An artist himself, Rupert Potter (1832-1914) was probably the single greatest influence on his daughter's enduring passion for the arts and natural history and on her development as a writer and illustrator. Rupert took up photography in the 1860s when it was still a relatively new art form and was elected to the Photographic Society of London in 1869. An enthusiastic and skilled amateur, he later contributed to photographic exhibitions. Rupert's favourite subject was Beatrix herself. Photography was an expensive and laborious process yet she appears to have endured patiently the elaborate choreography and the camera’s uncomfortably long exposure. Rupert's prolific legacy of several hundred photographs forms a broad pictorial account of Beatrix’s life from infancy to marriage.

Prior to her marriage to William Heelis (1871-1945) in 1913, Beatrix was expected to accompany her parents and brother on extended summer holidays to Scotland and the Lake District. In 1909 the family rented Broad Leys, a house near Bowness on Windermere. While there Beatrix worked on her new story, The Tale of Ginger and Pickles, and regularly sent parcels of drawings to her publisher, Harold Warne. Beatrix was also in the process of buying a new farm in Sawrey, Castle Farm, and took the advice from her local solicitor, William Heelis, whom she later married.