A dog photographer's confession, and what I do differently now.
A candid moment that just makes me laugh and is what it typically looks like with these two at the beach.
I have more photos of my dogs than I could ever count. Maddox's cake smash. His birthday pictures every year. That serious face he gave me every time I told him to come.
I have only a handful with me in them.
That's the thing nobody tells you about being the one who always holds the camera. You document their whole life. You just forget to be in it.
Why are dog lovers so rarely in photos with their dogs?
Because we're the ones holding the phone. The person who loves the dog most is almost always behind the camera, catching the zoomies and the sleepy face and the head tilt, and almost never standing next to them.
It isn't vanity that keeps us out of the frame. Mostly it's habit. And a little bit of “next year.”
What happened at our last Christmas portrait with Maddox?
Every year, Jeremy and I do a Christmas card portrait with our dogs. Most years we hired someone. A couple of years I set my camera on a tripod, and honestly, those almost came out better.
In 2023, Maddox was twelve, which is old for a Great Dane. Eames was two and a half. I told the photographer exactly what mattered to us. These two dogs are the center of our world. They are the most important part of this picture.
I didn't tell her I was a photographer. That can make people nervous, and I wanted her to just do her thing. I brought treats. I brought a noisemaker. I gave her a few tips on what gets each boy's attention.
And the dogs were good. Really good. They stood where we put them and waited. It should have been simple.
She spent the session on Jeremy and me. When the images came back, the dogs were looking away in most of them and out of focus in a lot of them.
It's a sweet picture of Jeremy and me. It made a lovely card. But it isn't a picture of Maddox and Eames, and they were the whole reason we were there.
I used that one image on our card. I didn't print a single other one.
Why does it matter who takes the photo?
Because liking dogs and knowing how to photograph them are two different skills. She told me she was a dog person, and I believe her. Her family work was beautiful. But her eye went where it was trained to go, to the people.
That's not a knock on family photographers. You hire people for what they specialize in. If the dog is the point, hire someone whose whole job is the dog. (I wrote more about what to look for in How Do You Choose the Right Pet Photographer in the Carolinas?)
What changed after we lost Maddox?
Maddox passed in April of 2024, almost thirteen years after he came home. Afterward I went looking for photos of the two of us together.
There were so many of him. Very few of us. That one stung, and it still does.
It's also why Legacy Sessions mean so much more to me now. I had photographed end of life sessions before. I understood them. I just didn't feel them until I was the one looking for a picture that didn't exist.
What did we do differently with Eames?
We drove three hours to Raleigh.
A pet photographer friend of mine photographed Jeremy, Eames, and me that year. Before we ever stepped in front of her camera, she asked questions. Who Eames is. What he does that nobody else would notice. What we'd want to remember.
And she caught it.
While we waited for Jeremy to grab something from the car, Eames sat down in my lap. All of him.
Then there's smooch face. Eames loves when I hold his face in my hands and smooch it. He pushes into my hands the whole time, and it makes me laugh every single time.
Nobody would know to look for that. She did, because she asked. That one is framed on my desk.
Those images became a fine art album that sits on display in our home. A phone gallery gets scrolled past. A printed piece gets picked up, flipped through, and lived with.
The quick iPhone photos do not do this album justice.
What about Killian?
Killian came home in January of 2026, and I'm not making the same mistake twice. Every month I photograph him on solid white so we can see how fast he's changing. He isn't on our walls yet. He will be. And I finally have a picture of me with both boys. It's the one at the top of this post.
When should you get photos with your dog?
Before you think you need to. Most of us wait for a reason. A gray muzzle. A diagnosis. A birthday that makes us do the math.
You don't need one. Your dog doesn't need to be perfectly trained, and you don't need the perfect outfit or the perfect season. You just need to be in the picture with them.
Heirloom artwork
If you've been the one holding the camera for a while now, I'd love to put you back in the picture with them.
Every session ends with something you can hold. An album on the coffee table, a print on the wall, a smooch face on your desk.
Jennifer Wakefield Canine & Equine Photography is a fine art dog and horse portrait studio in Newport, near Emerald Isle, on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina, and available to travel.