Jeannine Hellbach

Jeannine Hellbach is a wedding photographer based near Olten, in the canton of Solothurn, who works under the name jh photography and offers both photo and video coverage. She has photographed weddings for 10 years, and her pitch is simple: she stays discreetly in the background and goes through the day with the couple like a good friend, rather than staging long posed sessions while the guests wait. Her home ground is the stretch between Olten, Solothurn and Zofingen, but she travels across the Mittelland to Basel, Bern, Lucerne and Zurich on request, and her homepage adds, with some humor, that she will go as far as Las Vegas.

Style and approach

Hellbach writes that she thinks little of posed wedding photos where the guests have to wait endlessly for the couple. Instead she aims to show the couple from their natural side and the guests as they really are. The goal she names is an album that tells the story of the couple's love and wedding, one they will want to pick up again and again. That does not mean she avoids composition altogether: a separate section on creative wedding photos explains that she likes to use creative techniques for distinctive, artistic images while leaving plenty of room for spontaneity and real exuberance.

She also stresses adapting to the type of wedding. Her own examples make the point well: a dreamy wedding in a romantic hotel has to be photographed differently from a sporty wedding on a golf course, and a wedding in the style of the fifties differently from a down-to-earth celebration on a farm. The galleries on the homepage follow the same logic, with albums labeled sporty, summer and romantic, and wedding videos labeled winter, summer and city.

Where she works

Because she lives near Olten, she says she knows the relevant churches, civil registry offices and event venues in the area. For a couple planning from abroad, that local familiarity with Olten, Solothurn and Zofingen is the concrete benefit she offers. Beyond that core area, the footer lists the regions she serves: Aargau, Bern, Solothurn, Lucerne, Langenthal, Zurich, Basel-Landschaft, Basel and central Switzerland. The testimonials on her site come from couples who married at the Grandhotel Giessbach on Lake Brienz, in Basel and in Zurich, so her work already reaches well beyond her home district. Martina and Thomas, the Giessbach couple, wrote "Wir sind begeistert von den Fotos und dem Video!" (we are thrilled with the photos and the video).

Packages and prices

Unlike many Swiss photographers, Hellbach publishes her price points. For church weddings and free ceremonies at the weekend there are three packages, called Regular, Premium and First Class, starting from CHF 1,750 for the most affordable one. The Regular package covers the first look, a couple shoot, the ceremony, group photos, the apéro and delivery of the photos by cloud. Premium adds getting-ready coverage, the evening program and a photo storage box, and First Class adds a photo album and a second photographer on top of the getting-ready and evening coverage. The top package is described on the page as the all-round carefree option with 2 photographers and an elaborately designed album.

For civil ceremonies during the week she offers a particularly affordable package at CHF 980, covering the first look, a couple shoot, the ceremony, group photos, the apéro and cloud delivery. Video packages start at CHF 1,700 and can be added to any photo package. Every package includes a cloud download, and depending on the package there is also a wooden box with printed pictures or a finished album on premium photo paper. The exact contents of each package are explained in a personal meeting, after which she puts together a quote.

The second shooter and delivery

When she photographs a wedding into the evening, a second photographer, which she calls a second shooter, goes with her through the day. The advantage she names is that the couple gets pictures from different perspectives.

Delivery is one of the stronger points on the page. The couple receives the first photos the day after the wedding, ready to share with family and friends. The rest are put in the cloud for the couple and their guests to download within four to six weeks. She says she takes plenty of time for editing and for choosing the best frames.

Booking and contact

Hellbach puts communication first and says she takes a lot of time for personal advice, because photos only come out as the couple imagined when photographer and couple are on the same wavelength. The first meeting is free and non-binding: they talk through the wedding and the couple's wishes in detail, and the couple can then decide calmly whether to book her and which services to take. During the preparations couples can call her or send a WhatsApp message whenever questions come up. Her number, +41 79 811 03 69, appears throughout the page, and her email is info@jhphotography.ch.

What the site does not answer

The website is in German and does not say whether she works in English. That is the first thing for a couple from abroad to raise in the free meeting, especially if guests or the ceremony will be English-speaking. The page gives the starting price only for the Regular package, so the Premium and First Class prices come with the quote rather than from the website. It also does not state how many hours each package covers, what travel beyond her home region costs, or how far in advance she books up. The testimonials speak to a team in the plural, one of them ending "Herzlichen Dank euch beiden" (warm thanks to you both), yet the page does not say who works alongside her.

Who she suits

Hellbach suits couples marrying in the Olten, Solothurn and Aargau area, or elsewhere in the Mittelland, who want relaxed, natural pictures and a photographer who stays out of the way. Couples who want photos and video from one booking will find both here, and the published starting prices make early budgeting easier. Weekday civil ceremonies get their own lower-priced package, which is useful for couples who hold the legal wedding separately from a larger celebration. The main caveats for an international couple are the German-only website and the need for a quote before the higher packages have a price.