‘I love Zoë's photographs: they have real warmth, personality, energy and beauty. I take a lot of pictures of my children myself, but her portraits have a professional's eye and focus an amateur can't get: we'll enjoy them hugely ourselves, and they'll also make great gifts for grandparents. It makes a nice change to see myself in family photographs for once, with my girls and my husband. Epping Forest in November was an inspired choice of location, full of colour, and the children were relaxed and enjoyed the whole experience: Zoë did very well to dodge some fairly hammy poses from my 5 year old - she is a very easy-going and sympathetic presence.’
Melissa, London
‘I have fortunately not only seen Zoë’s magnificent photographs but had the opportunity of having my little boy’s pictures taken. Zoë is a naturalist and has a beautiful eye for detail. The simplest of objects or scenes have so much emotion and beauty in them. My friends have commented endlessly on my little boy’s pictures taken by Zoë, she seems to capture all the perfect moments. Thank you!!’
Zara, Penarth
‘I've had photographs done in a studio before, where it felt like Isaac was being forced into smiling and being cute, when in actual fact he just wanted to play with the props or eat. It always ended in meltdown and a few photos where you could see the tears in his little eyes.
Our photo shoot with Zoe was totally different. Isaac was just having fun and being himself, which meant the photographs Zoë took were just all about him.
Zoë manages to capture the essence or spirit of a child or an event in a very special way. As a mum, you instinctively know if your child is having fun or being himself, and this comes across in Zoë's portraits. They are natural, real and full of spirit - just like your baby!’
Karen, Epping
‘I am pretty sceptical about kid’s photography as with the evolution of digital technology, I feel that we can be overloaded with the need to ‘capture the moment’. I also didn’t like the staged look that you have with studio pictures. Whenever I see them, the people in the picture don’t resemble the people I know. Either because of a staged/false smile or an unnatural pose. We also had an experience where after a photo shoot with one photographer, we were given the hard sell and told “they don’t stay like this forever so you don’t want to miss out on some pictures”. So when Karen said she had met another photographer, I wasn’t really interested in more of the same. What a surprise though. Zoë took some pictures of our son in the forest and the playground. They looked fantastic and how I see my son. He looked natural, and she captured all the subtle expressions. The studio experiences yielded about a handful of pictures that we wanted to keep. However we wanted to keep nearly all of the pictures that Zoë took.’
Chris, Epping