Yesterday, late evening, as we were driving back from Pismo Beach, I stumbled upon a thought that made me think about it up until now. I love driving with my family at night – its the time of peace and quiet. The kids are usually at sleep and Yana and I enjoy 2-3 hour conversations. Well, this time Yana had, from what I could tell, a terrible migraine, and talking was making her feel worse, so I was left alone with my head full of thoughts. I don’t know how its got there, but little by little I started thinking about the past, trying to compare how we are and how we were. And again, this whole thing made me realize how lucky of a man I am to be married to Yana. The thing is that by nature I’m a dreamer, but was raised in a very pragmatic family. Things that were beyond realistic for a given moment, often times weren’t considered at all – which isn’t necessarily bad for certain things. Unfortunately, pragmatism and art cannot exist together. Back in the days, I was astonished by the ability of my wife to have big dreams. I loved photography and respected photographers very much, but could never even think I could become one. So, I cannot thank Yana enough by questioning my standards and pushing me to start dreaming again. Dreams and hope kind of go together, don’t you think? If you don’t dream big, you have less hope – that’s how it works for us…

And below is a beautiful family of Denis and Nadya Tsytsyn. We had a privilege to photograph their maternity session. So now, meet little Mandea. They are a truly gorgeous family and it was a lot of fun taking their pictures.