You Geaux Girl: Jackie Haxthausen of LeeKay Photography

Meet Jackie Haxthausen of LeeKay Photography. This Baton Rouge local, Houma-native, wife, and mom-of-three is a total creative genius behind the camera.

I’ve followed Jackie’s work on Instagram for a while — watching how she creates magical scenes with her three kids right from her living room (with gymnastics bars and toys just outside of the shot - you’d never know).

She calls this type of photography “Conceptual Creative Portraits.”

She’s nearing the 10K follower mark on Instagram and has been getting national attention for her portraits — even though locally she’s known for her newborn, children and lifestyle photography.

Jackie’s schedule is packed with her local client shoots, but she finds a way to squeeze in these editorial family portraits… even if it means having everything set up for when her kids hop off the bus in the afternoon.

Some of her past portraits include The Last Supper, a 4th of July backyard picnic and even Elf on the Shelf.

She said her ideas come in spurts and she tries to use props and clothes they already own.

“I always have a running list of things they’re doing in life or things they’re interested in and how can I document it or combine it with something I’m inspired by,” she said.

Obviously, with three young kids the shoots can be a bit of chaos. To help things run smoothly, she gives them a rundown of the plan and gets them involved by giving them some control.

She said her youngest Hopper is always the wildcard.

“I try to make it something he enjoys doing - like [the photo] where he’s playing the drums. He really is obsessed with playing drums,” she said. “He had fun doing it. I try to get everything set up, so when they get home, it’s go time.”

Her current favorite portrait is the “face mask” one above. She also credits this portrait as the one that changed everything and set things in motion on a bigger scale.

“This one was a big ‘aha’ moment for me,” she said. “It was me finding what I really want to make. And it’s OK that it’s different than my client work.”

This photo came about from a photographer group Jackie is part of. They had a vintage-theme prompt challenge.

She got the sponge rollers and envisioned them all sitting on the couch watching TV. She found pink pajamas and already owned the turquoise blanket.

She set the shot up and took the photo with her tripod.

“I connect my phone to my camera so I can see the whole scene,” she said. “I click, and we go. I may do it 10 times. I can see it from my phone, so I don’t have to keep getting up.”

Jackie loves that she gets to produce these shoots from start to finish.

“I’m the stylist, producer, director, editor and I’m in it,” she said. “I love having all the control.”

But even with controlling the whole shoot, one of her favorite pictures was one that was quickly snapped — and she almost threw it away.

Jackie snapped a photo of Hopper laying in the grass upside down. She was shooting with a longer focal length lens and cut off the top of his head. By the time she backed up, he had gotten up and was gone.

“I just edited it and posted it,” she said. “It reminds me that nothing is ever perfect. Let go of expectations. Perfection is impossible to obtain.”

But that doesn’t stop her from trying to get as close to perfect as possible in the camera before she edits the photo or brings it to Photoshop.

Jackie said she also wants as much of the photo to be real as possible — like in this Thanksgiving photo.

“I really baked a turkey,” she said. “Yea, I’m the person who bakes a turkey for a photo.”

In Jackie’s Christmas present photo she told herself she wouldn’t wrap more than 40 presents for the shoot. But she only made it through 8.

She decided to take a trip to Hobby Lobby for spray paint.

“I ended up spray painting them, so there were 40 boxes,” she said. “The trick to that one was having my camera on the tripod in the same spot. I’d move the presents, build a tower and put them together in Photoshop.”

Jackie said editing photos is more of a creative fun process for her.

“It’s more like a fun coloring and painting thing for me,” she said. “It’s taken me a while to perfect how to do that.”

If you want to see what she comes up with next, be sure to follow her on Instagram at @leekayphotos. You can also find her online here.