Diona
MOM. WIFE. PHOTOGRAPHER. AUTHOR. BUSINESS OWNER. CHICKEN TENDER.
→ Wife to Chris and mom to a wild little 7-year-old boy.
→ Christ Follower
→ Survives on prayer & coffee.
→ Traveling is in her blood – she has a gypsy soul.
→ Her longest ongoing relationship is with books.
→ Southern-born & raised with some west coast living.
IT’S NICE TO MEET YOU,
I’M DIONA RENEÉ.
I was born and raised in South Georgia then moved to California at the age of eighteen. At twenty-one, I was making the ride back across the United States to Georgia again. I lived in Georgia for nine more years before relocating to Florida where I still reside.
I've owned a photography business since my twenties - I've gone through many different business names in all those years! Sometimes photography is my main job and sometimes it's my part-time/second job, it just depends on the season of life I'm in! I began capturing images on film when I was still in Elementary school. My first camera was a blue 80s Le Clic 110. Throughout school, I was that kid that always carried around a camera. I got it honest, my mom never went anywhere without her camera, so in a huge way she’s the reason I developed a love of imagery. I still can’t believe that my parents paid for all of that film to be developed for so many years! I took some very random photos back then! Nowadays when I pick up my camera, I strive to create emotional images that tell a story and showcase the beauty of both the people in the images and the world around them.
I've owned a photography business since my twenties - I've gone through many different business names in all those years! Sometimes photography is my main job and sometimes it's my part-time/second job, it just depends on the season of life I'm in! I began capturing images on film when I was still in Elementary school. My first camera was a blue 80s Le Clic 110. Throughout school, I was that kid that always carried around a camera. I got it honest, my mom never went anywhere without her camera, so in a huge way she’s the reason I developed a love of imagery. I still can’t believe that my parents paid for all of that film to be developed for so many years! I took some very random photos back then! Nowadays when I pick up my camera, I strive to create emotional images that tell a story and showcase the beauty of both the people in the images and the world around them.
I met my husband, Chris, after going through a divorce from my teenage boyfriend whom I had been with for ten years, seven of those married. I never imagined I would be twenty-seven and divorced and it definitely threw my life a large curveball. I can honestly say however that it was for the absolute best! God got me out of a situation I shouldn't have been in, to begin with, and it wasn't long after I hit rock bottom that he guided Chris and I together. We met online initially then after a barely two-month courtship we were married. That was in mid-2010.
We could not have biological children, but that didn’t stop us from having the family we dreamed of. On the morning of April 25, 2014, at 9:58 our son, Gregory, took his first breath. For 13 years I had struggled with infertility and I was ecstatic – this little 7lb, 5oz, a dark-haired angel was the answer to all of my prayers. He was our missing puzzle piece and who knows, maybe we have one more out there to complete our family!
In the fall of 2020, we began building our dream home and we moved into an RV on the property. We're hoping to be in our house before 2022 comes along! We're slowly turning our property into the farm of our dreams as well! I won't tell you how many chickens I already have!
