Meet Ruwan Randeniya | Portrait photographer

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

Hi Ruwan, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Both Diana and I have been interested in photography for over 20 years. While we dabbled in it on the side shooting for years – whether it was the College yearbook and newspaper, a few weddings for friends and family, or documenting our adventures together – now seemed like the right time to jump in fully and start our own studio.

I’ve spent the last 15 or so years as a middle school science teacher. This was sort of a detour in my life since originally what I wanted to teach was photography. I had this notion that being able to capture and document the people, places and events that took place in our lives was a way to remember and cherish each of our journeys through life. Now as a full time photographer I get to share my expertise with others and help create tangible products such as albums and wall art of their life stories.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Ruwan and Diana Photography is a full service studio. From the first phone call or sit down consultation to hanging your print on the wall or turning the pages in your album, we will guide and educate you through the process. We know that our clients come to us because of our experience in the field of photography. Just like you wouldn’t go to a restaurant and have the chef put all the ingredients into a bag and have you figure out how to create the meal, when you come to our studio the goal is to have you end up with tangible results in the form of albums, prints or wall art that show off and encapsulate your memories that suit each client best.

We are still in the foundation phase of business building. Having launched our studio in January of this year. Our challenge now is helping our clients find us. Our studio is located in beautiful Del Mar. We chose this location because of its proximity to some stunning outdoor places where we could create amazing images for our clients, however having the studio space means that we thumb our noses at the weather gods and continue creating images even when the weather is not cooperative.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Diana has a couple girlfriends that visit us for about a week every year. This year the plan revolves around the whale festival in Dana Point. Each year the girls make a list of coffee shops, restaurants and bakeries they want to check out. Most are new each year but some of the places that seem to always end up on the list are “The Coffee Drop” in Golden Hills, Liberty Station public market for the diverse noms, Silver Strand and Torrey Pines beaches, the Zoo – its world famous for a reason, and the OB and Little Italy farmers markets. We also love taking people on the Seal tours or just catching the ferry to Coronado.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My shoutout goes to my grandfather. I was very close to my grandfather growing up and when I was about 5 years old he and I spent a year traveling around the world. We spent time in Pakistan, the United States, and the Philippines visiting with friends and family. One of the things I still have from that time besides the love of travel is his Keystone Everflash XR308 camera. It uses 110 film that stopped being made ages ago, however a core memory for me is getting to hold the camera as we visited the various places and sometimes even getting to be the person that looked through the viewing hole and snap the shutter.

My grandfather also had a slide projector and as his favorite grandchild I would be given the responsibility of loading the slides in the carousel so that we could enjoy an evening of looking through memories with the family. While these may seem like mundane events that could be similar to other peoples experiences, to me they became foundational in developing my love for photography.

Website: https://RuwanandDiana.com

Instagram: @ruwananddiana

Facebook: Ruwan and Diana Photography

Image Credits
Ruwan and Diana Photography