about us

Playground Portraits was established in 2015 as the brainchild of Aurelie Kennedy & Ellie Cotton.

first we were professional photographers and friends

Back in 2015 we were professional photographers each running our own separate family and commercial photography businesses. On the parent grapevine we heard parents expressing they were tired of their white-background school photos produced by the large photography companies. Time and time again, parents said to us “it doesn’t even look like my child”.

we feel passionate about injecting personality in to school photos

Having worked photographing families outdoors for many years, we were intrigued what was missing in these school photos. And so we formed Playground Portraits to inject the style of our family photography businesses into school photography. We find that children show their emotions more freely in the relaxed location of the playground. We capture children’s natural expressions, and the beautiful backdrop is a obvious bonus.

school photography should be full of joy and capture a snapshot of childhood

We work as a team at most schools. We shoot together so you will meet us both on the day. At our largest schools we have associate photographers who work alongside us who are similarly experienced photographers to meet our exacting standards. We are both fully insured and DBS-checked for your peace of mind. All associate photographers are also DBS-checked. Safeguarding is our priority.