We love dogs. Lately, cats too.
Shaggy Dog Studio is the pet side of J.L. Wiswell Photography in La Crosse. Same studio, same light, same two of us. Clients with more fur.
Jeff lights it. Alisha gets the look.
Jeff builds the light and runs the camera. Alisha works the pose, which with a dog mostly means earning their attention at exactly the right moment.
Off camera, Jeff is an emergency physician with Mayo Clinic Health System. A dog who will not sit still does not rattle him.
Two goldendoodles, two cats, three kids.
You’ve already met two of them. Heathrow and Harvey are ours, and they are the dogs all over this site. Every pet in our house has a middle name.
Best snuggler on earth, and a dog who might be smarter than we are.
He will guard you from your own dog. Saver of baby bunnies, connoisseur of dog bones.
The cat we didn’t originally want and now love. Adventurous, and happiest under the bed.
Cat number two, and the sweetest animal we’ve ever met. He follows us around until we give him scratches.
Future interns
Wyatt, Liam and Isla.
Minecraft aficionado, math wizard, speed demon, and kind to the core.
The watcher and the jokester, and the one who drops everything to check on you.
An electric smile, fiercely independent, and the glue that holds us together.
Plus an orphaned baby squirrel we took in once. Wild story.
A dark backdrop. Light we build.
Every studio portrait here was made the same way: a backdrop that disappears, light shaped around your dog, and time.
The first stretch of the session belongs to your dog, sniffing the room and meeting the lights. Then we work. Some of our favorite frames happen outside after sunset instead.
Everyone should have a portrait of their best friend.
Not another phone photo. A printed piece, lit properly, that you walk past every day and smile at. That is the whole idea.
Top 10 Photographer in the World · Three consecutive years