The artist Olha Afanasieva lives in a small the city in Ukraine, surrounded through colourful apple, cherry, and nut bushes. Her mom has a mini-garden the place she grows recent produce.

At her daughter’s request, she’s lately began rising kale, a leafy cabbage that provides wealthy vegetables to Afanasieva’s recent and colourful nonetheless lifes. 

For the photographer, sustainability has all the time been a truth of lifestyles, starting along with her grandmother.

“My grandmother all the time used cloth buying groceries baggage, lengthy ahead of it used to be so fashionable,” she tells me. “We adopted her instance. I discovered from a tender age that nature will have to be secure and that we’re chargeable for the long run.”

Because of this, Afanasieva’s pictures are styled with environmentally pleasant main points, together with fabric buying groceries baggage and mason jars. She resources a lot of her substances without delay from farmer’s markets. 

“Ukraine could be very wealthy in fruit and veggies,” she explains. “There are lots of fields of corn, wheat, and sunflowers inside a ten-minute power from my area. Increasingly farmers perceive the significance and advantages of rising natural and sustainable merchandise with a minimum footprint.”  

License those photographs by means of Olha Afanasieva Photographs. Tools: Canon EOS 5 Mark III digital camera, Canon 24-70 f2.8 lens. Settings: 1/125 2nd publicity time at f/7.1 and ISO 100.

Lush Inspiration

Afanasieva unearths ingenious inspiration in her atmosphere. In summertime, it may well be the colours of a lush sundown that sparks her creativeness. Ceaselessly, it’s a travel to the backyard.

“The place I reside, you’ll be able to develop your personal apples or strawberries,” she tells me. “You’ll see folks harvest raspberries or watering vegetable beds from a watering can. In case you have a mini backyard, as my mom does, then harvesting could be a roughly meditation.” 

After the invasion of February of final 12 months, I consider studying about Ukrainian farmers, whose wheat, barley, and sunflower fields have been violently attacked. I additionally learn in regards to the heroic paintings being completed through small circle of relatives farmers, who supply an estimated 85% of end result, veggies, and berries to the Ukrainian folks, in line with the FAO.

License those photographs by means of Olha Afanasieva Photographs.

As households have been pressured out in their houses, many became to neighbors, who shared recent and nutritious meals after they have been ready. 

As for Afanasieva, she has endured making gorgeous pictures, even all the way through this brutal struggle. In summertime, her native farmer’s marketplace opens up, and if she will’t in finding substances there, she will normally in finding natural produce at her community grocery store. 

Composition, Gentle, and Styling

Normally, she’s going to get started with a pocket book and pencil, sketching out her compositions and making plans the sunshine and styling upfront. She makes detailed lists of the substances she’ll want and plans accordingly. 

As a result of she will depend on recent seasonal produce, some shoots take months to after all carry to lifestyles, requiring simply the correct substances. Others may well be extra spontaneous, unfolding over the process a unmarried day. 

“Simply the colour of radish can encourage me,” she displays. 

Afanasieva’s nonetheless lifes recall recollections of carefree summer time days, recent flavors, and golden daylight. When capturing outside, she chooses the magic hour round dawn and sundown for that glowy, directional mild—however she’s now not restricted to herbal mild by myself.  

License those photographs by means of Olha Afanasieva Photographs.

“In this day and age, the primary pattern I see is using shiny backgrounds and direct mild, imitating a sunny day,” she says. She replicates the temper of shiny, herbal daylight within the studio at night time.

“When town is dozing, not anything interferes with creativity,” the artist says. 

Tools of Selection

Her lights equipment features a Godox QT-400 Flash Gentle, two stripboxes, one softbox, same old reflectors with honeycomb grids, and white and black flags.

She has two Canon digital camera our bodies, the EOS 5D Mark IV DSLR and the mirrorless Canon EOS R, which she’ll pair with quite a lot of lenses, together with a Canon EF 24-70mm 2.8 L, Canon EF 100mm 2.8, Canon EF 50mm 1.4, and Canon EF 135mm f/2.0 L. 

“Those lenses ship high-contrast photographs, they usually make it simple to concentrate on the correct position,” Afanasieva explains. “They’re very dependable and predictable.”

For nonetheless lifes, she makes use of a Manfrotto tripod with a geared head for complete keep an eye on and balance. 

Backgrounds and Colour Concept

Firstly of her profession, Afanasieva bought professionally-made backgrounds however, nowadays, she makes a lot of her personal. For summer time footage, she normally prefers blank, impartial backgrounds that permit the topic and light-weight to take heart level. 

Different instances, she’ll play with colour concept to create a “rebellion of colour.” As an example, she may pair shiny orange apricots with deep blues for a complementary palette. Crimson cherries, alternatively, paintings neatly with darkish vegetables. 

License those photographs by means of Olha Afanasieva Photographs. Tools: Canon EOS 5 Mark III digital camera, Canon 24-70 f2.8 lens. Settings: 1/125 2nd publicity time at f/8 and ISO 200.

Props

The artist has a various prop assortment for each temper and magnificence, with many distinctive pieces came upon in secondhand stores.

“I continuously visited flea markets prior to now, however now we now have a struggle in our nation and, subsequently, I purchase maximum of my props on-line nowadays,” she tells me. “I even have ceramist buddies who make gorgeous dishes with their very own arms, and I take advantage of the ones items in my paintings.” 

For rising meals and nonetheless lifestyles photographers, her recommendation is discreet: Let your creativeness roam loose.

“What conjures up me probably the most is the liberty we now have when opting for the manner of a picture,” she says. “You’ll {photograph} fashionable nonetheless lifes, or you’ll be able to shoot with antique props.’

“Shoot so much, and {photograph} in as many stipulations as conceivable. Discover ways to paintings with mild and your atmosphere. Play with textures and backgrounds. Reduce greens and end result, and {photograph} them entire. Shoot now not most effective fashionable tales, however vintage tales as neatly. There’s no ‘proper’ or ‘flawed’ technique to make {a photograph}.” 

License this symbol by means of Olha Afanasieva Photographs. Tools: Canon EOS 5 Mark III digital camera, Canon 50mm f 1.4 lens. Settings: 1/125 2nd publicity time at f/7.1 and ISO 100.

Certainly one of Afanasieva’s favourite summertime photos options garlic, kale, zucchini, and carrots sourced without delay from her mom’s mini-garden.

“For this symbol, I sought after to search out ‘imperfect’ greens and vegetables, in order that they’d remind us of the variety of our international,” she recalls. “I selected an asymmetric zucchini, crooked carrots, small kale leaves—now not ‘splendid,’ in all probability, however every of them has a way of individuality. That’s what I used to be searching for.”

License this picture by means of Olha Afanasieva Photographs. Tools: Canon EOS 5 Mark III digital camera, Canon 50mm f 1.4 lens. Settings: 1/125 2nd publicity time at f/8 and ISO 200

For extra from Olha Afanasieva, make sure you consult with her Offset portfolio. From there, head over to her web page, and observe alongside on Instagram at @olha_afanasieva.

License this cap symbol by means of Olha Afanasieva Photographs.

Not too long ago considered