Amidst much disaster and sadness in the world, next month there will be much joy and happiness in the United Kingdom, and maybe some parts of the Commonwealth, Australia included.

I’m guessing you already know about the upcoming royal wedding of William and Kate.

Question is, what does it take to be the royal wedding photographer?

I spent about 5 minutes searching Google for any images of Charles and Dianas’ wedding, just to see how their wedding pictures would have looked like. Not much luck unfortunately, except for some shots of them waving and one kissing on the balcony. Not sure why there weren’t much either. But I did find this lovely shot, and their stamps.

copyright unknown

I figure probably they’ll release a set of stamps for William and Kate too. Anyway, back in December you’ll probably remember these two engagement photos, taken by well-known fashion photographer Mario Testino. The Peruvian-born photographer has taken pictures of royalty before, namely William, Harry, the late Diana, and a few others.

© Mario Testino

There were some mixed reviews about the pictures (see The Guardian and The Telegraph), but I guess at least they did look happy and healthy. Maybe that’s just what every couple wants.

A bit more Googling reveals that Mario will not be the official photographer, and Hugo Burnand has been chosen for the role, the same photographer for Charles and Camilla’s wedding, and Charles’ 60th birthday portrait. Not much of a website, but I guess you don’t need websites when you have the royal family.

© Hugo Burnand. The right picture of Charles is amazing. Powerful, yet relaxed.

I found out recently that Professional Photographer Magazine did a fun article too – asking some big names in the wedding photography industry (namely Crash Taylor, Jasmine Star and Yervant) on how they’d compete to get that gig. Feel free to buy it off the under-administration Borders.

I still haven’t answered the question. Whatever it is, it would take lots of skill, guts and charm. Skill to pull it off, guts to face the critiques and the royals, and charm to get them all to behave in the manner you want them to.

Note: Obviously this post is quite outdated, but if you’re curious, Amateur Photographer magazine (June issue) has a feature on what it’s like to be a photographer on that wedding day (not the royal photographer).