Dmitry Shakin was born in Latvia in 1972. He obtained a higher education and by occupation he is a school biology teacher. He resides and works in Cherkassy, Ukraine.

He started to do photography in 1990. It was when a book about wildlife of insects with black-and-white pictures in it caused an untamable desire to look at the world around us through the view finder of a camera.

His credo is to film living objects only and in their natural habitat only. There can be some exceptions namely certain stages of development and some periods of life which can't be filmed in a studio. Also some exotic kinds of animals which are kept in captivity are filmed under studio conditions. The main condition of any filming is safety of the animal and preserving its natural habitat. All the pictures which are found on the website were taken on the territory of Cherkassy region within some 100 km from the city.
According to the results of 1998 NPCI Photo Contest held by Nikon Corporation he was awarded a second prize in the free category (photowork "Grin", Gekko Gecko).

Currently he is working on a macrophotography book and a photo album. Besides, he is planning to release series of descriptive photo albums about life of insects, spiders, reptiles and amphibians.

He considers his calling in helping awake in man a sense of the beautiful and cause him to be interested in the miniature creatures, to each of which the Creator has given an unrepeated individuality. He believes that the more people film the beauty of the real world, the less indecency and lewdness will be filmed.

Dmitry follows closely and with a great interest the successes of his colleges who work in the same genre. That's why he willingly shares his knowledge and experience saying that there are no secrets in his high abilities. His desire is to attract by macrofilming as more people as only possible. By the way, this is the main theme of his book. Those biologists who have never held a camera in their hands, having read the book, definitely will want to apply their theoretical knowledge and create beautiful photographs. At the same time some photographers who are far from all the details and precision of the biological knowledge of the macroworld around them will be compelled to dig into some specialized literature. If, of course, they will be truly consumed by the hunter's zeal and they will definitely want to trade the cozy atmosphere of their studio for "flirting" without compromise with sometimes untamable and stubborn creatures with six, eight and more legs.

Sad and in anguish, Dmitry watches photography being consumed by a direction of "advanced" decay and schizophrenia often with a touch of open satanism. The inner world of many so called "photographers" is pathetic since its reflections are their so called "discoveries" with distorted faces and poses of models as if they were epileptics. In today's photography ( as in other means of audio-visual effect upon human mind) a sullen tendency can be seen of absolute devaluation of human values. Kindness, modesty, chastity, mother's love and care, nobility - all these qualities have absolutely ceased to draw attention of photographers and the view finders of their cameras. What are they going to create? What qualities do they want people to have? What emotions or maybe instincts will be awaken by so called "masterpieces of photography'? Here I recall giftless and cunning tailors from the fairy-tale about the naked king by Hans Christian Andersen who were so pathetic in there bootlicking and fear to be unlike others. Does nobody see that many "kings" of today's photography are in fact naked?!

Dmitry has hopes that he isn't alone in his opinion about today's world and about today's photography in particular.

For the few recent years the role of volunteer helper and constant assistant at filming was taken upon by his wife who absolutely shares all the joys and sorrows of their common work as well as films and videos the most interesting moments of the process of filming. Also she draws some illustrations for the future book by her husband. Lyudmila Shakin graduated from Cherkassy State University in 1999 and by occupation is a school chemistry and crafts teacher. She works now as a nurse in a shelter for small children.