School Photographer Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Hampshire areas
So, who is behind Smiles At School? As a parent, headteacher or Nursery owner, you'll want to ensure we are a company you can trust to produce stunning photographs whilst ensuring the safety and happiness of your children (and staff too!)
Smiles At School started as a small photography business back in 2011, and in the following years have built up a great reputation amongst the Schools, Preschools and Nurseries in counties from Hampshire to Buckinghamshire and further afield too! We've also grown to offer more services for our education customers, from marketing to fundraising solutions, carefully chosen to help support your School or Nursery.
All our talented photographers are young at heart and parents themselves, so they understand children and are great at bringing the best out of even the most nervous child. Between us channelling our inner 5-year-olds we make every photo session great fun and aim to capture beautiful memories. But we can be relied upon to handle photographing hundreds of children at a schools photography session professionally, and make the lives of schools so much easier with a streamlined ordering service, and great marketing solutions too.
So let's introduce the people you're most likely to meet or talk to as a partner or customer:
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Danny
Also known by the children as 'Dan the Camera Man' , Danny Higgins is the Owner and Head Photographer of Smiles At School Photography. Supported by his loyal sidekick 'Cheeky Monkey', he is passionate about bringing the best out of your little ones in their photos, whilst a terrible line in Dad jokes helps to get those natural smiles for which we are well known (and the odd groan) out of older children. A photographer for over 30 years, Danny has been described by friends as having ‘an excess of personality’, which we like to think means he likes to have fun and create great relationships. Danny’s wife, on the other hand, says he’s just a big kid - with that we have to agree!
With two small children at home, he has every opportunity to hone his smile-making skills, and his long-suffering kids are usually happy to help develop new ideas and photo styles in his home studio.
Danny also has over 15 years of experience in Corporate Sales and Marketing, which he puts to good use in developing amazing marketing solutions for Schools and Nurseries. He understands what is needed to best promote educational settings and encourage parents to entrust their children to their care, and many of our clients come back year after year for great promotional images, display solutions and fundraising ideas.
" Danny is excellent with the children, and understands how a nursery operates and will always work around the different children's routines and their needs. The feedback from parents has been very positive. We are overall very pleased with the quality and service and will continue to use (them). " - Nursery Manager.
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Sally
'Sal the Photo Gal' as we lovingly call her, is our second photographer based in Buckinghamshire. Like Danny, she’s a little bit bonkers and ace at getting the best smiles from the children, aided by ‘Monkey’ to entertain the smaller kids.
She’s a mum of 2 girls, so knows what it takes to encourage the best from the children, but beware – if you bring a tiny baby in for sibling photographs, you may not see them for some time! She gets all gooey-eyed and will do everything she can to get the best – and often first - professional photos of them!
With over 8 years experience in photography (plus 10 years previously in film... and almost 14 years child wrangling at the time of writing), her fun, energetic approach is sure to delight!
“ Just wanted to say how amazing Sally was this morning! We had a couple of challenging children (one in particular that wanted to be in every photo!) and she dealt with them brilliantly. She is so good with the children and managed to get some lovely pictures of them all. It is always a pleasure to work with her. ” Preschool Manager
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Tracey
Tracey, AKA ‘Smiley Face Trace’ is our second photographer based on the Surrey / Hampshire border. With girl’s best friend ‘Mrs Woofington’ on hand to encourage a smile or two from the little-ones, she is a dab hand at getting the most out of Preschoolers for superb photos and genuine smiles. Another parent, her kids are a little bit older now, and so she enjoys getting the opportunity to photograph children who engage with her unique style of silliness – something we suspect is less appreciated by her teenagers!
With 20 years behind the camera, she has all the experience needed to get the best from eveny child, and just the right amount of crazy too...
With her family a little more self-sufficient now, she is looking forward to forging her career as a more full-time photographer in the years to come and we look forward to supporting her every step of the way!
" Thank you so much! The photos look lovely. It is always a challenge to get great pictures of my kids when they move around so much. So I really appreciate it. " - Day Nursery Mum
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Dee
'Busy Bee Dee' is our Hertfordshire based photographer (although she's sometimes spotted further afield) Like the other members of our team, she’s slightly nutty and loves making photography fun for everyone. 22 years' full time photography experience means she knows pretty much all the tricks for getting the best smiles from our early years subjects. Assisted by ‘Mr Buzz’ (and a tickling stick) she's great at getting giggles and natural expressions.
Another parent in our team, and although her daughter is now grown up, she still goes all mumsy when babies and little-uns are around so be prepared for lots of coo-ing and laughter!
She's also our Dance School expert, with the knowledge and skills for perfectly on-point photos every time.
" Just to let you know all went really well yesterday at our toddler group photo morning. Our mums commented that Dee was fantastic with the children! " - Toddler Group Manager
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Bondy
Claire Bond, AKA 'Bonny Bondy' is a portrait photographer with over 20 years of experience. Once based in the midlands and then Brighton, Bondy now lives in Surrey with her partner and all their plant babies. (Plus a very cute step daughter half the time)
Bondy is passionate about portraiture and over the years has honed many skills to make the little ones laugh with glee, usually in the form of ridiculous faces and/or noises. (Sometimes at the same time!) Those, along with her little sidekicks Sweep and Zen the tiny Zebra, ensure she can always get the smiles and giggles we all love at Smiles at School. Described by many of her friends and coworkers over the years as ‘The Positivatron’, one of Bondy’s special powers is the ability to always see the bright side of life, both personally and professionally, a trait that has carried her through many of life's trials and tribulations.
Her ‘bonny’ disposition has definitely been advantageous in her career working with small people!
" Thank you very much for these. Lovely photos we shall cherish! What a lovely job you’ve done! Thanks Claire. " - Nursery Mum
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Steve
Steve heads up our fantastic print lab. With over 16 years in business with extensive experience in the School photography industry, Steve helps us produce amazing prints and gifts from your treasured photographs. He's also a dab hand behind the camera and we rope him in from time to time when we're up against it! He's not really purple - we're waiting for him to send us a photo :)
" Steve was absolutely brilliant today. He was so kind and patient and hard working, and so good with the children and adults." - Preschool Manager
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Hayley
If you ever have cause to call the office for assistance with your web orders, then Hayley will have been the fantastic person to steer you through. Her unflappable nature and full understanding of our systems means she can fix a problem with the wave of her hand. And we challenge you to catch her not happy and smiling - we've yet to!
" We are overall very pleased with the quality and service and will continue to use Smiles at School ." - Nursery Manager
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Of course, like any professional photography company, all staff are covered by the relevant full public liability insurance, hold up-to-date DBS Checks, and work to current Safeguarding guidelines at all times.
But, at the end of the day, our customers’ feedback tells us whether we’ve hit their expectations, and more often than not, they are exceeded.
If you're looking for a new photography company to make your School or Nursery photos stand out, why not give us a try? Why not get in touch for a short meeting or discussion. We won't take up your whole day, but it might make the rest of your photo days much easier and - dare we say it - they might even bring a smile to your face!
"The overall quality of the image(s) is the best I’ve seen to date, the photographer must be quite talented as they have managed to capture some lovely expressions on the children that make the pictures quite special" Pre-School client
“Really, Really, Really pleased with my pictures, they are fantastic!! In fact when I looked at the photo of Alex and May together it made me teary! thank you so much Danny you have captured their characters just right” Family photography customer
"Lovely photo's my daughter is only 2 and a half but she loved having her photo taken because the man had a peppa pig and a monkey. Best photos we have had taken of her and would use this gentleman again." Toddler group parent
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Order Your School Photos HERE
