Kia ora

 I am Irena and this is a rather short story of how I became a photographer.

Just shortly after finishing university in 2013, I left my home country Latvia to start the journey of a lifetime. I travelled the world with my husband, volunteering and working various jobs along the way to pay for the next trip. In 2019 I came to New Zealand to stay.

My photography journey started during my travels. I bought my first DSLR camera in 2016, and that’s when I developed a passion for capturing moments. As my heart always belonged to nature, my first years' main focus was landscape and travel photography. But then lockdowns happened and while sitting at home I focused on developing my skills further and expanding my knowledge by attending multiple online courses, doing lots of practice, reading and learning.

Now I am a freelance photographer with a focus on couple/maternity/newborn/family photoshoots. Sessions with me are relaxed, natural and also fun! I love a good laugh with my clients and am happy to see them enjoying the session despite majority of them being camera shy. The most important moment for me is to capture the connection between them.

I still continue capturing nature when I travel. From my landscape images, I have created a project where I create free phone wallpapers with beautiful New Zealand sceneries.

You can find those in Highlights on my Instagram account @IrenaCima.photography