Introduction by Kelly McCool

Doing what you love and loving what you do doesn’t have to be that complicated—but it’s easy to forget that in a world that constantly tells us to perform, perfect, and produce.

Here in Missoula, where trail runners, tech founders, artists, and entrepreneurs all orbit the same coffee shops, the pressure to “measure up” can feel subtle but relentless. It’s not just about balance—it’s about belonging. About status. About staying in motion so long you forget what stillness even feels like.

That’s why I find Jenna Nord’s work so profoundly grounding. Her photography doesn’t just “capture a moment”—it reveals the soul inside it. Each image is a portal: a still frame of a much longer story, asking you to stop, to see, to remember who you are beneath the noise.

If you’ve ever been moved by her images, you’ve already felt it: Jenna doesn’t just take photos. She offers medicine. What she creates lives and breathes. It’s ceremony. It’s reclamation. It’s art that comes from the inside out.

Her work reminds me how vital it is that we root our lives and businesses in truth, not trend. I’m honored to share her voice and vision with you here.

I’m honored to share her words here—an offering from the heart of her creative process, her journey, and her fire. May it invite you to return to your own.

—Kelly

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Fanning Embers

I am not just a photographer. I’m an artist.

I don’t make things to keep up.
I make things to feel wildly alive.

That pulse, that ache in the chest, that spark that rises when something moves through me—I
trust it more than I trust the trends. And I build my business from that place. Not because it’s
easy, but because it’s the only way I know how to stay true.

There are days I don’t know what to call what I do.
Ceremony? Portraiture? Witnessing? Medicine?

It doesn’t matter.
What matters is that when I create from my core, when I allow myself to dip into the deepest
heat inside of me—the primal, sensual, grieving, sovereign fire—my work doesn’t just land. It
lives.

“Art is not a thing. It is a way.”

—Elbert Hubbard

I follow what feels. I follow what burns.
And that means I don’t always fit cleanly into categories.
I’m not here for surface beauty.
I’m here for soul recognition.

When I’m behind the lens, I’m not just composing a frame—I’m remembering you to yourself.
That’s where the art lives: in the space between you letting go, and me catching it.

Being a woman and an entrepreneur is a wild edge to walk.
We’re told to be palatable. To shrink.
To smooth out the wrinkles, hide the rage, rehearse the pitch, tidy the art.

But my best work has come from throwing out the rulebook.
The moments when I said:
No more performing. I want to feel something real.
And I invite my clients into that with me.

“What if the most beautiful parts of you were never meant to be marketable, but
sacred?”

I’ve built this business slowly, yes at times- most of the time forced slowness, intuitively, and
with grit.
There have been seasons of hustle and seasons of surrender. Mornings of waking up to the
same thought- I could/should just go get a “real” job.

&
At every turn, I come back to one question:
Does this feel alive?
If the answer is no, I strip it down until it does.

Missoula is wild and woven—cedar smoke, espresso shots, and startup pitches.

It’s a town of trail runners and birth workers, tech bros and poets.

So many faces, so many masks. Some feel everything and make art with it. Some run fast
enough they forget they’re running.

But the land knows. And the body knows.
And I’m here for the moment you stop pretending not to.

So if you’ve ever worked with me, you know this:
You’re not just “getting photos.”

You’re entering a space where you are allowed to come undone, be fully seen, and leave with
proof of who you are when you stop trying to be “enough.” By the way, this is a positive
feedback loop- one where I am creating a self-portrait, thank you for becoming a mirror.

To my fellow wild women, creators, entrepreneurs, and mothers:
Keep making from the inside out.
There is no formula more powerful than your truth.

“She remembered who she was, and the game changed.”

—Lalah Delia

In Missoula and beyond, my work lives in the liminal—the bold, beautiful threshold
between who you’ve been and who you’re becoming. Like Kelly McCool’s vision
and soul-led living, my sessions invite you into deeper recognition of your truth—and the
courage to honor it. If you’re feeling the itch to capture what you learn from Kelly, I dare
you to reach out.

With fire & reverence,
Jenna

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About the Author:

Jenna Nord is a Missoula-based transformational photographer whose work bridges the
emotional and the elemental. She specializes in high-touch portrait experiences that honor rites
of passage, motherhood, and creative reclamation. Through offerings like MUSE and
Primal Medicine, Jenna invites her clients into realignment with their own fire.
Explore her work at www.jennanordphotography.com.