Meet Ren Dowhaniuk | Photographer and Animal Advocate

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ren Dowhaniuk and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ren, what inspires you?
Kindness and compassion. We live in a world of quick judgment, the need for immediate gratification and an inability to accept imperfection. I try to take each interaction between myself, the camera and the subject and find the beauty and tenderness of the moment. Whether I am photographing a rescue animal, a frazzled mom with an uncooperative toddler or a participant that clearly wants to be elsewhere I provide patience and time to enjoy the moment. When I am photographing a subject, I do not measure time in minutes. I measure time in moments. I have seen how kindness and compassion can help to calm an anxious subject. I have seen how kindness and compassion can built trust and trust in turn allows me to help people accept their imperfections. Life shouldn’t be filtered and smoothed in photoshop. Sometimes the most perfect moments are those that just aren’t.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I want to make a difference. Photographs can capture a moment in time. I am not a traditional photographer; I like spontaneous real-life moments that make us smile. Time stops for no-one; I help people to preserve the images that make them smile and keep loved ones near. I decided at 56 years old that I was going to start my own business. It was not easy. I had been doing hobby photography for years, family weddings, shelter and rescue animals, family photographs for friends. I had always wanted to become a professional photographer, but I had never taken the “big step”. I photographed the last Christmas and the last birthday of a 14-year-old girl (the daughter of a dear friend) who was dying from DIPG (an inoperable, uncurable brain cancer). The photographs were some of the very last pictures of this child. I wished with my whole heart I knew my craft better, that I understood the mechanic of the camera better because I think I could have provided the family with so much more. I decided to go to Collin College and get my professional certification. I wanted the tools to provide people with the best I had to give. Upon getting certified I established my LLC and went to work on building a clientele. It has been slow but steady and almost all of my clients come from a referral. I do very little advertising. One of the biggest lessons I have learned is that it is necessary to be upfront with people about your services and I have had occasions that I have told a potential client “We are not a good fit”. I don’t believe in erasing every line, in making every picture so perfect that is nothing like the actual moment. Life is not perfect, and I think that (young people especially) need to embrace their own imperfections. They need to embrace the temper tantrums or sullen adolescent faces. They need to embrace the smile lines they have earned over the years and freckles that spatter on their faces. They need to accept and love themselves and that is always a goal I have in mind when I take their photographs. I am always very proud when people reach out and tell me that they love a photograph that is more candid and spontaneous than the ones that were posed. The only way to overcome challenges is to continue to educate yourself, learn from mistakes, be patient no matter the circumstance and make each client feel like an old friend.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
One of my very favorite spots to take guests is a local farm, Cathy’s Critters. It is an interactive experience. From holding hands with a kangaroo to having a ball constrictor wrap around your arm…it is just a fun time for all ages. From there I like to have them back to the house and studio to sit on the porch, have a beverage and watch the light sparkle on the lake behind us. The next day I would want to take them to downtown McKinney, The Square. With its eclectic mix of restaurants and shops it is a wonderful way to spend an entire day. We moved here from Canada in 1998 and took in every sight that was to be seen. When we have out of state/country guests we always try to ensure they see downtown Dallas, Deep Ellum and then the Stockyards in Fort Worth.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to recognize Frankie. Frankie, a mistreated and discarded Pitbull brought in by animal control to a high kill shelter in Louisiana. I had been doing shelter photography for years, trying to bring attention to animals in need and help them by providing good networking pictures. In addition to volunteering at shelters I was also on the BOD for Paws of NE Louisiana as the Media and Humane Education Director. I selected Frankie to take on TV, I had a spot every Friday afternoon to highlight an adoptable pet or focus on humane education. I decided that people needed to be educated on the breed we refer to in general (not necessarily accurately) as Pitbulls. This gentle giant of a boy was so well behaved and when it was time to return him to the shelter, I realized I missed closing time and the gates were locked. I had a key and opened things up to return him to his pen, outside, surrounded by barking and anxious dogs. He laid on his belly and whimpered. He didn’t want to go back in, and I didn’t want to put him there. That moment ignited an even greater passion to make a difference with my creative abilities. To help animals in need find a way out of the shelters and into homes. Through networking and photographs Frankie found his furever home. At that point I committed myself to a career change, decided to go back to school and become a professional photographer. It started out as a pet photographer (still volunteering with rescue animals) and expanded to people. After all, our pets are our family and almost all of my clients want their fur babies included in their pictures. Thank you Frankie, Ouachita Animal Shelter, Simply Southern Rescue, PAWS NELA and Dallas DogRRR for allowing me to understand the need for kindness, compassion and the power of a good picture.

Website: www.rldphotographytx.com

Instagram: rldphotography_tx

Facebook: @RldPhotographyTexas

Youtube: Renee Dowhaniuk