“We provide a fun, friendly and relaxed photographic experience.”

Helen Jones Photography

Established: 2001

Location: Hamilton

Website: https://www.helenjonesphotography.co.nz/

Business vision and mission:

To provide high quality beautiful photos that tell a story.

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Helen was a nurse and midwife before she was lured to do a media arts degree, following a long passion for photography.  She loved the study and found it was the next best thing to travelling, her other passion!

She built up the studio and business whilst working part-time as a midwife before she made the great leap into self-employment and she hasn’t looked back since. Mixing midwifery and photography saw a lot of gorgeous artwork adorn the birth centre she worked and many families have their very early starts in life documented.

She is proud of her reputation and getting to see the same families return year after year to update their photos.

Helen Jones Photography not only takes beautiful photos, she helps her customers realise their vision and create something beautiful for their walls.

Specialising in design to tell a story, Helen Jones Photography can create albums and arrange up to 9 photos together in a single frame.

One of the biggest challenges for Helen was accepting that she couldn’t do everything, particularly when it came to promoting her business, successfully taking part in Expos and completing all accounts and administration.

She accepted advice and input from other business professionals in her networks and hired someone to run the business more efficiently. By outsourcing post-production and bringing in a Photoshop professional for lengthy and detailed work, Helen found that she could spend more time with the customers and learn more about the story they wanted to portray.

With technology ever changing and improving, Helen finds that she needs to make the time to learn the latest trends and predict where technology is heading next.

Networking and joining business groups has given her the chance to discuss her challenges with other men and women in similar situations and learn how they overcame the issues they faced. By constantly striving to improve and become more efficient, the studio overcame the initial set-up years when a business is most likely to fail and is now diversifying and flourishing.

Helen Jones Photography won the Kodak Gold Awards for weddings and portraiture and has plenty of rave reviews from satisfied customers:

“Wow thank you so much!! Thank you so much for doing this for me, I feel so proud of myself for stepping outside my shell and you have really captured my essence xx “ – Vanessa G

“Helen was my photographer for some professional and personal shots. It was an amazingly fun and empowering experience. She sensed and worked with my personality and individual style. She has a huge passion and enthusiasm for what she does and communicated well the understanding of body language and stance. I think together we got a fantastic result, both in terms of artistic creativity and an honest reflection of who I am.” – Sharon R

Helen acts both contractor at weddings and events and as employer: framers, printers and make-up artists in Auckland have all benefited from the active business.

She also mentors students from high school through to tertiary education, helping them to develop their own artistic style for their own future employment.

“Everyone has their own niche and I feel privileged in helping young photographers find their own path,” she says.

Helen not only provides mentoring through the First Foundation – which helps children from a whole spectrum of backgrounds find a professional mentor for their career – she sponsors students and helps schools with fundraising, donating vouchers for photography sessions and prints for auction.

She documented the remaining veterans from WWII as part of a nationwide capture – which is when she took the photo of Bob with the photograph from his parents’ wedding. It remains one of her favourite shoots to this day.

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