A father and son in the woods
Family · Cambridge · Summer 2026
This one is my own — my husband Maksym and our son Matthew, and about five minutes of the two of them I'll keep forever.
The session
Maksym & Matthew
I spend most of my life behind the camera, photographing other people's families — so it feels strange and lovely to put my own here. This is my husband Maksym and our son Matthew. There was no session, really. We were out walking in Victoria Park in Cambridge on a warm June evening, Matthew riding on Maksym's shoulder the way he always does, and the light coming through the trees was so good that I made them stop while I ran around the two of them with the camera.
It lasted maybe five minutes. Matthew is at the age where everything is funny, so Maksym lifted him straight up overhead and he shrieked laughing, and I caught it — that wide-open, whole-body laugh that babies do and then somehow forget how to do. The sun was coming low and gold behind them through the leaves, backlighting Matthew's hair into a halo, and I just kept shooting until he got bored of us.
My favourite isn't the funny one. It's the quiet frame right after — Maksym with his lips pressed to the top of Matthew's head, both of them worn out and happy, the woods gone gold around them. I've taken thousands of photographs of other people having exactly this moment. It turns out it feels completely different when the moment is yours.
I spend my life photographing other people's families. This time the family was mine.
Victoria Park, Cambridge
A big city park in the Galt end of Cambridge — a lake in the middle, old trees, and shaded paths that catch the light beautifully in the early evening. It's ten minutes from home for us, which is the whole reason this happened at all. Best about an hour before sunset, when the sun drops low enough to come sideways through the trees. Free to park and open late, busy on weekends — but there's always a quiet corner if you walk a few minutes in.