Award Winning Family Photographer in Crouch End

Crouch End Newborn, Baby, and Family Photographer

Thank you for visiting my blog today. I’m Helen and I’m a newborn, baby, and family photographer based in Crouch End N8.

I’ve been a family photographer since 2003 and over that time I’ve photographer thousands of families, won numerous awards, and become an ambassador for Canon, the only family photographer in Europe to hold this prestigious title. If you book me to photograph your family you are guaranteed exceptional images that will exceed your expectations alongside fantastic customer service, beautiful prints and album, and most importantly, a lot of fun along the way.

I’m based in Crouch End N8, within easy reach of Highgate, Hampstead, Islington, Hornsey, Finsbury Park and Stroud Green. However, my work takes me all over the world. Whether I’m photographing families close to home in Highgate Wood and Alexandra Palace Park or I’m photographing children on the beach in Spain, you can be sure that I will be taking wonderful pictures for families to enjoy.

My style of baby and family photography

I set up my family photography business after finishing my master’s degree in history at Cambridge University, where I realised that academia wasn’t for me, I wanted to photograph children. I’ve always loved photography since my dad first introduced me to cameras and the joy of the darkroom. We had a developed and printed our images at home and my teenage summers were spent photographing the children who attended the nursery school my mother ran from our basement in Blackheath, hand printing those images in our home darkroom, and selling them to the parents. I loved the process of photographing the children and I loved the product, beautiful black and white photographs that the parents treasured.

Many years later I’m living in Crouch End and still working in a similar fashion with a very relaxed and child led approach to photographing families. I take pictures that are tailored to each individual family, and which record their favourite things and places in beautiful images. I still work exclusively in black and white as I have found that the simplicity of monochrome images stands the test of time much better than colour. Fashions change, in clothes and interior design, but nobody looks at a black and white photo and says, ‘what was I wearing’, instead we look at expression and relationships and the important moments that hold our memories.

Timeless images you, and your children, will love

I pride myself in taking images that won’t date, and that your children will be proud to hang on their walls as adults. Images taken over the years fit together seamlessly in beautiful portfolios to tell your family story. If you would like to see more of this then do look at my growing up galleries area where you can see individual families grow from tiny tots to adults heading out into the world. I pride myself on returning clients and I ensure you’ll have such a great experience you will want to come back again and again as your children grow up.

I would describe my style as creative, emotive, and timeless, combining technical expertise with visual flair to produce images that are unlike those you will see on other family photographers’ websites. These are images that are unique and uniquely you.

What do I offer as a newborn, baby, and family photographer in Crouch End

I photograph people, from a few days old upwards, I love photographing every age and I have experience photographing every combination of little ones, teenagers, adults and the elderly. Nothing fazes me and, with over twenty years’ experience, you will be in excellent hands.

Let’s look in a bit more detail at how I approach photographing different ages, scroll down to what’s relevant to you, or read through it all to get an in-depth idea of my style and approach.

Newborn Photography in Crouch End N8

My newborn photography takes place in your home, so you have everything you need to hand. We work around your baby so you continue with naps and feeds as you normally would while I work to create beautiful images. Over the course of a morning, we’ll take a wide variety of different types of images from portraits of your beautiful baby, sleeping shots, photographs of those tiny details you will want to remember, as well as family pictures and, of course, those documentary style images as you interact with your new baby and with each other.

Incorporating your home into your images or heading outside for a bit if the weather is good and taking some newborn pictures in one of the beautiful green spaces Crouch End has to offer both adds to the variety of your pictures and anchors the images in your here and now. Memories of your home at the time they were born will be amazing to look back on as the years pass. It might be you stay in the same home for decades and can look through the images with your child and see the changes that time has bought, or you might move on to a new home and these images will be a source of fascination to your child as you can show them their first home that they may or may not remember.

Older siblings are, of course, included in our newborn baby photography sessions and seeing relationships develop in your pictures will be an incredible thing to look back on. From those first wary stares to the joyful cuddles, these early days are days to remember and i can help you do that with my photography.

Baby Photography in North London

I love photographing babies, whether tiny newborns, 12–16-week-olds who are just learning to hold their heads up while lying on their tummies, sitting 6–8-month-olds or the hilarity of little ones on the move as they learn to crawl or shuffle themselves around. Babies are wonderful and I’d love to visit you in your Crouch End home to photograph yours. If you would like some help choosing the best time to photograph your baby, then I have a blog post on the subject here.

With babies I’ll often do part of the session indoors and part outside, weather depending of course. At home we have all the details of your lives, we can photograph your baby in their nursery or snuggling on your bed. We have lots of opportunities for portraits as they roll around somewhere safe and secure. Working indoors we have so much opportunity for creativity using a mixture of available and additional lighting for wonderful effect.

As with newborn photoshoots we work around your baby. They may or may not have a routine and either is fine, we start nice and early to get the best of the day and we take a break for their mid-morning nap. This means we get more time after they wake up and there is plenty of time if little ones ae shy around strangers. Knowing they are in their own environment helps with this too and babies love the sessions as much as I do.

If the weather is good, then we have all the fabulous parks of Crouch End on our doorstep from Queens and Highgate Woods to Alexandra Palace Park or even Priory Park or Hampstead. We have plenty of time and it’ always lovely to include as many of the things that you love to do as a family as possible, so you have lots of memories in your pictures.

Crouch End, Muswell Hill, and Highgate Family photographer

I love living in Crouch End and it’s such a joy to photograph so many families in the area. I take pictures that tell the story of your lives rather than the story of the photo shoot. I don’t arrive with preconceived ideas and poses in mind, instead I meet your children and find out what they love, and we use that as the base of our session.

Whatever your children love whether it’s potato printing or football, dancing or crafts, we take images that show your children doing the things that they love as these images will always be the most important.

We usually head out first thing in the morning on family photo shoots so we can have the parks to ourselves and I love arriving at the playground Highgate Wood to find there’s nobody there, or the best climbing tree in Ally Pally, the world is our oyster first thing in the morning and children are always up early and at their best straight after breakfast before they get tired.

We have an amazing time and then, as we get to late morning we can head home for a snack and pictures at home. I love these indoor images too and will always aim to take some pictures inside even on a summer day. Crouch End homes are such beautiful locations for family photography and the architecture of N8 is stunning. We can play with the children’s favourite toys and enjoy their favourite games. By lunchtime you will have an amazing set of images with family groups, pictures of the children together and all the action-packed pictures that make a family photo shoot special.

Photographing Teenagers

It’s a real privilege to photograph teenagers and I approach all my photo shoots with older children as a collaboration – we work together to create images that your teenagers will love as much as you will. Asking them for their thoughts on what they would like to include in the photo shoot works brilliantly. Most teenagers have something that they love to do whether it’s sport, music, art, games, or fashion. We can include their interests in the photo shoot so they have pictures of themselves“ doing the things they love as well as family shots that will be treasured as they grow older.

I have a large portfolio of teenage portraits on my website alongside more information on the teenager’s page to get some ideas of the style of my family photography work with older children. Some of the portrait photographs are taken in Crouch End, others elsewhere in London or throughout the UK. Equally, if you have a second home and would rather have your photo shoot there then get in touch and I can create a custom quote for you.

Extended family Photo shoots in North London

Sometimes a family photo shoot is an excellent excuse to get everyone together and it can be a brilliant way to spend time with your family. Extended family sessions are also a great opportunity to include grandparents in your photo shoot and I know that pictures of my parents are some of my most treasured possessions as time passes. Parents, siblings, grandchildren, cousins, pets, let’s get them all involved and crate memories to last a lifetime.

Locations for your family photo shoot in Crouch End, North London

Working as a Crouch End family photographer I love the variety of different places that I get to photograph babies and families over the course of each year, but it’s always a treat to work close to home in some of the amazing parks and open spaces Crouch End has to offer. Highgate Wood and Queens Wood are two of my favourite places to take family pictures, particularly on bright sunny days where the trees provide welcome shade and beautiful soft light.

For pictures that give a real sense of location then nothing beats Ally Pally with the amazing landmark building on the top of the hill. I love incorporating the impressive architecture into pictures to give them context.

Smaller parks such as Priory Park, Waterlow Park and Golders Green Park also offer a surprisingly large number of opportunities in their small spaces and can work particularly well with younger children if they are close to home, especially if we are nipping out between a baby’s naps.

Further afield then Hampstead Heath is, of course, a favourite location. Iconic and beautiful and with so much variety it’s one of my favourite spots in the whole of London for baby and family photographs and is a great option if the weather is kind.

Pricing

I charge a session fee for my time on the day and then prints, frames, albums, and digital files are purchased at your viewing session a couple of weeks after your family photo shoot.

You can find the full price list on the website here

Prints and Albums

Of course it isn’t just about taking the pictures. I offer the full service from photographing your family to printing, framing, and creating your albums. I know how busy everyone is and how finding the time to get images into an album or to the framers means that these often get forgotten (I bet I’m not the only person with my wedding pictures sitting on a USB in a drawer and if I haven’t got around to ordering an album when I have album design software and a brilliant lab, how can I expect busy parents of young children do get their family photos printed with none of those resources). Instead, we look after everything from start to finish so you can enjoy your images in your hands just weeks after your photo shoot.

Images are shown to you at an in person viewing and ordering session at your home where we can help measure space and check that frame mouldings will work well with your decor. Albums are stunning and can be produced in a verity of finishes, heirloom pieces that will last the test of time.

We use the best labs to create heirloom albums, fine art prints, and handmade frames to the highest standards. Clients often choose to buy albums or frames from annual photo shoots creating an amazing visual document of their children’s lives that builds up over year and, in many cases decades, as we work together.

Returning customers and reviews

When choosing a photographer, it can be hard to decide who to book so I like to let my customers do the talking for me – check out the reviews page on my website (or the google reviews if you prefer) to see what clients are saying.

Look at the growing up galleries to see families photographed regularly for long periods to see what we can create together.

Browse all the main portfolio galleries, you will see some of the same faces as client who start as newborns become babies, smaller children and then find themselves in my teenagers’ galleries, the years fly by so fast, and the regular return of clients is testament to happy customers.

To get more of an idea how individual sessions work then look at my blog. Over the past twenty years there are literally thousands of posts, start with the recent ones and work back you will get a great idea of the style and variety of my work an, most importantly, of the consistency high quality, I hope you like what you see and will be keen to book me to photograph your family.

Book a session now!

If this sound good and I’m the Crouch End family photographer for you, then drop me a line via the contact form and we can plan the perfect photo shoot for your family in Crouch End, North London, N8.