• Chris Jackson has photographed King Charles and Queen Camilla for the last 20 years.
• In an interview with Insider, Jackson shared his favorite candid photos from the coronation weekend.
• He caught a tender moment between Charles and William, and a rare photo on the palace balcony.

Royal photographer Chris Jackson has been working nonstop since King Charles III’s coronation weekend began, photographing engagements and receptions before Saturday’s ceremony and the celebrations afterwards.

As someone who has spent the last 20 years photographing royal-family members — and published three photography books featuring his images of the royals — Jackson knows the importance of being in the right place at the right time.

“You can’t be everywhere all at the same time, so you really do have to pick your moments,” he told Insider.

Jackson shared his favorite candid photos from the coronation festivities and how they came to be.

The use of commercial photography hides can be a controversial subject amongst wildlife photographers. In this article, I discuss the pros of such hides and how they can help you photograph those more elusive animals.

In order to take a deep dive into the pros of commercial photography hides, we should first take a look at why these hides can be controversial among wildlife photographers and nature lovers. Baiting is one of the main reasons why photography hides can be frowned upon. Baiting is when food is used to attract wildlife. Often, this can be various foods such as seeds, meat and fish, depending on the target subject. The even more controversial part of baiting is live food, as this could harm the animal that you are wishing to attract.

Leaving food out for wildlife can allow the animal to become over-reliant on the food source and lose their natural instincts across generations. In London, for example, urban foxes have become too accustomed to going through bins or being fed by people in their back gardens. Of course, they will still hunt rodents, etc., but this practice has helped shape the bold nature of urban foxes in London and other cities to date.

When food is provided for a species, it is my belief that it should only ever be supplementary to the animal’s diet. This would be similar to having a bird feeder in your garden. The birds will enjoy the seeds and mealworms you leave out; however they should be actively seeking their usual food such as worms, insects, and berries.

So, after all that, what are the pros? 

It’s Quicker (Usually)

Paid wildlife photography hides offer their clients an opportunity to see a particular subject quicker than what you may see if you went looking for yourself. If you work full-time or have kids or other duties, you may not always have the time available to spend days upon end using field craft to find a species, let alone set up an environment fit for a fantastic composition.

For years, I struggled to find and photograph a Kingfisher. I would only ever catch brief glimpses, and no matter what I did, I could never get the images I wanted. After searching online for helpful information, I found a hide which offered the opportunity of seeing and photographing Kingfishers, so I decided to check it out, and within 30 minutes, a Kingfisher landed on a perch set up in front of the hide, only 4 or 5 meters away from me. For the rest of the day, the Kingfisher kept coming back, and I had the chance to use different perches in between visits so I could have a variation of images from my day. 

Another species I wanted to photograph was the Sparrowhawk. These are elusive birds of prey, and like Kingfishers, you may only ever catch a fleeting glimpse of one. I used the same company as above, as this was also another animal they advertised. I arrived at the hide at 7:30 am in the morning, ready to go. As the day progressed, we had a variety of woodland birds visit the hide, which allowed me to work on my settings and composition while I waited patiently for the star of the show.

Hours went by and still no sign of the Sparrowhawk, would I get to see it? Then, at almost 5 pm, after many hours in the hide and just before I was thinking about calling it a day and other customers had left the hide, the Sparrowhawk landed on a perch and helped itself to the dead bird that had been left for it. I was giddy with excitement at seeing this amazing bird and captured as many photos as I could in the five minutes it stayed for. It was a very long day for that brief encounter, but for me, the experience was worth it just to see this magnificent bird close up.

It’s Accessible

Not all photographers are fully fit and able to wander through harsh environments trying to track and photograph certain species, and not all locations are going to be wheelchair accessible, etc. Certain hides can be right next to a small parking area, allowing easy access for all customers. I have a condition known as Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, which causes havoc on my joints, and I’m not always able to climb over slippery rocks looking for otters in fear of hurting myself. However, at one hide, I was able to park right outside the hide door, and within an hour, I had a family of otters right in front of me, helping themselves to fish that had been left for them to eat. The otters were so close, I was shooting at no more than 200mm.

Practice Makes Perfect

Visiting hides isn’t just about photographing elusive species or accessibility. Hides also act as a great way of practicing photography, having an opportunity to test out your camera or new lens in a semi-controlled environment, and potentially meet new people, learning tips and tricks. Photography hides are often set up in the animals’ territory, e.g. for Kingfishers, the hide will be right next to a river. This means that not only should you see a Kingfisher, but you may see other species such as herons, egrets, and other creatures great and small. If you notice that your first images were soft or too underexposed, you may not have too long to wait before the next chance presents itself, and after a full day at a hide, you should have plenty of images to go through for your personal portfolio.

Conclusion

Paid hides certainly have significant benefits and also clearly have downsides in regards to baiting practices. These hides allow fantastic experiences for all levels of photographers and bring nature closer to you. They are an amazing day out for anyone interested in wildlife photography and you can use the hide as a tool, to practice, learn about new animals, and take that knowledge out into the field with you. I believe that an ethical and moral approach should be used by the owner of the hides, and often, those who run the hides are very passionate about the animals they are attracting. I will always recommend that should you wish to visit a hide, be sure to do your research. At the end of the day, the animals’ welfare is paramount over any image. When done correctly, these hides are brilliant.

From using jelly beans to keep young Royals in line to nearly turning down his big shot: Meet the photographer who has been immortalising the King and his family for two decades

• Hugo Burnand, 59, is the only portrait photographer with a King’s Royal Warrant
• He said he uses jelly beans to keep his subjects in line while photographing them

By Vanessa Allen

Published: 15:49 EDT, 8 May 2023 | Updated: 15:59 EDT, 8 May 2023

Society photographer Hugo Burnand has a secret weapon when it comes to portraits of the Royal Family – jelly beans. 

He used bowls of the sweets to keep William and Kate’s bridesmaids and page boys in line while photographing them with the royal couple at their wedding. 

Mr Burnand has not said whether he has used the trick on any of his other subjects, however. 

These include the late Queen, Baroness Thatcher, former US President Bill Clinton and artist Lucian Freud. 

The father-of-four has had an enormous amount of success regardless – he is now the only portrait photographer with a Royal Warrant given by the King.

He has been capturing royal portraits for almost two decades. But he first turned down the opportunity that launched him into his career as a royal photographer – Charles’ wedding to Camilla wedding in 2005. 

Mr Burnand, a society photographer for Tatler magazine, had taken a career break to take his young children to South America for six months in 2004. 

Disaster struck when thieves stole the family’s money, passports and Mr Burnand’s camera equipment. 

It was only when the photographer found an internet cafe to try to contact his insurers that he saw an email from Clarence House, asking him to get in touch. 

Mr Burnand initially said no to the job but said he realised while trekking in the jungle that he had just turned down the chance of a lifetime – the future King’s wedding.

This change of heart changed his life and he has since photographed William and Kate’s 2011 wedding, and taken official portraits of Charles on his 60th and 70th birthdays, and of Charles and Camilla in the run-up to the Coronation. 

He also photographed the Princess Royal to mark her 70th birthday, and took the official pictures for the wedding of Lady Gabriella Windsor in 2019. 

Mr Burnand, 59, has said he likes his portraits to have an ‘approachable’ quality and wants viewers to feel ‘you are almost talking to the person’. 

However, his method has had to accommodate for the second-by-second precision of royal events, for which Mr Burnand has to prepare rigorously. 

He and his stepmother Ursy Burnand, who is also a photographer, rehearsed for William and Kate’s wedding for more than three weeks, taking over the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace.

Knowing they could not over-run by a moment, they used stopwatches and Palace staff to rehearse the group photographs as they knew they would have only 26 minutes before an RAF flypast for which the entire family had to appear on the balcony. 

‘We had spares for everything and then spares for the spares,’ Mr Burnand said in an interview. 

‘We did dress rehearsals with stopwatches using endless staff from Buckingham Palace to fill in as family members, so we knew we had just enough time.’ 

He said bowls of various sweets were on hand for the young bridesmaids and page boys, telling Tatler magazine: ‘We had bowls full of jelly beans and other sweets as rewards. Interestingly, all the jelly beans disappeared, although I’m not convinced it was only the little people who ate them.’ 

Born in Cannes, France, Mr Burnand was raised in Berkshire and went to Cheam School in Headley, Hampshire, the prep school attended by the King and the late Duke of Edinburgh. 

He won his first photography competition at the school, aged seven, and practised his skills while at Harrow, taking portraits of school-leavers. 

His mother Susan Gordon was killed in a car crash in 1964, the year after he was born, and he was raised by his father Peter and his stepmother Ursy, from whom he learned his early photography skills. 

After working as a stable hand and then as an insurance broker at Lloyd’s of London, he became a professional photographer at 27 and worked as Tatler’s society photographer for its Bystander party column for more than 20 years.

He took the photos at David and Samantha Cameron’s wedding in 1996 and his other famous subjects include Spike Milligan, Victoria Beckham and Michael Jackson. 

But he is best known for his images of the Royal Family, following in the footsteps of Cecil Beaton, who photographed Queen Elizabeth II after her 1953 Coronation. 

Mr Burnand said he had spent weeks studying images from past coronations, including the portraits of the late Queen. 

Beaton later revealed in his diaries that he had such nerves about the 1953 Coronation that he drank heavily the night before and woke up badly hung over.

When he came to the task, he feared he had the lighting wrong but realised he did not have time to change anything. 

He wrote: ‘I was banging away and getting pictures at a great rate. I had only the foggiest notion of whether I was taking black and white, or colour, or giving the right exposures.’ 

The Associated Press was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography on Monday in recognition of 15 searing images that rendered in real-time the devastating human toll of the war in Ukraine.

The winning package included an image of emergency workers carrying a pregnant woman – who later died — through the shattered grounds of a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in the chaotic aftermath of a Russian attack.

Another showed Russia’s brutal monthlong occupation of Bucha in a chilling still-life — a dog standing next to the body of an elderly woman who has been killed.

And another captured an elderly woman kneeling in agony next to the coffin of her son in the cemetery of Mykulychi, on the outskirts of Kyiv.

While AP photographers made countless images of horrifying, haunting and heartbreaking scenes of war, they also stood witness to the profound courage of soldiers and ordinary people.

Below is a photo gallery that showcases the Pulitzer-winning work of AP photographers Evgeniy Maloletka, Emilio Morenatti, Vadim Ghirda, Rodrigo Abd, Felipe Dana, Nariman El-Mofty, Bernat Armangue.

A woman crying in front of a destroyed apartment. Bodies thrown into a mass grave. A pregnant woman on a stretcher outside of a bombed maternity hospital; she will die soon after the photo is taken.

The images from the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine shocked the world last spring, showing the gruesome realities of the war and sending aid surging to Ukraine. More images came as the devastation spread to cities whose names the world quickly learned — Mariupol, Kharkiv, Kyiv and Bucha — as media coverage persisted to give the world a clear picture of the onslaught.

That work has won the photography staff of The Associated Press the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News coverage “for unique and urgent images from the first weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including the devastation of Mariupol after other news organizations left, victims of Russian targeting of civilian infrastructure and the resilience of the Ukrainian people who were able to flee,” the Pulitzer Board’s citation reads.

Keep reading to see the images from the AP’s winning Pulitzer entry, including images from AP photographers Felipe Dana, Evgeniy Maloletka, Emilio Morenatti, Vadim Ghirda, Rodrigo Abd, Nariman El-Mofty and Bernat Armangue.

Warning: these images contain graphic content.

Ukrainian emergency personnel and police officers evacuate injured pregnant woman Iryna Kalinina, 32, from a maternity hospital that was damaged by a Russian airstrike in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 9, 2022. “Kill me now!” she screamed, as they struggled to save her life at another hospital even closer to the frontline. The baby was born dead, and a half-hour later, Iryna died too. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

FILE – Ukrainians crowd under a destroyed bridge as they try to flee crossing the Irpin river in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 5, 2022. War has been a catastrophe for Ukraine and a crisis for the globe. One year on, thousands of civilians are dead, and countless buildings have been destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of troops have been killed or wounded on each side. Beyond Ukraine’s borders, the invasion shattered European security, redrew nations’ relations with one another and frayed a tightly woven global economy. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)

FILE – Natali Sevriukova reacts next to her house following a rocket attack the city of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 25, 2022. The yearlong war in Ukraine has left tens of thousands of dead and wounded on both sides, disrupted energy and food supplies, and reduced whole cities to ruins. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)

An explosion erupts from an apartment building at 110 Mytropolytska St., after a Russian army tank fired on it in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 11, 2022. On the seventh floor of the building, two elderly women Lydya and Nataliya were stuck in their apartment because they couldn’t make it down to the shelter, and were killed in the explosion. The two heavily burned bodies were buried by neighbors in front of the building. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Medical workers unsuccessfully try to save the life of Marina Yatsko’s 18-month-old son Kirill, who was fatally wounded by shelling, at a hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – Lifeless bodies of men, some with their hands tied behind their backs lie on the ground in Bucha, Ukraine, Sunday, April 3, 2022. Associated Press journalists in Bucha, a small city northwest of Kyiv, saw the bodies of at least nine people in civilian clothes who appeared to have been killed at close range. At least two had their hands tied behind their backs. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

FILE – Nadiya Trubchaninova, 70, cries while holding the coffin of her son Vadym, 48, who was killed by Russian soldiers last March 30 in Bucha, during his funeral in the cemetery of Mykulychi, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, April 16, 2022. Trubchaninova hitchhiked daily from her village to the shattered town of Bucha trying to bring her son’s body home for burial. On the northwestern fringes of the Ukrainian capital, Bucha had been occupied by Russian forces for about a month, taken as they swept toward Kyiv at the start of the invasion of Ukraine that began in late February 2022. When they withdrew, they left behind scenes of horror. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)

66-year-old Volodymyr, injured from a strike, sits on a chair in his damaged apartment, in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, July 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

FILE – A dog stands next to the body of an elderly woman killed inside a house in Bucha, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 5, 2022. Russians hunted people on lists prepared by their intelligence services and went door to door to identify potential threats. As their advance to Kyiv stalled and losses mounted, Russian troops continued to cleanse the streets of Bucha and surrounding towns with rising levels of sometimes drunken violence. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)

A woman walks amid destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A resident wounded after a Russian attack lies inside an ambulance before being taken to a hospital in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A man runs after recovering items from a burning shop following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Anastasia Ohrimenko, 26, is comforted by relatives and friends as she mourns the loss of her husband, Yury Styglyuk, a Ukrainian serviceman who died in combat on August 24 in Maryinka, Donetsk, during his funeral in Bucha, Ukraine, on Aug. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Bodies are placed into a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

The San Francisco Chronicle has been named a finalist for two 2023 Pulitzer Prizes. The Chronicle was honored for its investigation into the crisis inside city-funded permanent supportive housing for homeless people and for its photography of the ongoing fentanyl epidemic.

The Chronicle was honored in the Investigative Reporting category for its three-part series “Broken Homes,” reported by Trisha Thadani and Joaquin Palomino, which revealed how San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s administration has failed to adequately oversee the century-old single-room-occupancy hotels, or SROs, it relies on to house the city’s most vulnerable residents. 

These days, anyone can be a photographer with a smartphone. But what exactly makes a great photographer?

Photography is an art form that allows us to capture and preserve memories, tell stories, and express ourselves in unique and creative ways. A great photographer is someone who not only knows how to take a good photo but also has a keen eye for composition, lighting, and storytelling. Let’s discuss the 5 key attributes of a great photographer: creativity, technical skill, adaptability, attention to detail, and patience.

As simple as it may sound, a great photographer is someone who can produce great photographs on a consistent basis. So, what is a great photograph? A great photograph is one that evokes emotion, tells a story, or captures a moment in a unique and powerful way. A great photographer also knows how to take care of exposure, composition, and focus.

There are many different types of photography, each with its own unique characteristics and techniques. Some of the most popular types include portrait, landscape, product, wildlife, street, food, action, and scientific photography. No matter the type, however, photography is a form of art. As such, it’s important to note that what makes a good photograph is subjective and can be different for various people in various contexts, just as great art is defined differently by different people. Therefore, a photograph that is considered amazing by one person may not be considered as such by another person and that is okay.

1. Creativity

There are thousands of professional photographers out there and millions more who own a camera. So what makes one stand apart from the crowd? A great photographer has a creative eye for composition, perspective, and lighting that sets them apart from others. They have the ability to see the world in a unique way and capture it in a way that is visually interesting and pleasing.

The first step in becoming more creative is believing that we are. We all possess originality within us that is within our reach but accessing and expressing creativity is a muscle that can be strengthened. The best way to do this is through practice and consistency. With time, your unique vision can manifest through your photography in a way that distinguishes your images from others.

A wildly creative photographer to take as an example is Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), one of Magnum Photos’s co-founders. When talking about his photography, he said, for me, the camera is a sketchbook, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression.

A great photographer has a strong understanding of the technical aspects of photography, including manual camera settings, lighting, and post-processing. They are able to use these technical skills to create images that are well-exposed and sharp while expressing the desired mood.

The first step to consider when it comes to technical skill is mastering the exposure triangle, which includes aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. These three elements control the exposure of an image and work together to determine the amount of light that enters the camera and reaches the sensor, resulting in a properly exposed image. Simple composition techniques, such as the rule of thirds, leading lines, and framing, can also be very helpful to think about when taking a photo. When combined with the concept of the exposure triangle, composition techniques can equip you with a really solid foundation.

Another important aspect of becoming a great photographer is to become skillful in post-processing. Using platforms such as Lightroom and Photoshop allows photographers to enhance their photos and bring out their full potential. When used in conjunction with good camera skills, post-processing can be used to correct technical issues such as exposure, color balance, and sharpness, as well as to add creative elements such as contrast, saturation, and filters.

3. Adaptability 

The next thing that makes a great photographer is the skill of adaptability. Adaptability is an important quality for a photographer to have because photography often involves working in a wide range of situations and environments. A great photographer should be able to adapt to different lighting conditions, weather, and unexpected events while still being able to produce great images.

For example, a photographer shooting a portrait outside on a sunny day may need to adapt to changing weather conditions, such as moving the shoot indoors or finding shade if the sun becomes too bright. A wedding photographer may need to adapt to a last-minute change in the ceremony schedule or the sudden appearance of a distracting element in the background of a photo. Adaptability also applies to being able to work with different types of subjects and clients. An adaptable and cooperative photographer is able to connect with their subjects and understand what makes them unique, and thus be able to create images that are meaningful, unique, candid, and interesting.

A great photographer pays attention to the small details in their images, making sure that everything is in focus, properly exposed, and composed.

Attention to detail is an important attribute to apply both when shooting and in the post-processing stage. While a photographer must be able to quickly notice and act upon small things like the balance of colors, lighting, and the comfort level of the subject during a shoot, they must also take the time to carefully edit their photos, making sure that the colors are accurate, the exposure is correct, and that the image is as sharp as possible.

At the end of the day, photography is a visual art form. Having the ability to pick out perfect details is an important part of distinguishing your work from those of others. To start, try capturing the small, often overlooked elements in a scene to make your photograph stand out and experiment along the way.

For example, a photographer may notice that a leaf on a tree is in the perfect position to add a pop of color to an otherwise dull landscape or that a person in the background of a portrait is making a unique facial expression that adds to the overall mood of the image. Having a keen eye for detail can ensure that the photographer does not miss these great opportunities.

5. Patience 

Lastly, patience. A great photographer must be patient when shooting their photographs, being able to wait for the right moment to capture the perfect photo, as well as over the long term as they hone in and fine-tune their skills and craft. In a shoot, a nature photographer might need to wait for hours, or even days, to capture the perfect shot of a rare bird or animal. Likewise, a street photographer might need to wait for the right person to walk into the frame, for the right expression to appear on a person’s face, or for the clouds to provide the perfect lighting that they are waiting for. A portrait photographer, on the other hand, might need to wait until their subject is relaxed enough to be able to capture a candid expression.

In the long run, a great photographer should bank on consistency and patience. Mastering technical skills takes time and comparing one’s novice photographs to the expert photographs of another is a mistake made by one too many. Becoming a great photographer happens over time, and patience is an important part of not giving up too early.

One part of becoming a great photographer comes from studying the work of other photographers that we admire so that we can learn from their successes and mistakes. Analyzing the direction of light, the angle of the camera, and the overall mood of famous photographs is a great way to add some depth and style to your photos.

To do that, here are some photographers to learn more about: Ansel Adams, Irving Penn, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Dorothea Lange, Robert Capa, and Annie Leibovitz.

These are just a few examples of photographers who are considered to be among the greatest of all time. There are many other photographers whose work is also highly respected and whose contributions to the art of photography have been significant. Studying the composition and the nature of the work of these photographers can be an excellent way to become a great photographer yourself.

It is also important to seek feedback on your own work and be open to constructive criticism. If photography is something that you enjoy, you can network with other photographers in your area to gain inspiration and feedback from them. Networking with people in related fields, such as photo editors and art directors, can also help you to get your work seen by more people and potentially lead to new opportunities.

…it was a wonderful trip and as always it is good to be back home. The show went well and I hope to have the link to it soon … then there was the days of shooting and fun with family that followed. Last Thursday it was off to Filoli Gardens in the morning and from there to the Stanford Mall for more flower shooting. For years my daughter has been telling me how beautiful the flowers were at the Stanford Mall and I was about to find out.

A constant during my visit was rainfall … along the coast, inland, it didn’t matter and the terrific thing is that all the flowers had droplets of water on them.

The shot above Scabiosa Fama is from the Stanford Mall and I was absolutely amazed at all of the flowers that are on display there. A great place for the whole family … the photographer in the family will have endless beautiful flowers to shoot and the rest of the family can spend the family fortune in the seemingly endless number of high end stores in the mall. Seems to me that the Mall may well be the place of choice for the family outing.

Filoli as always has an endless array of flower beds in bloom and who can dispute the beauty for all to enjoy. It is a step back into a different way of life and not in an unpleasant way.

So you choose … hard to pass either of them up … shoot Filoli in the morning and shoot your wallet at the Stanford Mall in the afternoon 🙂

Have a beautiful day … keep breathing and smile!

Cheers,

Ted

Filled with dreams and songs of love, I wander
afield.

Meditation, softened by the peaceful lands of grain and
the illimitable blue sea overhead, draws my heart to
my lips as one whose talent is in song.

I yield to the thousand felicities of this transport, like a
child led by his father’s hand; and no questions darken
this day of my content.

Afield by Max Ehrmann

###

The easiest way to reach Mr. Grussing is by email: ted@tedgrussing.com

In addition to sales of photographs already taken Ted does special shoots for patrons on request and also does air-to-air photography for those who want photographs of their airplanes in flight. All special photographic sessions are billed on an hourly basis.

Ted also does one-on-one workshops for those interested in learning the techniques he uses.  By special arrangement Ted will do one-on-one aerial photography workshops which will include actual photo sessions in the air.

More about Ted Grussing …