Accomplished photographer opens studio

Photographer Luba Wold of Post Falls has opened a new photography studio in the hills above Post Falls near Stateline, situated on 30 acres of forest full of prime spots for family and senior pictures.

Wold specializes in wedding and family photographs, though she also does engagements, newborns, maternity and high school senior photos. She likes to sit down and get to know her subjects before she picks up a camera. “I go more in depth with all my people,” she said.

You’ll find traditional photos of families looking into the camera on her studio walls, but Wold prefers to shoot photos of people interacting with each other, like a father holding his smiling baby in the air above his head or a family playing in fall leaves.

“It’s all about the relationship,” she said. “It’s more about the moments and the relationship.”

Her work has been featured on the cover of the Wedding Resource Guide several times, and she’s won several awards, including the 2016 “Your Best Shot” competition run by Jerry Ghionis, who is considered to be one of the top wedding photographers in the world. The winning photo is featured prominently on her website, .

Wold said she does about 25 weddings a year, plus family photo shoots. “I’m not a volume photographer,” she said.

She prepares a photo book of each wedding for the bride and groom that is stored in a special box. She even makes smaller versions of the book for the parents of the bride and groom.

“It becomes a family heirloom,” she said. “It’s all about the details, all the memories of the day. People love the books.”

Wold also paints and has done several acrylic paintings based on photographs, but she said that’s not something a lot of people can afford. “I love it, but you don’t get many clients for that,” she said. “It’s such a long project, I only do it in the winter.”

Wold only began working as a photographer in 2003, despite a family history with photography.

“My father, back in Russia, was a photographer,” she said. “I grew up in a dark room with a red light.”

She came to the United States in 1991 after meeting her future husband, Tom Wold, in Kiev not long after Russia opened up to foreign visitors. “I practiced my English on him, my broken English,” she said.

Though she had a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, Wold had to start over. “I was washing dishes,” she said. “In this country, you start like a baby. It doesn’t matter what your degree is.”

A friend of hers worked as a photographer and told her she’d be good at it. “She really convinced me to try,” Wold said. “I bought an expensive camera, and my husband supported me. I started learning.”

Weddings may be her bread and butter, but they’re also among the most difficult things to photograph, Wold said. Each special moment must be captured and if something is missed, there are no do-overs “You can’t control the lighting,” she said. “It’s really stressful.”

Though Wold’s work has won numerous awards, she still goes to workshops and training sessions around the country.

“It’s a long road to learn everything,” she said. “The studying never ends. It doesn’t matter how long you’re in the business, it never ends.”

She said the work is much more than taking photos. “I do something people treasure for life,” she said. “I’m not in the photography business, I’m in the family heirloom business.”

Wold and her husband bought the property at 3900 S. Carpenter Loop for her new studio and the building was finished in May. A grand opening celebration will be held from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on July 21. People will be able to look at Wold’s photographs and enter to win $700 of family portrait wall art. Refreshments will be served.

Wold said she hopes people will stop by and visit that day. “I have no idea how many people will come,” she said.