Russian Mother Takes Magical Portraits of Her Two Boys and their Animal Friends

Russian photographer Elena Shumilova only got into photography in early 2012, when she acquired her first camera. But if you were to look through her Flickr and 500px profiles, you would swear she had been doing it for much, much longer.

Her stunning photography revolves almost exclusively around photographs of her children and their animal friends on the family’s farm. Adorable children, animals and surroundings that already offer so much beauty to Shumilova’s lens combine into an enchanted world that is equal parts cozy and magical.

Speaking with Bored Panda, she explains that her photos are part intuition, part inspiration:

I largely trust my intuition and inspiration when I compose photos. I get inspired mainly by my desire to express something I feel, though I usually cannot tell exactly what that is.

Here’s a selection of Shumilova’s photography:

Shumilova told Bored Panda that she shoots the images during the day, so as to not miss out on time she could be spending with her children, and then edits the images at night. She also says that she prefers natural light, but loves “all sorts of light conditions – street lights, candle light, fog, smoke, rain and snow,” basically anything “that gives visual and emotional depth to the image.”

In order for the images to fit on the blog, we had to scale them down significantly, so if you like what you see be sure to head over to Shumilova’s Flickr and 500px profiles and browse to your heart’s content. Just make sure you have a warm blanket and some hot cider handy… these photos are likely to lull you into an extreme sense of coziness.

(via Bored Panda)

Image credits: Photographs by Elena Shumilova and used with permission.