування в австрійській столиці.
Я вже була виснажена раннім перельотом з Берліну до Відня, прогулянки і декількох зустрічей, коли я зустріла Хоа. Вона побачила моє повідомлення на Couchsurfing про те, що я шукаю партнера для фотопрогулянки, мило відповідала на мої пізні імейли, і погодилась зустрітись зі мною наступного дня. Ти просто надсилаєш повідомлення у порожнечу інтернету,
і якимось чином чудові люди ловлять їх, і знаходять тебе. Я досі не розумію, як це працює.
I не знала точно, як Хоа виглядатиме, але коли я вийшла з метро, на 15 хвилин пізніше, ніж планувалося, я побачила дівчину, яка фотографувала безпритульного чоловіка, тримаючи камеру прямо перед його обличчям, не нервуючи ы не соромлячись. Я подумала: "Це гарний початок".Я не очікувала, що одна година із незнайомцем буде так замало. І коли я буквально застрибувала у потяг до аеропорту, було таке відчуття, що я відриваюсь від сестри, яку ніколи не бачила. Вона сказала мені: "Твої фотографії, які я зробила, не дуже вдало вийшли. Тобі доведеться  приїхати знову, аби я зробила кращі.» Я повернусь, Хоа.

Sasha Vesna

It's been awhile. That's how I've started my every blog post for the last 6 months. But it's time to stop it.
The photography spring finally started for me.
The break was to long, but it was necessery for me.
When you stop painting, you get out of practice. And I don't want to lose it.
As it's said, at first you artwork is full of boldness and energy,
but then it fades, and then hard work starts.
It would me much easier for me to keep my blog up to date
if some of you, who is reading this,
 would ever comment my posts or leave any feedback... 
 otherwise I feel like I'm writing to emptiness..  

Thank you so much Sasha for waking me up. I don't remember last
time there were so much beauty and air.

Sunny Saturday

The only friend I made while living in the dorm, is this beautiful girl Kate, who you  may already have seen on Flickr.
It was definitely worth livinh half a year in dorm to find such a friend there :) As I moved to the apartment we do not spend that much time together anymore, that's why we decided to have a  walk on sunny February Saturday in Kiev. Enjoy!
p.s For newbies here , I started 52 weeks portrait project on Flickr.
2 p.s For your questions , guys. Feel free to ask me in english.

strong & fragile

I started a new project on Flickr - 52 weeks. This time it will be dedicated to portraits only. I like people photography a lot, that's how I started taking shots and that's when I feel all-of-a-piece. I said earlier, I sometimes I see light in people, even when they try to prove opposite. It happens so often. The thing is that Jesus loves each and every of us and He sees  light in us and despite hiding it we should reveal it and make a  little world around us as better as we could. through photography I want to show the light people have and let other people see light in each other.

Ilona Volianyk acoustic concert , Kyiv

Since the early age I was interested in music but because of family circumstances and dance classes I wasn't able to attend music school and my dream remained unfulfilled. That's why I'm so in love with music photography, if you can say so :) And I'd love to go on tour to diarize it with Jason Mraz or Alyssa Bernal or some other amazing musicians :)
Here's my friend Ilona Volianyk performing in Kyiv at charity acoustic concert. 

What's new?

This post is more about what I'm up to now and what my life has been during last 2 weeks.
So... the most exciting news is that I've entered the university, where I'm going to study
english and german translation. I'm moving to Kyiv, which the capital of Ukraine, in 4 days.
That's sad and exciting and happy and worrying at the same time. 
Whatever you have planned for the summer, the last couple days are the best anyway.
That's what I'm going through rigth now. We have such  an amazing time with friends and church,
chilling with my family, just naps and morning jogs. Oh it feels so great and I'll have to leave it
here and start a new life soon. There're so many people I love here..But I belive that God will provide
and bless me with everything - He's my Father! 
I'm also working on a cover photo of a music album - really excited about that.Hope to be able to share with you soon. And one of my pictures was recently printed as a book cover in Poland. Watch here .
Be blessed everyone, who is moving of going somwhere
these days!
And here're some photos from walks and picnics over the last few weeks.

Sisterhood photoshot part 2

Hello everyone! It's been awhile and I missed blogging, seriously.
I hope you , person who is reading this somewhere in the google reader , missed me too ;)
This August has been pretty crazy so far, very busy, so emotional and incredibly cheerful!
I was serving in our summer english camp as a photographer, translator and youth group leader, than had few days of follow up, a leadership picnic, few meeting with friends, 2 days out of city , even trip to Kyiv again,
and now I'm home, with tones of editing on my shoulders lol. And I missed you.
This time I'm going to show you the second part of our photoshot with Volianyk sister,
who I love and adore.I can see the first part here. Hopefully will post something this week again.
Last days of summer everyone, go off the chain! :)

7 on 7 August Sisterhood photoshot part 1

If you see this post it means that blogger finally surrendered me and prescheduled post worked!
I'm currently in the english camp I talked a lot about in Twitter, but now I'm going to show you
a few sneak peeks from the photoshot I had with three sisters. It was like a family portrait shot :)
We had so much fun doing it and the weather and location were incredibly beautiful .
Hope you'll like it and stay tuned for the next part!
p.s Don't forget to look through our circle and especially Andrew's post! 

Lena studio photoshot + behind the scenes

Lena is not only beautiful girl ,but also a beautiful soul. I was looking forward to this shot and was incredibly happy when we finally did. Huge thanx to my good friend Juriy Derkach for shooting the behind the scenes video. It was so fun :)

Kate studio photoshot

Hey everyone, especially to new ones. Thank you so much for started following here and on Flickr, despite the fact I post quite seldom this month. I'm having exams throughout May, but on the 1 of June I'll be free
 like a bird :) If you remember  I showed you a sneak peek from our photoshot with lovely Kate, and now it's finally ready and I'm excited to share.

Susan portrait shot

A few weeks ago I was shoting my friend Susan, who is overwhelmingly beautiful and talanted person.
It's been the first time in a long awhile since I made a portrait shot and  if to be frank, I missed it terribly.
I'm feeling the most comfortable when I'm taking portrait pictures, like that's what I've been doing for years, even though I'm just a beginner. Several people asked me , if I get bored shoting shooting the same people over and over again. Maybe they do, but I'm definitely not. For me the better you know someone, his or her gestures,emotions, habits, reactions on pacticular things, the better you can show it in picture, even unconsciously.

7 on 7 April Backstage

As I try to make each of my 7 pn 7 posts different, on April I'm going to show you few backstage pics which were take during portrait photoshot with Kate.

The results of our shooting (I was shooting with Andrew at the studio with beautiful natural light, he just joined our 7 on 7 project !) I'll share here very very soon. And there's one more portrait shooting which I've done while being on spring break. I have scheduled this post and now I hope I'm currently in Kiev :) Can't belive it's nearly 3 weeks till I graduate. That sound insane for me because I've been waiting for it for so long... Life is going to turn upside down for me soon :)

Don't forget to check Amy's 7 on 7and the full circle )
P.S What is 7 on 7 ? read here.

7 on 7 February

Recently I came across 7 on 7  project - kind of challenge where 7 photographers take 7 shots on every 7th day of each month and upload them to their blog. What I liked about this project is that you link your blog post to another participant and this way you can discover more photographes and collaborate.

These photos were taken actually in October or November (still lazy to check out the exif data) , but in one day though. It was little portrait session in a park with my classmate, which I was thinking about for pretty long, just waiting for the right moment. The thing you might do not know about me is that before I discovered still life photography and fell in love with it I was mostly shooting portraits  :) Now I'm trying to get back on track. I wanted to make one portrait session just black and white, what I've never done before, and I finally did it so...enjoy :) And don't forget to check out Rowan !

October Kyiv trip

Last autumn I went to Kyiv (the capital of Ukraine - Wikipedia), to meet up with a friend and to have fun a little bit. I went all by myself and felt so good, like almost independent person :)When I came home I thought I hadn't taken any good shot, but 2 days ago I bumped into the folder with these shots and found some that I'd like to share. So here they are.

Turning 18

Currently it is 1.24 am and it's going to be a long post :)
I'm a self-portrait - kind of person and you can seldom meet photos with my face here.
But I was lacky and got some shots of me made by my very talanted friend Lena,
who did this amazing hairdoo and make-up for my 18th birthday :)

Olia & Andriy Wedding day

Hello everyone. It's been awhile. In previous post I told you that I was working hard on my wedding editing and finally IT'S DONE! I'm so excited to share this one with you, guys. Thank you so much for all the support and encouragement that I get on Flikr. It means a world to me. Actually that's my second wedding photoshot as the main wedding photographer, but my first one was not really successful and I'm not allowed to post it. Anyway this photoshot is one of my favourites and I hope you'll enjoy it! It was so much fun working with Olia and Andriy, the whole wedding ceremony was in ukrainian traditions-style, the bride made the main part of decorations herself! Here I'm gonna post some of my favourite photos from Their Day.

 
                                             A little surprise while driving to our shooting place =)

Lviv streets (live). Part One.

Two weeks ago two photography geeks went to Lviv - one of the most charismatic cities of Ukraine - to shoot life on streets. Take in a count that we both are more candid portrait photographers. But as I said we are geeks and we love photography in any way. Actually I was inspired to try street photography by Thomas Leuthard's books, which you can download for free here. Even before that I had few street shooters that I followed, but these books motivated me to try by myself. So here we're, photography obsessed strangers, wandering around ancient Lviv streets, taking picture, having fun. Btw, Lviv is just 4 hours from Lutsk, but the trip there is quite exhausting =) And as you know me, I couldn't resist to shot still life, which is everywhere!!! kidding. Maybe this post will seem weird because of mash-up of still life and portraits, color and b&w, beutiful and sad moments, but it's how I see life and Lviv in particular.

Masha + Andriy | Wedding sneak peek

Beautiful wedding decorations, lovely couple, good people and friends around you - all you need an amazing wedding and it's certanly about Masha & Andriy 's wedding I was honored to shot. Congrats to you both! The full post is in few weeks to be published =)

Through autumn's advancing / We'll stay young go dancing

After a long while I'm finally here with few autumn shots for you. I wish I could blog here not so rarely, but I have a catastrophic lack of time. A senior year complicate my life, and with school, hometasks, exam's preparing, I hardly have time for editing wedding and lovestory photoshots , and my running 365 project, that is now in a horrible state (well, just not perfect I'd say=) ).But I hope with me waking up one hour earlier everyday I'll sort it somehow out and will please you with more posts, that are yet to come. So if you want to hear from me more frequent - Twitter and Flikr are my firends =)
And here is my lovely friend Kate, that was glad to pose for me while I was testing my new flash (so happy with buying it , was a great help for me while wedding shooting, but later about it).