Meet Lauren Mcdonough

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

Hi Lauren, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

Life presents its everyday challenges, then there are those moments in life that wreak havoc and put your resiliency to the test. I would say I get my resilience partly from my Mom. One quote I love is from her favorite actress she named me after, is “You learn to rise above a lot of bad things that happen in your life. And you have to keep going.” – Lauren Bacall

August 19th marked the one-year anniversary of my Mom’s death. Her life came to a close last year after a strong 3-year battle with ALS. She fought hard to the very end bouncing back from multiple setbacks, such as loosing the ability to walk, to use her hands, and the ability to eat. Seeing how she could bring laughter to the situation and keep going to experience big life events such as the birth of my niece and the start of my first business was an inspiration.

However, life decided to keep throwing a few more challenges my way. Not even two months after her funeral my dog was attacked by another dog while my friend from out of town was walking her. A weekend filled with fun and distraction turned into a weekend wondering if my dog who I held as my mom was released from her ventilator, now fought for her own life. Months after surgical recovery and anti-anxiety training, she became her old self again just as my Dad announced he was diagnosed with cancer. Then as he rang the bell for his last radiation treatment I was bitten by a dog during a volunteer shift at a shelter which turned into a month-long recovery for me. This year is not over so I don’t know what next horror will present itself, so for now, “Can we skip to the good part”, my Dog Photography business.

These events shifted my focus and mental health along the way as I continued with my full-time job and the building of my new business. I recognized during these challenges photography brings joy to my life, and after seeing how life can be cut short early, I decided to start down the path of making it my whole world.

What helped with my resilience were the small wins. Going to my mailbox there would be a letter with my registered name on it, or seeing my work hung in the lobby of a local vet office. Having my business coach was huge. Gabby helped keep me accountable and focused on the prime tasks that led to the successes I have today.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

As far back as I can remember I’ve always had a camera in my hand. It started with a Barbie film camera paired with a matching photo album. From there I graduated to regular Kodak disposable film cameras bought in sets of 3 before finally laying hands on my first digital camera. I continued to pursue film school learning the world of lighting, composition, and camera functions. I was the friend who brought a camera to events so often it became expected.
Coincidingly, I grew up with pets, which have always been prevalent in my life. I remember always going to the animal section of the library to check out books on dogs and cats because I originally wanted to be a vet. I decided with my essential tremors that wasn’t the best route when dissecting a cat in high school so I looked to other options.
Murphy Brown was my first dog. She was rescued from the flood of ‘93 in Missouri. Then after her, we got Miss Lady who became a part of my family’s life when we went into the pet store to get a hamster. Her fosters revealed to us her litter had been killed by the owner’s son. My parents asked if we wanted her or the hamster, being an indecisive kid I toggled the idea of a hamster in my head before saying for certain I wanted Lady.
When we moved away from MO, we had to make the hard decision of leaving her behind because my parents said she easily got car sick. After having dogs in my life for many years I was soon asking my parents for a new one, begging them in detailed letters saying how I would feed and take them on walks. This dissertation led to Abbey, an English Springer Spaniel who became one of our longest-family furbabies, living with us just shy of 15 years. A year after bringing Abbey home my sister snuck our cat Piper in her coat pocket after a Flute lesson and she hung around with us for a solid 20 years. I filled albums full of pictures of the two of them and my love of animals grew.
Having these furry family members shaped my future and showed the importance of how a pet can positively impact your life. My cat Patches came into my life 11 years ago after showing up at my friend’s doorstep. Later on, I started pet sitting and walking dogs as a side job while still pursuing my passion in photography which led me to become a volunteer photographer at the Humane Society in Texas and Colorado and at the All Aboard Animal Rescue in Fort Collins.
I started taking more photography classes and every chance I would get I would take on photo projects through my job and even head to the backyard of my friends’ houses to grab photos of their pups.

Facebook data started recognizing this and would show me several rescue dog videos in my newsfeed. After one too many Sara McLachlan type videos I caved and Maddie came into my life. She is my little T-Rex doxie lab mix who became my ride or die as we made several road trips back and forth from TX to CO caring for my Mom and in turn became my number 1 dog Model for photography.
After moving to Colorado I started attending meet up groups and became friends with my business coach Gabby Lopez who helped give me the push I needed to start my business. I’m excited to be pursuing my passion in dog photography now!

I have so many photos of my pets over the years and happy to have those memories to look back on. My business mission with Lo’s Lens Dog Photography is to help other career-driven individuals capture those photos and get easily get them displayed on their wall, hopefully before their gray whiskers start to come. To capture their personality before that you see through them before they reach their last stage of life. Dogs are non-judgemental, pure-hearted family members and should be remembered.

I’m excited to have someone have this opportunity for free! On October 26th I’ll be hosting a Dog Costume Contest through Sky Bear Brewery! It will be from 2-4 and the tickets are only $10! A ticket will get you a submission to the contest, a beer to enjoy during the event, and a chance to win up to $400 worth of prizes from local businesses! The grand prize winner will win not only a prize basket but a photo session with me. Dress your pup up in their best costume, the categories are Funniest, Cutest, Most Creative, Family/Themed, and Scariest.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Reflecting on my journey, I believe the three qualities that have had the greatest impact are resilience in the face of life’s challenges, persistence in my learning, and a strong commitment to customer service.

Some advice I have for folks early in their journey is to pace yourself, don’t expect success the next day. Focus on those small wins, building connections, and marketing yourself. Attend events that focus on your target market, get involved in your community, and continue to learn everything you possibly can!

There will be challenges that will present themselves. Brace yourself and take a step back to recognize how that situation can improve next time or how you can handle the information you’ve been given. I had a dog margarita event dramatically fail and no one showed, so I made them into popsicles and gave them to the dogs at the shelter. Then afterward I spoke with my business manager and a social media coach on how I could make the next event a success.

Lastly, I would say, just remember to have fun. You chose to do this business because you love it, share that excitement with the people around you!

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

While it’s important to utilize your strengths I think it’s more important to be more well-rounded by investing effort and improving areas you aren’t strong in. My strength is in photography and working with dogs but not in areas like marketing myself, website designing, or bookkeeping. There are people who I could pay to do that, but I want to learn first so even when it gets to the point I’m paying someone else I’ll know what to look for and how to make adjustments myself if needed so a scenario like Schitt’s Creek doesn’t happen.

I still love learning something new every day and improving myself and have enjoyed doing a photo challenge this year along with taking additional dog behavior classes to recognize when a dog looks stressed in the photo.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Lo’s Lens LLC

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