Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Liz Dranow. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Liz thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

For 8 years, my business had been Liz Dranow Photography – simple, straightforward, and but didn’t really tell you much about the business. During the shutdown with the pandemic I lost my “heart dog” – that special dog who comes along in your life and changes everything – to cancer, and I lost my mojo for quite a while. Fiona (my heart dog) had been my muse – she helped me rediscover photography, was a patient and willing model while I experimented with photography techniques, and was always up for new adventures. When I lost her, I lost the creative spark that makes photography so exciting, and for quite a while I was just going through the motions.

As things began to open up again, and I was past the most acute part of my grief from losing Fiona, and began to get back to volunteering for Salt Lake County Animal Services, photographing adoptable dogs, and going on ‘Hounds Around Town’ adventures with adoptable dogs. Going on the Hounds Around Town adventures helped rekindle my creativity, as I began to discover murals and street art, and parts of Salt Lake City that I had never ventured to before.

When I began to really feel the creative energy again, I decided it was time for a change. I wanted to re-brand my photography business that was something that was very much ‘me’. I worked with my long-time business mentor J. Nichole Smith, and we really explore why photography is so important to me.

I believe that photographs are like little time machines – that they give us a tangible way to return to smells and textures and emotions – and I wanted to include a time machine element in my business name. I also have a fascination with history, and learning and exploring new places, as well as places that are familiar to me. I grew up in Saudi Arabia, and have always been a bit of a non-conformist. I am also a steampunk fan (steampunk is a genre that blends the aesthetic and technology of the 19th century with elements of science fiction and fantasy – and is a very inclusive umbrella – from Jules Verne to ‘Wild Wild West’). So, in combining all of those elements with a focus on the ‘time travel’ component of photographs, my nerdiness, my love of history, and my desire to always keep learning and exploring the name TimePunk was created. It doesn’t hurt that my current dogs are quite willing to wear steampunk gear in exchange for treats!

Liz, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I believe photographs are more than just likenesses of places and people; they are living memories that awaken the senses and transport you to the past.

I grew up in Saudi Arabia, and before we left the country, I bicycled around our community, taking photos with my little Kodak Instamatic. I wanted to remember the place I grew up in. I still have some of those photographs (thank goodness for film cameras and everything getting printed). When I flip through them I can actually still feel the heat and humidity of the desert, and the gritty sand mingling with sweat on my skin. Whenever I visit my parents, we spend a lot of time looking at old photographs, and sharing stories about the adventures we had when I was a child. As an adult, listening to my parents’ stories gives more depth to my own memories, and I learn more about my parents and their lives, as well.

I also believe that photographs are gifts to our future selves and to future generations.

When I got married (I may have married my husband for his dogs. (Ssssh don’t tell him!) we got our first puppy together, Fiona. I discovered how much I loved photographing dogs when I started a personal blog to share with my family the photos I took of Fi and her adventures. At the time I didn’t realize I was documenting her life as well as the life of my entire family, but 15 years later, that blog feels like a priceless time capsule that chronicles her entire life – and the lives of her siblings. When I talk with my neices and nephews and we share photographs and stories about our pets, we end up sharing stories about our lives and connecting in a natural, organic way.

I believe the value of photographs increases exponentially over time.

I lost Fiona in 2020 to GI lymphoma, a month after we went into ‘lock-down’ for the pandemic. She was nearly 12. Having lost her younger sister Abby to cancer several years before, I grateful for the lesson of just how valuable the photos of their lives were – and still are. Rather than only having a few slightly sad photos of the girls as their illnesses were catching up to them, I have a lifetime of their antics, adventures and derpiness at my fingertips.

In photographs, our pets are alive, bouncing through life, and living each moment to the fullest.

Our dogs teach us a lot about how to live in the moment, but they have also taught me that photographs make it possible to paddle upstream in the river of time and revisit the rich experiences from the past. I don’t have to try to hold on to every single memory, worried that I will forget something, because when I look through the boxes of photographs I have, the memories come flooding back.

This is what I want to give to my photograph clients; permission to live and enjoy the now, knowing that photographs provide a portal to the goodness and memories of the times spent with their pets. I aim to create space for and capture the raw, natural, shared moments and expressions that make up a lifetime of caring coexistence and the truest of loves.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

One of the most rewarding parts of what I do is knowing that my photographs are something bigger than myself.

For example, whenever someone from the animal shelter tells me that a dog got adopted because someone saw one of the photos I took and “had to” meet the dog – and then adopted the dog is one of the best feelings in the world. I have changed the dog’s life, and the dog will likely change their adopter’s life as well.

Additionally, many of my clients have had ‘I had forgotten about that’ moments during photography sessions – their dog responds in a way that they haven’t for a while, or we go someplace that they haven’t been in a while. Helping facilitate the connection between the present and the past – and the future and the present is absolutely magical. I know when I photograph pets, I’m not just photographing a dog, but I’m photographing the family, and the family’s history and the relationships in the family beyond their connection with their pet – the entire family dynamic, present and past is part of the photo session, and that is a humbling feeling to be part of a family’s legacy, and a privilege to be witness to others’ memories in the making.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The single best source of new clients for me has been old clients. I do get a fair amount of clients in the ‘traditional’ way – internet searches – but I also get a lot of clients from word-of-mouth referals. New clients see my work in existing clients homes, or they receive a photo card (one of the fun extras I offer!) from a client, or they are talking about their pets and photographs, and my name comes up. With my TimePunk Pet Photography brand, and me leaning into my nerdy, quirky self, the clients that I really ‘click’ with not only return to me year after year, but refer like-minded friends and relations to me.

I’m always thrilled when new clients come to me as referrals from old clients – it reflects a bond of trust with my old clients, and the opportunity to work with future ‘old clients’!

Contact Info:

• Website: http://timepunkpetphotography.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timepunkpetphotography
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TimePunkPetPhotography

Image Credits
TimePunk Pet Photography