Today we’d like to introduce you to Jen McKen.
Hi Jen, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I wish I had some glamorous story about how I got started in photography.
You know, the kind where I grew up knowing it was my “passion” since I could walk, or where my great-grandfather passed down a vintage camera and a legacy, or where I was the third generation stepping into the family business. I wish I could tell you I spent my childhood flipping through magazines dreaming of seeing my name under the images.
But that would all be lies.
The Honest Beginning
The truth is, I bought my first professional camera with insurance money after my 17-year-old sister, Nicole, was killed in a car accident during my junior year of college. Y’all, that was hard. But do you want to know what was even harder? Sorting through a shoebox of photos for her funeral and realizing there weren’t enough. Not enough laughing. Not enough personality. Not enough real life, just posed school pictures and a few holiday snapshots in Easter dresses.
After almost a year of that “death money” sitting in the bank, I finally made the decision: if I was going to spend it, it wouldn’t be wasted. Tears ran down my face as I placed the order for that camera. And since the day it arrived, I’ve poured everything into making that purchase mean something. I taught myself how to use it…years and years of mistakes, learning, and heart. I promised myself I’d use it to document my life, my kids’ lives, and your life in the way I wish hers had been documented. I promised myself I’d create something beautiful, because if I did, I could keep her memory alive.
That camera has led me into people’s most important moments. It’s brought me friendships I never expected, taken me to places I never thought I’d travel, and healed me in ways I didn’t know were possible. I took the sourest lemons life handed me and somehow turned them into the sweetest lemonade.
Why I Shoot the Way I Do
My story isn’t glamorous. It isn’t trendy or Instagram-perfect. But it’s real, and it’s the reason I see the world the way I do. It’s the reason I approach photography the way I do.
When I pick up my camera, I don’t just see pretty pictures, I see legacy, connection, and proof of life. And in some strange way, it makes me feel like Nicole’s still around.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Absolutely not.
If I’m being honest, I don’t know many small business owners who would describe entrepreneurship as a smooth road. It’s rewarding, but it can also be lonely, exhausting, and at times incredibly uncertain.
When I started my photography business over 20 years ago, I was a college student who had fallen in love with photography after losing my younger sister in a car accident. Photography became a way for me to hold onto moments because I learned far too young how quickly life can change.
What I didn’t realize then was that loving photography and running a business are two completely different things.
Over the years, I’ve worn every hat imaginable: photographer, marketer, accountant, website designer, customer service representative, social media manager, editor, and sometimes therapist. There were years when I wondered if I was charging enough, years when I was working every weekend, and years when I questioned whether I was good enough to keep going.
One of the hardest seasons was navigating divorce while running a business in a small town where everyone knows everyone. There were days I was photographing weddings and smiling for clients while my personal life was falling apart behind the scenes. Entrepreneurship doesn’t stop when life gets hard. The bills still need paid, clients still need served, and deadlines still exist.
The photography industry itself has changed dramatically too. When I started, digital photography was still evolving. Today everyone carries a camera in their pocket, social media changes constantly, trends come and go overnight, and photographers are competing in an increasingly crowded marketplace. Learning how to adapt without losing who I am has been one of the biggest challenges.
Financially, there have been scary moments too. Business ownership comes with risk. There are no guarantees, no paid vacation days, and no one handing you a paycheck if business slows down. Every investment in equipment, education, marketing, and growth is a leap of faith.
But looking back, I think the struggles shaped the business just as much as the successes did. They’ve made me more empathetic, more resilient, and more appreciative of the people who trust me to document their lives.
The truth is, the road hasn’t been smooth and I wouldn’t want to pretend it was. The difficult seasons taught me lessons that the easy seasons never could.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a portrait and wedding photographer based in western Pennsylvania, but at the heart of it, I don’t think I’m really in the photography business. I think I’m in the memory business.
I photograph weddings, high school seniors, families, children, professionals, and commercial clients. Over the last two decades I’ve photographed thousands of people and documented everything from wedding days and newborn babies to business owners building their companies.
What I’m known for is creating photographs that feel real.
I don’t chase perfect. I chase connection.
The world is full of heavily filtered images, stiff poses, and trends that come and go. I’ve always been more interested in capturing the way people actually laugh, interact, and love each other. I want someone to look at a photograph twenty years from now and remember how a moment felt, not just what it looked like.
I think what sets me apart is that I understand how much these photographs matter.
When you’ve experienced loss, you start to see photographs differently. You realize they become some of the only tangible things we have left of the people and moments we love. That perspective has influenced every photograph I’ve taken since I started this business.
I also believe experience matters. After more than twenty years in business, I’ve learned how to stay calm when timelines fall apart, weather changes unexpectedly, kids have meltdowns, or wedding days don’t go according to plan. Anyone can take a picture when everything is perfect. Experience shows up when things aren’t.
What I’m most proud of isn’t an award, publication, or milestone.
I’m proud that after all these years, people continue to trust me with some of the most important moments of their lives. I’ve photographed engagements, then weddings, then maternity sessions, and eventually their children’s senior portraits. There are families who have invited me back again and again for decades.
In a world where businesses come and go, that’s something I’ll never take for granted.
At the end of the day, I don’t want to be remembered as the photographer who took the prettiest pictures. I want to be remembered as the photographer who helped people preserve the moments they never wanted to forget.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I was a dreamer.
Growing up in a small town, I was always the kid with a big imagination and a million ideas. I spent a lot of time daydreaming about what life could be like beyond what I could see around me. I was curious, creative, sensitive, and probably a little bit too emotional for my own good.
I don’t think I ever fit neatly into one category. I wasn’t the popular kid, but I wasn’t an outcast either. I was observant. I paid attention to people. I noticed things other people missed. Looking back, that’s probably one of the reasons photography became such a natural fit for me later in life.
I loved creative things. Art, music, writing, storytelling, and anything that allowed me to express myself. Even now, photography feels less like taking pictures and more like telling stories.
I was also incredibly determined. Once I got an idea in my head, it was hard to let it go. Sometimes that’s been my greatest strength and sometimes it’s probably driven people around me crazy. But that stubbornness is also what helped me build a business that has survived for more than twenty years.
At the same time, I carried a lot of insecurity. Like many teenagers, I worried about fitting in, what people thought of me, and whether I was enough. Losing my younger sister when I was in college changed me in ways I didn’t fully understand at the time. It forced me to grow up quickly and gave me a perspective on life that many people don’t gain until much later.
If there’s one thing that has stayed consistent throughout my life, it’s that I’ve always cared deeply. Deeply about people. Deeply about relationships. Deeply about making memories. Deeply about leaving things better than I found them.
That part of me hasn’t changed much at all.
I still get excited about new ideas. I still believe almost anything is possible. I still have a tendency to take on too much because I see opportunity everywhere. And I still find myself chasing meaningful experiences over perfect ones.
The older I get, the more I realize the little girl who dreamed big is still very much a part of who I am today.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jenmckenphoto.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenmckenphotography
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jenmckenphoto
