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Canon Ambassador Helen Bartlett might be one of many audio system on the Canon Spotlight Stage, which is able to host a compelling line-up of audio system over the 4 days of the present.
There actually might be one thing for everybody, whether or not you are a newbie or a professional or whether or not you prefer to shoot weddings, wildlife… or households.
Helen Bartlett is without doubt one of the UK’s main household photographers, and is the one household photographer to be on Canon’s ambassador programme, so if you wish to uncover extra about this style of pictures, you could not want for a greater speaker.
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Having taken up pictures on the age of eight, Helen began incomes an revenue from pictures when she was an adolescent.
Her mom ran a nursery faculty within the basement of the household house and, as a summer time job, Helen would take images of the kids.
Selling their dad and mom’ handmade black-and-white prints gave her an early style of making and promoting pictures, so after finding out historical past at college, she determined to make pictures her profession.
Since then, Helen has gone on to develop into a number one household photographer. Shooting completely in black and white, she specialises in documenting the essence of childhood, capturing tender scenes created to resonate together with her purchasers.
Ahead of her ‘Seeing the Story: A Creative Approach to Family Photography’ discuss at The Photography & Video Show 2026, we requested her about her follow, and her long-term dedication to black and white…
Did you adopt black and white as your signature look because you started out in black and white, or is there just something about it that you feel works better than colour?
We had a colour darkroom at home when I was growing up, so I had experience of working with colour, but it never resonated with me.
I fell in love with monochrome because the pictures my dad took of my brothers and I were in black and white. I knew they looked good when I was young, they looked good when I was a teenager and they look good today.
Some of them are still on the wall with pictures I’m taking now of my nephews and nieces, as well as ones of my parents taken in the 1950s when they were children.
These photographs all hang together well; monochrome is timeless. The notion of timelessness is important to me because I’ve built a business on having repeat customers. I need the pictures that I take now to fit together with those I have taken in the past and with those I take in the future.
I have some clients that I photographed as children at the beginning of my career who are now hiring me to photograph their own children, so I’m working with the second generation within a family. I need to know that my pictures will all work together and black and white is a key part of this.
Colour can be amazing, obviously, and there are incredible colour photographers out there. It’s not that colour is bad and black and white is good. It’s just the way I see the world.
If I look at a black and white picture, I don’t immediately think about what I’m wearing, what the weather is doing or what the interior design trends and fashions are.
Whereas if I look at a colour photograph, I’ll notice I’m wearing a blue jumper, and that particular blue was a popular colour in 1993 and looks a little dated now.
I feel black and white holds the essence of who people are, what they’re doing and where they are at this time in their lives without the distractions that date a picture.
There’s a gallery on my website with pictures of the same family taken over the past two decades from newborn until now, when the eldest is at university, and it just works.
For me, this is what family photography is all about: long-term relationships with my clients, telling their stories over time and knowing that the pictures I take of children now will still work for them when they’re adults.
What is your shooting process – do you set the camera viewfinder to preview in black and white or do you just interpret the scene in your mind?
I have my cameras set to the Monochrome picture style; it’s one of the main benefits of mirrorless – the EVF viewfinder means I can see the pictures in black and white all the way through the process.
That’s good because you focus on different things when looking at things in colour. As well as the placement of your main subject, in black and white, you are looking at tone, light and the graphic shapes of the environment as you build a composition.
I find it easier to see the light, and to focus on emotion and interaction in monochrome.
When commencing a typical family shoot, what are the must-have photos you need to get?
I usually start with some group shots, so I’ve got those in the bag, then I just see what happens. If you ask ‘What do you like to do, where do you want to go?’, and they say ‘There’s a table tennis table over there’ or they want to show you their best climbing tree then, when they get the photos back, the pictures are about them and their lives.
Often, working in public places, you can’t really plan because sometimes you turn up and there’s all kinds of stuff going on, and I find that a fun creative challenge. The light might be good in a particular place so we’ll start there, but then the kids will go and play somewhere else, so I have to rethink what I’m doing and find a new angle.
It’s a lot of quick thinking and really fun for the clients; they never get bored. It’s also energetic so I always recommend getting a good night’s sleep, having breakfast and starting early – usually at 8am – to get everyone at their best and brightest.
I like to do long shoots, which generally go on until around 1pm, so we have time for different activities and locations. If the weather’s good, we’ll often go out to a park first thing, then come back for some pictures at home towards the end of the morning.
This way, my clients will have a lot of variety, and I want to give them as many different types of photos as I can from the morning. I want them to have an incredible visual document of their children at this time in their lives, doing whatever they like to do, and I want them to have a brilliant time along the way.
Do you prefer to work outdoors or indoors?
When I started family photography, I did a couple of shoots in a studio and it wasn’t for me. So much of the importance of my work is creating memories and it’s quite hard to create a memory in a studio as it’s a neutral space, whereas my clients are choosing where to go.
These are places that are important to them and even if sometimes it’s not the most photogenic place, it’s where they like to go. Then, when the kids look back on the pictures when they’re in their 30s, they’ll say ‘Do you remember when we used to go to that little park around the corner?’ That’s what my work is all about, incorporating aspects of family life in my photographs.
Including the environment I’m shooting in is a challenge because there are different things going on and I need to simplify the world around me.
I have to create a compelling portrait with a sense of time and place – all of which has to work visually while not including people out doing a parkrun.
How long have you used Canon cameras?
In 2003, I was about to buy myself a Hasselblad, but then I met a guy at a party. He said, “Don’t do that, film is dead and the future is digital. You need to get yourself a Canon and if you do buy one, I’ll help you set it up.”
I thought, “Well, he’s nice and I want an excuse to call him.” So I called him, bought a Canon and married him. It’s all gone very well since.
That’s how I moved to Canon and I’ve been with Canon ever since. The cameras are incredible. I started with an EOS 10D then, over the years, moved up to what I have now, which is a pair of EOS R5 Mark IIs.
Back in the DSLR days, I was using two EOS-1D X Mark IIs before I swapped one for an EOS R. When the EOS R5 came out, I got rid of my 1D X Mark II and moved to mirrorless, and from there on to the EOS R5 Mark II.
I wouldn’t go back to a DSLR now. There are things I miss about them, like the fact you could bang in a tent peg with the 1 DX Mark II and it would still work fine afterwards, but mirrorless is incredible.
Canon cameras are fantastic – they’re intuitive to use, the quality of the files is superb, the autofocus is amazing, and I can find my way around the menus really easily.
The new technology opens up more opportunities for creative photography every year. They are the perfect cameras for family photography.
Which lenses do you favour?
I’m mainly a prime lens photographer and tend to shoot with an RF 35mm f/1.4L VCM, a Canon RF 50mm f/1.2L USM and a Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM. That’s my basic kitbag.
I’ll use the Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8L if I know I’m going to be on my feet a lot and want to travel a bit lighter, but usually it’s either the 35mm and the 50mm or the 35mm and the 85mm.
I find I work much quicker when I’m shooting on primes because I know those focal lengths incredibly well and I work with two cameras at all times.
I also have some more specialist lenses, such as the Canon RF 100-500 f/4.5-7.1 IS USM, which I will use if the situation requires a longer focal length – for example, if the children are riding horses or on a boat.
One thing I like to do every year is to try out a new lens – I’ll either hire one or borrow it from Canon – just to shoot outside my comfort zone.
I used the new RF 100-300mm f/2.8L IS USM for a couple of weeks last year, just to shoot something completely different. It isn’t a lens I’ll be adding to my kitbag because it’s massive, but it did give me a different perspective.
Do you shoot with natural or artificial light?
Mainly available light in the summer, but it depends on the time of year. In the depths of winter, I use my Kino Flo Celeb 200, which is a big LED light that’s 10 or 12 years old. It works brilliantly because it creates soft, even light that brightens a room.
When I’m working, one minute, I’ll be by the window, shooting into the light, and the next, the children will be playing hide and seek in a cupboard – there are fast-moving scenarios in my shoots, so an LED panel works perfectly.
The solely household photographer in Europe to be on Canon’s ambassador programme, Helen Bartlett relies in London.
While she has many consumers within the capital, she additionally travels world wide to seize the essence of household life.
Believing that black and white pictures suggests relatively than exhibits, Bartlett’s visible fashion strives to be timeless.
She can be an in-demand speaker, sharing experience from her 22-year profession to assist others elevate their craft.
See Helen Bartlett at The Photography & Video Show 2026
Seeing the Story: A Creative Approach to Family Photography, with Canon Ambassador Helen Bartlett – Saturday March 14, 14:00-14:45
Seeing the Story: A Creative Approach to Family Photography, with Canon Ambassador Helen Bartlett – Tuesday March 17, 14:00-14:45
Find more information on The Photography & Video Show website
This web page was created programmatically, to learn the article in its unique location you may go to the hyperlink bellow:
https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/photography/trade-shows/black-and-white-holds-the-essence-of-who-people-are-says-family-photographer-helen-bartlett
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