Anya Day of AnyaFoto is a multi-talented photographer whose work covers everything from weddings to all areas of portraiture: glamour, boudoir, family and newborn. In the first of a series of articles, Anya shares some of the beautiful newborn photographs from her portfolio and tells us a little bit about her background including how she came to make photography her career.

As a little girl I used to watch my dad develop black and white photos in our tiny apartment bathroom. At such a young age it seemed like magic to me seeing the photos appear as if out of nowhere. Later in life I was always interested in photography but didn’t get my hands on it until the second year of collage. The introductory black and white 35mm class drew me in and I spent countless hours in the developing room witnessing the same magic as I had with my dad.

As a typical art degree graduate I didn’t know what to do with my photo skills to make a career and ended up working in all different types of art jobs. They varied between being a photo assistant, art gallery assistant, and even video editing for a Russian TV station.

It wasn’t until the market crash and the loss of my job that I realized that I can actually make a living doing something that I really enjoy and have a great passion for. I starting photographing family, close friends and worked part time for a wedding photography company.

After I built my portfolio and skill level I opened up my own business and went full time. Now I couldn’t dream of a better job. I absolutely love photographing people and all of their lives’ special moments. It’s really the best feeling knowing that my newborn photographs capture a particular moment in time and create that memory for my clients to cherish forever.

Exposure is the perfect finish to my workflow, which currently runs from Lightroom into Photoshop and then into Exposure for the final touches in terms of applying a specific color look or conversion to black and white. Exposure gives me a wide variety of filters and flexibility to alter them to fit my style. It’s really easy to use, especially with the new upgrade that has Bokeh as one of the options.

I really love the look of all the film filters, both color and black and white. The grain takes me back to my film days and I just love that. Some of my favorite filters are Kodak Portra 400VC, Kodak Ektar 100, Technicolo Process 4 – Faded, Postcard – Brown Shadows, Polapan, Kodak Technical Pan – Technidol, Kodak Plus-X 125.

Big thanks to Anya for taking time out of her busy schedule to chat with us, and for sharing her lovely newborn photographs. Make sure to check out her website for more of her amazing images and look out for the next article in this series where Anya will discuss her glamour photography with us.