Ira Ancherbak

Ira Ancherbak photographs families in Ottawa. Her Facebook page sums up the work in three lines — photographer, Ottawa; relaxed maternity and family photoshoots; mom of three — and her Instagram bio adds that she has a studio in the city.

The pictures move between that studio and the outdoors. Indoors the frames are quiet: a plain pale backdrop, a cushion on the floor, two children leaning into each other. Outdoors she builds the set instead of finding one, hanging long white drapes from a tree and laying blankets and pillows on the grass, then photographing parents and small children inside it.

Those outdoor sittings run as short seasonal packages. In the summer of 2026 she called them Elevated Park Mini Sessions, staged them in a private apple orchard and attached a giveaway to them. On 3 September 2026 she announced her fall minis at three spots — Pinewood Orchards, Old Quarry Trail and Andrew Haydon Park — with the terms printed on the poster: $170 for twenty minutes and fifteen images.

She films the making of it as much as the result. One of her Facebook videos is captioned “Setting up my most favorite minis” with “DM to book”, and she tags her reels the way she describes herself: family photographer, photographer Ottawa, Kanata photographer, Ukrainian in Canada, mom of three.

UAFest lists her in its Family as a content creator and photographer for the 2024 and 2025 festivals — in the festival's own words, among the volunteers who captured and shared moments from the Ukrainian festival in Lanark County.