This creative mommy creates fairy-tale photos featuring her little daughter

PhotoSparks is a weekly feature from YourStory, with photographs that celebrate the spirit of creativity and innovation. In this photo essay, we feature Krinzal Chauhan's adorable photo series called Mommycreates featuring the whimsical adventures of her daughter Shanaya.

Krinzal used to teach at a preschool in Rajkot, Gujarat and has moved to Melbourne where she has joined Camberwell junction, an early learning center preschool. She says, "I love being around children and assume they too like me mostly! Though I have done my MBA in HR, my love for art and kids drew me to my job."

Krinzal's daughter Shanaya is one year and four months old now. Krinzal started Mommycreates when Shanaya was around two months.

Krinzal says, "I am an artist by hobby. I love to ensure that things around me look good. I have created few paintings and designed the walls in my home too. I love to paint, colour, scribble, sketch – basically ‘create’ as it helps me to unwind."

Krinzal was inspired by the work of  Sioin Queenie Liao, a freelance artist in California, who created a similar photo series with her baby and has also published a book called Wengenn in Wonderland, with step by step details of how she created these images. 

The best part of Krinzal's photography is that the sets are created using common household stuff, blankets, toys, etc., which ensures it is not limited to a particular setup or location. But it does require time.

Krinzal enjoys creating each set and capturing the images for posterity. She says,

In fact, the moment she was born we got a good camera but never knew the journey would get us this far.

After first few clicks, Krinzal got the suggestion to create a Facebook page from one of her mentors at work and her husband Himanshu suggested the name Mommycreates.

The strategy of taking the photos had to be changed with her growing up. Initially, when she used to sleep a lot, Krinzal would get the ‘set’ ready and would then gently place the sleeping baby into it to ‘pose’ and wait for the best click. Krinzal says, "Of late, there have been times when I would prepare the whole 'set' with patience and energy only to find her not ‘ready’ or still active enough to ruin the entire setup. I think high levels of patience are mandatory for any work that deals with babies or children. But seeing the end result makes the efforts worthwhile."