Family Photography in Holland Park and Kensington W11 and W8
Helen Bartlett is a London-based family photographer with over 20 years’ experience, a Canon Ambassador since 2017, and the only family photographer in the EMEA region to hold that title. She has been photographing children and families in Holland Park, Kensington, and across West London since 2003. This page covers family photography sessions in Holland Park W11 and Kensington W8, including at-home sessions throughout the surrounding postcodes and outdoor sessions in one of West London’s most beautiful parks.
Natural, documentary family photography in Holland Park W11 and Kensington W8: at home and in one of West London’s most varied and beautiful parks, by a photographer who has worked here for over 20 years.
Session at a glance
Holland Park W11, Kensington W8, and surrounding West London including Notting Hill, Ladbroke Grove, and Earl’s Court
Family photography, at home and outdoors; all ages from newborns to teenagers
Holland Park, including the Japanese garden, the kitchen garden, the orangery, the woodland, and the adventure playground. Kensington Gardens. Hyde Park. Client’s homes and gardens, and private garden squares if clients have a key.
Natural, documentary, lifestyle, black and white. Relaxed and fun throughout
A full morning, typically four to five hours creating a relaxed session with plenty of time for play, different locations and different activities
Helen Bartlett, Canon Ambassador, 20+ years’ experience photographing families in West London
Family photography in Holland Park and Kensington
What do you want to remember?
This question is at the root of my family portrait work: taking pictures that reflect your lives and the places where you spend time as the children grow up. My aim is to give you photographs that will spark memories in the years to come. Memories of hot summer days running around outside. Cold winter mornings drinking hot chocolate at home with a book. The particular way the light fell through the windows of a house that the children will one day have only the haziest recollection of living in.
Photographing families in Holland Park and Kensington means I often spend part of the session in Holland Park itself, one of the most beautiful and varied parks in West London. But I always work with what your family loves most, and the combination of indoors and outdoors is usually what gives the best and most personal set of pictures.
How your Holland Park family photography session works
When photographing families I like to work around your usual routine: the things you would do if you had set aside a morning for family time. I arrive early in the day, and if the children making pancakes is part of your weekend routine then I can photograph that too. The session is about you and your lives, not a series of poses.
I like to photograph the children enjoying their favourite activities, whether indoors or out. Reading books, jumping on the bed, baking biscuits at home; or heading out to Holland Park to run around, play on the swings, or climb the trees. Weaving everyday activities into your photographs means that when you look back on them in years to come, you will remember everything you did together when the children were small.
For the children, a session like this is simply a morning of doing the things they love. For adults, it is lovely to have time to enjoy all those activities that make life special: chasing the children, throwing them in the air to make them laugh, or those quieter moments at the end of the morning when everyone is a little tired and happy. Those are often the most beautiful pictures of all.
Why Holland Park is such a wonderful location for family photography
Holland Park is one of my favourite locations for family photography in the whole of London. There is so much variety within a relatively small park: wide open spaces for running around, the more formal kitchen garden, ponds ranging from the fish-filled tranquillity of the Japanese garden to the pond near the orangery that always seems to be full of wishing pennies. There are trees to climb, a wonderful adventure playground, the wooden thrones, and the giant chess set.
I always have the feeling that Holland Park has an enormous amount of thought and love put into it, and it shows in every corner. It looks beautiful in all weathers and at all times of year, and it gives us an extraordinary variety of backdrops within a short walk of each other. If your family has a key to one of the private garden squares nearby, those make wonderful locations too: quieter, more intimate, and often very beautiful.
For me, the sign of a great children’s photographer is someone who is so unobtrusive that they capture the essence of your child without them even realising that they are being photographed. Helen is one such photographer – she always manages to produce great shots of my children.
Prices for family photography in Holland Park and Kensington
I charge a session fee of £550 on weekdays and £650 at weekends and bank holidays. This covers my time on the day and all the work involved in preparing your images for your viewing session, it does not include any prints or digital files, these are purchased at your viewing session. At your viewing, you choose what you would like to order from a range of beautiful options including prints, albums and digital files.
Unframed prints are £95 up to 12″ x 8″, with a minimum order of ten. Framed prints are from £395, albums start at £1,450, and a full set of digital files is included in all orders over £1,995. You can find the full price list on the Prices page.
My style of family photography
I have been working as a professional family photographer since 2003, and over 20 years of photographing children and families means I can promise you a really beautiful range of pictures: family group shots, individual portraits, and pictures of the children interacting together. I love the subtle moments: the protective glance of an older sibling as they help a younger one climb a tree, the competitive excitement of a running race, everything that makes your family uniquely itself.
I work exclusively in black and white to create timeless photographs that will look as beautiful in 30 years as they do today. My compositional style means I can produce beautiful pictures whatever we are doing, in any light, in any weather. Do spend some time in the galleries and on the blog before you get in touch. If you type Holland Park into the blog search, you will find a good range of sessions from this park and the surrounding area to give you a sense of what your own session might look like.
Why black and white works so beautifully in Holland Park
Holland Park is one of the most graphically striking locations I photograph in. The contrast between deep woodland shade and open sunlit grass, the geometric lines of the kitchen garden, the reflections in the Japanese garden pond, the dappled light falling through the canopy in the wooded areas: all of these are made more powerful in black and white than they would be in colour.
Colour can be a distraction in a park setting. The particular shade of the grass on a given day, the brightness or flatness of the sky, the colour of the rubbish bin in the background: in a colour photograph, the eye moves between all of these. In black and white, all of that falls away and what remains is the light, the shapes, and the people. A child running down a slope in Holland Park becomes a study in movement and joy rather than a record of what they were wearing that morning.
I have worked exclusively in black and white throughout my career because I believe it is the medium that best serves family photography: more timeless, more emotionally direct, and more likely to be treasured by your children when they are adults than colour photographs taken in the same moment where the colours date the image. Holland Park, with its extraordinary variety of light and landscape, is one of the places where that difference is most visible in the final pictures. If you would like to see what I mean, the blog has a number of sessions photographed here across different seasons.
Experience and credentials
- Professional family photographer since 2003. Over twenty years experience.
- Canon Ambassador since 2017, the only family photographer in the EMEA region to hold this title
- Over 20 years’ experience photographing families across London and the UK, exclusively in black and white
- Winner of LuxLife Best Family Photographer UK 2025, and multi-award-winning across 20+ years
- Work published nationally and internationally
- Over 400 blog posts demonstrating the quality and consistency of the work across more than two decades
- Countless reviews from happy clients over two decades.
Last reviewed: June 2026. Bookings are now open for 2026 sessions across Holland Park W11, Kensington W8, and surrounding West London.
Family Photography in Holland Park and Kensington – Frequently Asked Questions
I photograph families across Holland Park W11, Kensington W8, Notting Hill W11, Ladbroke Grove W10, Earl’s Court SW5, and the wider West London area. Holland Park itself is the outdoor location I use most frequently in this part of London, though I also work in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, and, for families lucky enough to have keys, in many of the beautiful private garden squares nearby.
Holland Park offers more variety within a small area than almost any other park in London. In the space of a short walk you can move from wide open grass to ancient woodland, from the formal kitchen garden to the Japanese garden, from the adventure playground to the pond near the orangery. It is beautifully maintained and looks wonderful in all weathers. For family photography it is exceptional because it gives us so many different backdrops without needing to travel far, which keeps the morning relaxed and allows plenty of time at each spot. The café also does excellent cake for fuelling tired toddlers.
Yes, and I always suggest spending at least part of the session at home. The beautiful houses and mansion flats of W11 and W8 make extraordinary locations: wonderful natural light, high ceilings, and rooms full of the everyday details that will bring back memories when you look at the pictures in 20 years. The combination of at-home pictures and outdoor pictures in the park almost always gives the richest and most varied final gallery.
Absolutely. I photograph families with children of all ages, from newborns right through to teenagers. With very young babies I work entirely around feeds and naptimes, starting at home where everyone is most comfortable, and heading to the park when the baby is happy to do so. Toddlers are always great fun and bring a level of delightful chaos that inspires creativity.
A typical session runs for a full morning. This gives us plenty of time at home and in the park without any sense of rushing. Children settle into the session at their own pace, and having that extra time is what allows the really natural, unguarded pictures to emerge. I always prefer to have more time than we need rather than less so we never rush a shy child and have time for breaks and snacks as required.
Around three weeks after your session my colleague will visit you at home to show you your images and examples of all the products we offer. At this viewing, you choose what you would like to order from a range of beautiful options, including prints, framed prints, albums, and digital files. You can find full details on the Prices page.
Who is Holland Park family photography right for?
This page will resonate with families based in Holland Park W11, Kensington W8, Notting Hill, Ladbroke Grove, and the surrounding West London postcodes who are looking for natural, unposed family photographs that feel personal and timeless. Whether you have a new baby, school-age children, teenagers, or a mix of all ages, whether you want to photograph at home, in Holland Park, or in one of the private garden squares nearby, I would love to hear from you. As a Canon Ambassador with over 20 years’ experience photographing families in this part of London, I can offer you images your family will treasure for generations. Do get in touch to talk about your session and check availability.
Book your Holland Park family photography session
If you like what you see and would like to book a family photography session in Holland Park or elsewhere in West London, please do get in touch using the contact form. I would be delighted to hear from you and to start planning your session together.
