Helen Bartlett Family Photography
2024
Photography
2024
Photography
Designing and building a new website showcasing the talented work of photographer, Helen Bartlett.
The woman behind the lens
Helen Bartlett is one of the most accomplished and respected family photographers in the UK. As the only family photographer in Europe with Canon Ambassador status, it was crucial her website reflected the unique artistry she delivers for her clients. Working with a creative sole trader was a unique project for us because the majority of our clients operate in the B2B market.
As a result, Helen’s site balances elite performance with artistic elements and flourishes. The entire project called on both teams’ creativity in an exciting new way.
Enhancing the experience
Helen’s site featured two decades of case studies, and the sheer amount of images had taken its toll on the site’s performance. Optimising WordPress to the combined benefit of the users, the content editors, and Google is one of our key strengths, so we were determined to give Helen the stunning site she deserved. Helen’s new site is image-rich without compromising on performance, SEO or creating any extra admin that takes Helen away from her camera.
To ensure the website functioned effectively as a shop window, images had to be front and centre throughout the project. We gave the user multiple viewing experiences, from thumbnail gallery sheets, to enlarged lightbox experiences and even a slideshow. We wanted to ensure Helen’s potential clients could browse the images in their preferred format, to improve their chances of converting.
Speed was an important consideration. As we weren’t the hosts of this site, we weren’t able to control or optimise the server setup. Instead, we needed to ensure the code was optimised to the highest level so that the on-page optimisation was at its best.
Taking inspiration from some artisanal websites belonging to European Restaurants and Architects, we were keen to animate Helen’s text to elevate it. We introduced subtle animation on standout paragraphs and testimonials, and impactful scrolling text for a dramatic first load of each service page.
We’d been aching to use a custom cursor on a site for ages. However, with a predominately greyscale colour scheme and a desire to avoid distraction from the images, we had to be careful.
In the end, we opted for a simple red circle, taking inspiration from Helen’s existing monogram logo. Coincidentally, Helen then reminded us of the iconic red ring on Canon’s lenses, their symbol for “Optical Excellence”. Whilst we’d love to claim this was our intention all along, we simply have to put this down to serendipity.
Protecting timeless moments
To ensure Helen could publish blog posts from recent shoots without worrying about her images being stolen, she needed a watermark solution that would allow her to put her logo onto the image. Previously, she had been doing this manually before uploading the image, adding extra admin time to her marketing activities.
We built a custom plugin to solve this issue. Helen can now toggle the watermark on and off and choose which corner the watermark displays in. That way, she can quickly and easily brand her work without interfering with the overall look of the image.
This is Fever worked to create a dynamic new site that combines creative modern design with great functionality and user experience. The team were fantastic to work with and communication was great at every stage. The results speak for themselves – I’m thrilled with my website and highly recommend the team at This is Fever.
