ABOUT JENNIFER

Smiling woman hugging a happy black-and-white Great Dane outdoors in a forest clearing

where it started

I’VE LOVED DOGS MY WHOLE LIFE. I’VE LOST THEM TOO.

Hi, I'm Jennifer Wakefield, a fine art dog and horse photographer based in Emerald Isle, on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina.

I've been behind a camera professionally since 2004. Newborns, children, families, I spent years learning how to find the real moment inside a session, how to read people, how to wait for the thing that couldn't be manufactured. That foundation matters. But it wasn't until a Great Dane puppy named Maddox came into my life in 2011 that I understood what I actually wanted to do with it.

Black-and-white sketch of a dense cluster of overlapping pine tree branches and needles

MADDOX BELIEVED THE WORLD

REVOLVED AROUND HIM

He was our only child for years. He had this streak in him, this particular brand of defiance you could only describe as theatrical. You'd tell him to come and he'd look you dead in the eye, turn around, and run just far enough away that you had to make the effort to go to him. Not because he was bad. Because that was his game, and he loved it, and so did I.

We called him Bug. He was our Love Bug for almost thirteen years, far longer than his breed usually allows, woven into the fabric of daily life the way only a soul dog can be.

Losing him changed what I understood photography to be for.

It stopped being about beautiful images. It became about preservation. About capturing what it felt like to love an animal before time takes that feeling with it. About making something physical and permanent, something you can touch, that holds the whole feeling.

That's what I do now. Every session. Every portrait. Every piece on a wall.

It's also why Legacy Sessions exist: for the seniors, and for the ones facing a hard diagnosis, while there's still time to hold onto them.

Smiling woman hugging a large black dog indoors against a white wall

Hand-drawn light blue evergreen tree branches and pine needles on a black background

we let him believe that.

learn more about legacy sessions

Black Great Dane lounging on a dark cushion against a black background

Stylized blue-gray sketch of overlapping evergreen pine branches on a black background

EAMES ISN’T PERFECT.

HE’S PERFECT TO ME.

how I work

I understand what it means to have a fear-reactive dog. My own Great Dane Eames is one. He has a regal, statuesque presence that can read as intimidating, and when something startles him he barks, big and loud and scary-sounding, even though what he's actually feeling is scared. Working with him has made me a better photographer for every anxious, reactive, or unpredictable animal I've ever met.

So before we start, I ask questions most photographers don't. Not what backdrop you want or what outfit to wear. What's the thing your pet does that you never want to forget? Where do you spend the most time together? If we get one perfect image, what does it feel like?

I don't need your pet to be perfectly trained. I need them to be exactly who they are. That's the whole point.

Black-and-white Great Dane running toward the camera on a path with golden autumn foliage

THE ONES WHO STARTED EVERYTHING AND THE ONES KEEPING ME GOING.

Black-and-white dog wearing a long black coat and standing on a wooden floor

2011

MADDOX, MY BUG

From the day he came home in 2011, Maddox decided the household operated on his schedule, his terms, and his timeline. Serious-faced, deliberate, theatrical in his defiance. He was with us for almost thirteen years and he earned every single one of them.

Black-and-white Great Dane lying on a white background with one blue eye and one brown eye

2021

Eames, our monster.

Eames joined us in June of 2021, while Maddox was still with us. I didn't want a house without a dog, and I knew we were running out of time. He has never once moved through the world quietly.

He is serious-faced and statuesque, beefy and big in a way that reads as powerful until you realize he is charging at you full speed because he wants to be as physically close to you as possible. We started calling him Monster partly because of that linebacker energy, and partly because of the way he stands in the upstairs window when he hears the garage door open. The desk light behind him. That serious, unsmiling face. Pure Michael Myers. Every time.

But every morning without fail, he finds wherever I am and buries his head into me as hard as he can. Not so I'll pet him. So he can get close. He doesn't just want to be loved. He wants to love you. Our Love Monster.

Close-up black Great Dane portrait against a black background

2026

I started calling him a gremlin before I even met him. Then in January of 2026 he came home and he was so impossibly soft that it became Velvet Gremlin and it has never been anything else since.

He is the third kid in every sense of the phrase. Same coloring as Maddox, but where Maddox and Eames were proper and deliberate, Killian is the full embodiment of derpy Dane energy. Confident until he's not.

His favorite person in the entire world is Eames, who he follows with complete devotion. Eames loves him back. Eames also gets annoyed by him on a regular basis. Classic older brother energy.

I waited almost two years after losing Maddox to find the right breeder, someone ethical, someone who cared about preservation of the breed. It was worth every bit of the wait.

Killian, the velvet gremlin

Black-and-white line drawing of a seated kangaroo facing right with a long tail extending left.

Smiling woman holding a camera and embracing a black horse in a sunlit wooded area

can't forget

THEN THERE ARE

THE HORSES

I have a vague memory of walking underneath a Paint horse when I was little, and I still couldn't tell you who thought that was a good idea. Somewhere in a shoebox there are photos of me sitting on that horse.

I moved a lot as a kid, so the only horse I grew up with after that was the one that belonged to my Barbie, but I took every chance I got to ride.

As big as horses are, there is something so tranquil about them. Truly therapeutic. And their sensitive nature is humbling. Today my devotion as a dog mom matches that of the horse-obsessed friends I have. I understand horse behavior. So when you talk about your horse, I know exactly what you mean.

BEYOND THE SESSION

get in touch

THIS WORK IS BIGGER

THAN PHOTOGRAPHY

I regularly volunteer my time photographing animals for shelters and rescue organizations, specifically the overlooked ones, the long-term residents, the animals who need a better image to find the right home. It started at the Greenville Humane Society in Greenville, South Carolina. A photograph taken outside a kennel environment can change how the world sees an animal. Sometimes it changes everything.

The Crystal Coast Dog Club is a separate project I founded, a community-driven nonprofit built around bringing together dog lovers, local businesses, and rescue organizations through events, pack walks, fundraisers, and connection. It is still being built. It is the long-term version of what I believe: that this work is not just about photography. It is about what we build around the love of dogs and the people shaped by them.

learn more about my rescue work