Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Wasik.
Hi Jessica, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I never planned to become a pet photographer. I started out photographing my own dog, Hunter, mostly because I couldn’t stop. He came into my life at eleven weeks old, and somewhere along the way my husband handed me my first real camera.
In March 2016, I posted a pretty average photo of Hunter on Instagram—not even a good one, technically—and a photography educator with the Flourish Academy named Heather Lahtinen commented that I should be a pet photographer. Six months later I was sitting in her office starting what would become Bark & Gold Photography.
Ten years in, I’m Pittsburgh’s only dedicated outdoor pet photographer, and I’ve built the business around the thing that comment accidentally got right: dogs aren’t accessories in someone’s life; they’re family, and the way we photograph and treat that relationship should reflect that.
I said goodbye to Hunter last September, and if anything, it confirmed why this work matters. I know exactly what these dogs mean to the people who hire me because I’ve lived it.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Not particularly, or at least not in any one dramatic moment I can point to. It’s been more of a slow, ongoing education. A lot of it has just been perseverance and experimentation. Pricing, product offerings, how I structure the client experience: none of that arrived fully formed. I tried things, some worked, some didn’t, and I kept adjusting until the business reflected the way I wanted to run it instead of the way I fell into running it.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a luxury outdoor pet photographer serving the greater Pittsburgh area. I specialize in dogs, and I’ve been the only photographer here doing this exclusively for ten years—not adding in weddings, or seniors, or families—but strictly pets. My work covers everything from standard sessions and Rainbow Sessions for aging or end-of-life pets to commissioned legacy portraits for pets who’ve passed and a $20K ultra-premium, multi-session experience I only offer to ten clients a year.
I’m also Pittsburgh’s first pet photographer certified in pet loss grief support, which means I work with clients through anticipatory grief and end-of-life sessions, a part of this job most photographers never touch, and one I take seriously because I’ve been on the other side of that myself.
What I’m most proud of isn’t a single image; it’s that I’ve built a business people trust with the hardest, most tender parts of loving their dog, including a 100% client recommendation rate, clients who come back for session after session, and a body of work that’s earned multiple national and international awards.
What sets me apart: I don’t sell a session, I sell heirloom-quality artwork and an experience with zero guesswork—clear pricing, a defined process from inquiry to delivered art, and zero interest in cheap digitals or gimmicks. In an industry that often stays vague about pricing to seem exclusive, I’ve found the opposite is true; transparency reads as more premium, not less.
What matters most to you?
What matters most is simplicity and relationships, in that order, because simplicity is what makes the relationships possible. I’ve built this business on the belief that great experiences create referrals, and that a better client is worth more than a bigger client list.
Everything I do is designed to remove friction: transparent pricing upfront, no surprise timelines, no vague “we’ll figure it out later.” Clients know exactly what they’re getting into before they ever book.
That clarity is what lets the relationship actually happen. When people aren’t bracing for a hidden cost or an unclear process, they relax—and that’s when a client stops being a client. Roughly a quarter to a third of my clients come back for three or four more sessions over the years, and a lot of them genuinely feel like friends at this point, not just repeat business. They show up like old friends and leave as real ones. That wasn’t an accident but the direct result of building a business where nobody has to guard themselves.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.barkandgoldphotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barkngoldphotography
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barkandgoldphotography
