“Hi! Would you mind if I take a picture of your dog?”
If you and your pup are approached by a friendly man on a one-wheel electric skateboard with a camera in tow, you might be having a chat with travelling dog photographer Keegan Robin.
Robin, 32, grew up in LaSalle, Ont., and spent the last 10 years in Montreal, but now home is wherever he rests his camera as he explores the world and snaps photos of dogs, sharing them on Instagram and TikTok — his content often going viral.
He jokes that he’s a “pho-DOG-rapher.”
“If I can just … share that love of dogs and the boundless love that dogs can give to humans … and help one person feel a little bit better, then that’s it,” Robin said. “That’s the goal.”
His mission is to spread happiness through his content from places like Costa Rica or the Netherlands, having travelled to more than 20 countries in the last few years.
He’s got 1.9 million followers on TikTok and more than 500,000 on Instagram, turning comforting content into a fulfilling career.
“My goal was really to be able to do what I’m doing anywhere in the world without having to set roots too deeply in one place in order to make money,” he said, explaining that through dog photography, brand partnerships, an online dog photography course he teaches and documentary filmmaking, he’s able to fund his life online from wherever he is. He’s been travelling full-time for about a year now.
“I’ve received messages from people saying like, ‘Your video helped me roll out of bed this morning,'” he shared.
The project began during the pandemic as a way to get outside and interact with people, but after an early video of a golden retriever puppy went viral, he knew dog content should be his focus.
The interactions make people feel good — like Debbie and Peter Wright who met Robin along Windsor’s riverfront with their dog Mickey.
“We feel the love,” they said, after being stopped by Robin.
He also met Beverley Lemberger and her two pups Kylie Minogue and Ella Fitzgerald.
“They’re just our joy. They just bring so much joy to our lives and I can’t imagine a world without not only one dog but these two in particular,” Lemberger said.
It’s that joy that Robin wants to continue to spread.
“Dogs just provide this infinite amount of serotonin to feel good,” he said.
“So I’m … doing this and sharing that serotonin and sharing the love of dogs with everyone else. And I think that’s why people are attracted to my content. It’s not me — it’s the dogs.”
