A cold Winter, finally! Every year I come back home to Latvia for Christmas and New Year holiday break, hoping for sub-zero weather conditions and maybe a little bit of snow. For the last few years I didn't have much success, but this time it was different (in every possible way).

I used to swear by natural light and would never use anything else unless I really need to. Well, here I am few years later... Curiosity and unpleasant feeling of being dependant on the light, especially on short winter days, made me want to try strobes.

It's not only girls that I photograph for my personal works – sometimes I collaborate with guys as well. I don't do it very often, but having a guy in the front of a camera is something that definitely drags me out of my comfort zone.

An outstanding movie director and a dedicated polaroid shooter Wim Wenders said recently that photography these days is dead more than ever. His point was that people take so many pictures that they don't even bother to stop and look at them, not even mention about printing these photographs out. It's hard to deny the fact, but still hearing words like these from that kind of person was quite depressing. Wender's statement made me think a lot and I would let myself to disagree with the master.

I love working on my personal shoots for the ability to learn and the sense freedom they provide. You can fail as many times as you want without pressure of delivering top quality content to your client. On the other hand though, when you are working with a fascinating model like Ksenia, the last thing you want to do is fail.

When the long dark winter was finally over, the time has come to increase my activity with personal work. Luckily for me, this time I had a chance to work with amazing Rayssa – she is absolutely great with bringing the right emotions and mood without saying too much, which, to be honest, is the best scenario for me, as I prefer to keep things natural, without putting too much force of direction.