Photographer | Creative Cultivator
Guiding what’s ready to unfold
We believe LOVE is always available and it has an amazing story to tell us. - Jenn Ocken
Documentary photographers capturing the fine art of life.
01/14/2026
Speed gets applause.
Orientation gets ignored.
For a long time, I thought hesitation meant I was behind.
So I moved. Quickly. Often.
Not because I knew where I was going—
but because not knowing felt uncomfortable.
That kind of motion looks like momentum.
It isn’t.
Most people aren’t stuck.
They’re moving without a compass—
chasing relief instead of direction.
This is your reminder:
pausing to orient isn’t quitting.
It’s how you stop running in circles.
01/11/2026
Where burnout can hide …
01/08/2026
Ok this got me … I remember when this came out! Love it more now!
01/06/2026
I always ask my clients to take a deep breath. Turns out, I needed that reminder too.
Whew. The holidays came in hot, and Mardi Gras is already knocking but I’m still catching my breath.
The longer I hold a camera, the more I realize how often the most meaningful portraits don’t come from planning or posing.
They come from the pause.
That deep breath we take together before the shutter clicks.
The one that softens your shoulders and lets your real self show up.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about how that kind of presence matters outside the frame too.
As this year unfolds, I’m asking:
What actually deserves to come with me?
Not the pressure to do it all.
Not the hustle to get it “right.”
But the values that ground me. The moments that teach me to trust what’s already working.
That’s what I want to carry into my sessions, into my work, into my life.
Thanks for showing up with me. Again and again.
Let’s keep breathing through it, together.
Yes hashtags are dead and also if you want an easier way to find more of my stuff this makes it easier. XO!
01/03/2026
01/01/2026
“Happy New Here” means ...
we get to choose to celebrate loudly or go to sleep early, reflect deeply or take a break from thinking altogether, plan the next chapter or give ourselves permission to recover from the last one.
All of it counts.
Happy New Here is a practice for me. A way to reflect and move without judgment. Not focusing on what didn’t get done, but noticing what supported me, surprised me, and quietly held me up.
That’s why I’m writing this to you today. If you have ever been a part of my life in any way, you are part of this. You are part of my successes, and I am so grateful.
Gratitude steadies me. It’s the source of so much well being, reminding me that we’re already living inside something real.
And I love living this life with all of you.
So wherever you are right now, resting, dreaming, planning, or simply breathing, Happy New Here for all your heart desires.
XO, Jenn
12/31/2025
Improv was no joke this year … so damn fun! 🤩
12/29/2025
Old pattern:
inspiration → anxiety → over-functioning → burnout
What if we: pause, get curious, and ask:
“What if clarity, not anxiety, is my fuel now?”
12/28/2025
I heard that beautiful means
BE YOU TO THE FULL
And I won’t un-hear that ever!
🩵💛💜
xo, jenn
Join me tomorrow for a Sunday cup of Joy …
My every Sunday free newsletter for you!
A calm way to begin the year — without pressure or perfection.
Comment something fun and we’ll send you some info! There’s an hour of free coaching up for grabs when you sign up before December 31!
11/05/2025
There’s something about this fall light and weather!
The glow is golden, the air’s soft, and it’s the perfect time to book your Fall portraits — whether it’s for this year’s one-of-a-kind holiday cards or your favorite graduate sessions!
✨ Plus, the Fall Print Sale is happening now through November 12th:
💛 20% off online print orders (use code: FALL20)
💛 10% off fine art heirloom & gallery prints
💛 BONUS: 10% off holiday cards when you choose a JOP template → jennocken.com/hc-templates
There are still a few golden-hour spots left on the calendar — let’s make something beautiful before the season fades. 📸
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Jenn Ocken, Photographer & Creative Cultivator
Jenn is a photographer who thrives in cultivating creativity! Since 2003 she has been a wedding and portrait photographer in Chicago, Dallas, Little Rock, and now mainly focuses in the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and NW Florida, but is open to travel for special occasions and portraits.
At Jenn Ocken Photography there is a team of photographers and staff working much like a family depending on each other’s talents, organization, critiques, and encouragement to provide quality customer care for their clients. You can find them hanging out at tailgates, parades, exhibits, or at one of the infamous Holiday Hump Day Parties. They are in each others weddings and they take each other's photos. Their friendship and work relationship spams over 13 years together and you can see the connect and talent in they way the work together and enjoying their jobs.
Her reputation for her openness in sharing her business knowledge and creative expertise includes being on of the co-founders/lead photographer for The Front Porch Project, where she completed 900 photo sessions in a pay it forward initiative with a group of other local photographers in the Baton Rouge area that raised 1.28 million dollars for small business relief during Covid19 pandemic in 2020.
She is also a well established teacher and mentor for aspiring photographers from college level to students to Futures Fund teens since the beginning of her career. Most of the people who work with Jenn were at one time her students, as well as, starting their own photography or creative businesses.
Jenn is currently working on her second self published book about inspired by The Front Porch Project and you can find her first one, Blues on Beale Street: Memoirs of the International Blues Challenge at www.documentingblues.com or Amazon.
Jenn is most known for her positive energy, her enthusiasm for life and her passion for her craft and ways how that can continue to support her community.
