All Photos © Ekaterina Mukhina Photography

Known for her imaginative approach and far out concepts, Katya Mukhina (Ekaterina Mukhina Photography) is here today to give us an epic behind-the-scenes look into her work. Earlier this year, Katya traveled to Bolivia for a pre-wedding shoot with one seriously adventurous couple. The photos taken during Katya’s trip are beyond cool, and it’s so fun to finally understand how these surreal images were captured. Enjoy!

The Location

This unique location is not the easiest to get to, but moreover, it is difficult for people from lowlands to feel well there. At the height of 3700 meters, the salt flats of the Salar de Uyuni desert are once in a year covered with a thin layer of rainwater. The air is thin and very dry, the sun is harsh, and conditions change drastically from +20 to -20 when the sun sets. The real adventure is to fly here to do wedding pictures both for a couple and a wedding photographer. In 2010, I made wedding pictures here for the first time and had to wait 6 years for the next adventurous couple to be ready to fly to Bolivia. The salt flats are not the only location to shoot in Bolivia. Over the duration of our trip, in a 4×4 jeep with an extra gas barrel aboard, we reached 4900m heights. Our aim was to take pictures with geysers, flamingos, llamas, pink and turquoise color lagoons, 6000m volcanoes, remote and harsh deserts with no one around.  Our team was really small – two people: me and my backstage videographer & assistant. No make-up artists, producers, setup designers. We did everything all by ourselves.

In our behind-the-scenes video, you can see more pictures and the shooting process.

Preparation

We had 2 days in La Paz, Bolivia (3700m) in South America to prepare all props for the session. I’ve been shooting weddings for 13 years, and have covered more than 30 countries during that time. With each location and couple, I am adapting my photography style to capture true emotions & adventure or classic portraiture & romance or surreal fine art photography. Here in Bolivia, I decided to add a surreal feeling to our pictures.  So, we decided to prepare a minimalistic style ceremony set up – a white door and huge 2 meters wide mirrors for our photo shoot. I’m from Russia, so to realize this project, my knowledge of English and Spanish was essential. In two days in an unknown town at 3700 meters, we found mirrors, carpentry, a priest, and bought 5 last row seats on a bus and traveled 12 hours to Uyuni, hugging a package with mirrors. Maybe people will say I’m crazy, but I wanted to do something different and express my artistic vision.

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM, 1/1250, f/8 ISO 400 shot at 26mm

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM, 1/500, f/5,6, ISO 400 shot at 16 mm

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM, 1/400, f/5 ISO 250 at 28mm

One of the difficulties about this location was the lack of wind, which made the water look like an endless mirror. Also, we had to be very careful with the salt water, as not to drop our cameras.

For our bride and groom to feel better we brought oxygen bottles from Peru with us. However, we all had stomach and headache problems, but I hope our sufferings were not in vain.

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM, 1/1600, f/9 ISO 500

On the final day of our adventure, the bride wore a short wedding dress, which allowed for us to do some fun dynamic shots running, playing, using plastic balls in the air and toy T-Rex.

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM, 1/200, f/22 ISO 1000 shot at 35mm

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM, 1/1600, f/9 ISO 500

At sunset, I used a monopod for better angles.

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM, 1/640, f/9 ISO 400 at 28 mm

Adventures continued at 3700 – 4900 meters plateaus with surreal landscapes.

To explain what I wanted from the couple, I used radios so that I could create perfect movement and composition.

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon EF 70-200 2.8 L, ISO 2500, 1/1000, f/5 at 145 mm

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM, 1/1250, f/8 ISO 1600 at 16mm

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM, 1/400, f/11, ISO 400 shot at 16 mm

Light conditions were harsh during the day, windy, no shadows at all. At 4300 meters trees do not grow. So I had to use remote flashes as if shooting with the sun behind the subject.

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM, 30 sec. f/ 3,2 shot  ISO 800 shot at 16 mm

Big thanks to Katya Mukhina for giving us such an in-depth look into her creative approach! Want to see more behind-the-scenes work? Check out our Behind the Photo series!