Meet Mariya

CHICAGO PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

Chicago Portrait Photographer Mariya Maximtsev

You’d think that an experienced wedding photographer would have a process to avoid missing important immediate family members. As it turns out, she never asked for a family list or asked who was who during the wedding. I wish I knew enough back then to hire someone who would have done it right.

That’s the thing about family photos, they are so SO important. Trust me, you regret every photo you did not take, and the images you do have will become more precious over time. There are just some moments if miss them you can’t get back … 

 

the tiny hands and feet, the toothless smiles, the first family pet, precious hugs from mom, playful teasing with dad - and of course if they are there - grandma and grandpa...

Let’s talk about regrets - photos from my wedding

I got married way before I knew anything about photography. Now it’s been years and I still cannot get over my regret of not hiring a better photographer. 

To be fair we got a good gallery. Everything looked as good as her portfolio, and she was pretty awesome the whole day. But there was one major fail - the family photos. 

Neither of us got one photo with our families, and not a single photo of our brothers in the entire album - literally zero. Picture of the cake? Sure. Picture of shoes? Yep. But either one of our younger brothers? Nope. It’s like they weren’t even at the wedding. Did I mention that my brother happened to be the ring bearer? 

Chicago Portrait Photographer Mariya Maximtsev

So here's my promise

I will do it right - from getting ALL the important details beforehand to making the whole experience painless and dare I say fun - because what’s the point if family photos feel like getting ready for a root canal?

Let’s take pictures full of real personalities, real smiles, love, and intimate moments - and let’s do them right

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Family

My husband and I moved to Chicago a few years ago and we are now eagerly awaiting our 3rd member in June!

Our favorite way to spend time is looking for the next best tea, coffee, and pastry shops. We’re both photographers so the creative thinking fuel + tea and coffee + ambiance for productive editing is a super complicated formula we constantly need to solve.

When we're not fueling up on coffee, we love to road trip across the country and take pictures. That’s right we don’t really know what the inside of an airport looks like because we go out of our way to drive everywhere - even in other countries. Our goal is to drive to every single state together in the next couple of years! We're not close yet but we'll get there soon 🙂

 

I looove a good road trip, my family goal is to fill out this whole map (yes I've been to WI & FL, just need a pretty picture - being a photographer and all)

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