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Sweet little Flora | Louisville Birth & Newborn Photographer
If you enter my site from the “front”… www.jesdeis.com you may notice the section for “Birth Photography”. If you click it, it will take you to LouisvilleBirthPhotography.com. This is my newest baby.
Really, it’s not all that new. I photographed my first birth when my second daughter, Dorothy, was a month old (she’ll be 4 next month). Seriously, I had her in a sling for the entire birth.
I was hooked, but living in a small eastern NC town, and not being sure everyone would be as accepting of me walking around their birth space wearing my young child, I didn’t really pursue it at the time.
We moved here. Dorothy was too old to wear and expect to maintain silence throughout a birth and I didn’t know anyone to have on call for child care should I get called to a birth. Time passed. My husband lost his job, decided to go back to school, and I got pregnant again. A sweet lady that would soon become my friend also got pregnant. About a month after me. I practically begged her to let me photograph her home birth and she obliged. Once more, I was at a birth, with a baby strapped to my chest. (This is not including the birth that I mostly doula’d for, but took a few pictures when I could, while I was pregnant with Veda)
I am now up to twelve. Twelve births where I’ve been invited to the space (no, I didn’t wear a baby for any of the others).
Here is a slideshow from one of the recent ones.
and some pictures of sweet little Flora after she was all settled in at home…
Sunshine Preschool
I’m not a school photographer. It’s not that I have a problem with school photograph. It’s just that that’s not where I market myself.
It’s also not really my style. The whole posing in front of a static background, everyone looking the same, sorta deal.
In any case, a few years ago, I was really taking about any job I could get. I saw that a preschool was looking for a photographer, so I took the job.
I was in no way disappointed. That day I photographed about 8 children. I think that was really the perfect amount to make it worth my time, but not overwhelming.
The next year came, and not surprisingly, I didn’t hear anymore from them. Seriously, I didn’t expect it to be an ongoing relationship. I mean, that would have been awesome, but it was a small school and I really just thought that was it.
Imagine my surprise when the director/teacher emailed me this year! She wanted me to come back!
It’s true, repeat clients are the greatest compliment. I think it’s somehow more uplifting when you think a client has forgotten about you, then the contact you all “Remember me?”. I absolutely LOVE it!
So… Here are a few shots from that day. (this was also one of the only days in history that my husband has assisted me. His help was MUCH appreciated but it was a different experience having his help. Thanks darling!)
Sam, The Fighter | Louisville KY Child Photographer
This is Sam.
Sam has been battling Neuroblastoma for over a year now.
(You can learn more about Sam here, and read Sam’s story here.
I first got to meet Sam around Halloween of last year. It was the closest his family could schedule to his first birthday (Thanksgiving) since he was going to be in and out of the hospital for treatments over his birthday.
He is an amazing boy to watch. I had to force myself to take pictures, because I really wanted to just drink in his fantasticness. He’s definitely one of those kids that I could just watch walk, and investigate the world around him, for hours.
Grahm & Ruby | Louisville Child Photographer
These kids were a lot of fun to work with. Despite the insane heat, they were ready to play and show me their spunk.
Their spunk just so happened to be photo worthy.
Their mother wanted something sort of warehousy/industrial (I love switching up scenery. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the natural setting of the park (hence why I suggest it to so many) but, it keeps me from running out of ideas when a client wants to try something new every now and then) so we hit up a little industrial area in the city, and it provided us with exactly the settings we wanted.
August mini session deal
A lot of photographers do mini sessions.
A lot of photographers do them differently from one another.
I’ve tried a couple different… methods? and this is me telling you, I’m going to try one more (not because the others failed, I just like variety. I’m sure it will be something different next time. I’ll have to see what I can come up with.)
For this weekend only (ending 11:59pm on Sunday, July 17th) you (or whoever) can go to my booking site and schedule a mini session for any time between August 1st and August 15th (that’s available of course)
What you get: 30-45 minutes of my undivided attention, with lots of shutter clicks.
An online gallery for proofing within 5 days of the shoot (It usually only takes 2-3 days, but I try to err on the side of caution)
Your favorite image printed as an 8×10, or 2 5×7′s, along with up to 4 images edited for facebook/email/etc.
(and of course you can order more if you feel so inclined)
Where: These sessions can be held at Shawnee park, or downtown, along the riverwalk/waterfront.
How much: Sessions at Shawnee park will be $40, while sessions downtown will be $50. $25 payment must be made in advance (remainder due at time of session, after booking, you can email me, or I’ll email you, to make payment arrangements. I accept paypal, credit card (via paypal, no need for an account), cash, check, and money order)
I think that covers everything! If I left something out, or you have a question, feel free to comment here, or contact me directly!
Jasmine | Before and After
I edit all the time. I rely on it! Maybe a little too much. I digress… My days in school (for photography no less) were spent playing with film canisters, enlargers, developing solutions, etc.
Taking the photograph, was half the battle. After that, I had to develop the film just right (especially slide film. That stuff is SUPER temperamental). And if I felt so inclined, I could “push” or “pull” my film (a method of intentionally under or over exposing film, then developing it to compensate.) Then there was the darkroom. Here you can (and often MUST) use various filters to bring out certain tones, or create more or less contrast, “burn” and “dodge” to get much needed detail in stubborn shadow and highlight areas, you can even create different effects in the way you run it through your various developing solutions. The variables were pretty endless.
Enter digital.
Now I have no film to process. I shoot an image, then stick the memory card in my computer. There are the variables I set in my camera, not too dissimilar from those on my previous film body, but it’s like going straight to the darkroom. The darkroom now being more of a lightbox, my computer. So since I was a large fan of spending copious amounts of time in the darkroom to achieve customized results with any given image, this naturally carried over into my transition to digital. (It totally helped that I got a decent introduction to Photoshop in school as well)
So.. I don’t think one of my images straight out of camera fully represents me, and my capabilities.
To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, here is my first ”Before and After” post.
And a brief run down of what I did…
Mostly, I just dodged out the shadows on her face and neck/chest. After dodging, I then blended these areas to the non affected areas with the patch tool.
After that, I gave it a film treatment, or something. Using Alien Skin Exposure. I went with (color slide film – grain off) Fuji Provia 400f.
That’s it!
The L Family | Louisville Maternity Photography
Amber and her husband are expecting their second child (another girl!) and asked me not only to do their maternity session, but also her birth! (That will be coming within the next few weeks!)
Initially we met up a Cherokee park, the weather was surprisingly chilly, and it was trying to rain, but Amber still looked stunning!
I can not wait to meet their new little one, and document her arrival!
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