I needed to do something for myself. With the never-ending winter and my mood prone to copy the thermometer I needed to prove to myself that I still am alive. All I needed was a great model, a great location and my trusty Nikon.

A great model… I have never hired a professional, because I like to work with ordinary people and every person brings something different to the shoot. I greatly respect professional models, it’s just that I prefer to find the model in every person I meet Some people like to be in front of the camera, some don’t, and that constitutes a challenge for me – to take, under any circumstances, photos that I am proud of. And so I asked my husband’s colleague, who has a due date with her first baby in three weeks. She is smart, sexy and stunning. And she warned me: “If you are not afraid to take photos of me, I think I can stand somewhere for a while.” Poor dear didn’t know what she was signing up for.

A great location … That was easy peasy. I have been eyeing this one place in the woods every time we went to visit our god-son. And I was dying for the weather to get a bit better, because frankly, who fancies to stand knee-deep (or deeper) in a cold water when the outside temperature barely reaches 5 degrees Celsius. Luckily Mother Nature took pity on me and that very evening it got warmer (and stayed that way! YAY!). And although we photographed on several locations, the pond was my favorite.

So I threw my trusty Nikon into the bag and off we went. I promised myself that this time I will push myself out of the box, I will try something new. I am not sure I succeeded 100%, but I like the outcome. Yep, blowing my own trumpets and not blushing a bit And so we walked in rubber boots in high waters and got our boots stuck in the mud at the bottom of the swamp and we struggled and my pregnant model was such a trooper to go through all that. But it was a beautiful spot with all the tranquility you could ever wish for and it happened. We clicked and the camera clicked and I hope you will enjoy the result. I paid for it standing up to my bottom in cold water, my rubber boots useless and full.