UK News

from Photographers Blog:

The Royal couple say “I will” and I won’t (…be photographed)

The dust settles in London as scaffolding, media platforms and gantries are dismantled and the world’s news organizations pack up and leave town. Their job complete with hundreds of news programs run, and countless special supplements and newspaper and magazine fronts globally filled with memorable photographs from the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29th.

I was one of the Reuters photographers assigned to an official spot and ringside view: outside of Westminster Abbey as the happy couple emerged immediately after the actual ceremony. Light cloud gave good even light and an unfettered view meant after months of team preparation and logistical headaches, me and my colleagues/rivals in our spot got the right frames transmitted in speedy time for that part of the day and the Palace got the images of record they wanted.

Job done.

36 hours earlier, after 10 hours perched precariously high up on a set of steps shooting between narrow iron railings, in the fading light on a handheld 500mm lens with 2 x converter, through two side windows of a couple of police vans positioned to prevent news media getting a picture, I took the second frame of William, Kate and best man Prince Harry. They were 200 meters away, walking into a discreet back entrance to Westminster Abbey to conduct a last minute rehearsal of the wedding ceremony.

from Photographers Blog:

The view from inside the Abbey

There were probably more than a billion people who would’ve loved to have been inside Westminster Abbey to see Prince William marry Kate Middleton and to soak up the glamor of what was, for a day, the world’s biggest news story.

I was lucky enough to be assigned a position inside the abbey, but though I got to witness the spectacle through a camera lens, my experience was less about pomp and pageantry and more about perils and pratfalls.

With the congregation dolled up to the nines, even the photographers were expected to smarten up. Abbey staff told us to wear “a suit and tie or female equivalent”. Dressed accordingly in my smartest jacket and skirt, I felt the part – right up until I saw the ladders.

To get to my position, a rickety, three-story high balcony perched above the abbey’s main doorway, I would have to scale a series of steep, metal-rung ladders. I would have to scale them carrying a heavy camera bag behind me -- wearing a skirt.

It was hard work, but myself and the six other photographers assigned to the spot worked like a team of Himalayan sherpas to ferry all our gear up the ladders. After 15 stressful minutes of hauling and holding on for dear life, I was safely at the top.

from Photographers Blog:

Completing the Royal puzzle

As dawn broke over Westminster Abbey on Friday, myself and the other Reuters photographers were already on our way to our positions for the big day. With no donkey in sight, it already felt like we had done a days work by the time we got there.

Those of us with fixed positions on media gantries could access them from 6am which seems plenty of time for an 11 am start. But with the abbey doors opening from just after 8am and the guests starting to arrive shortly after it didn't allow for much time for us to set up all the equipment and ensure our various editors around the world could see our pictures.

It wasn't good for the blood pressure when we discovered the internet connection we had installed outside the abbey for myself, Kai and Toby Melville (who would shoot the key head on picture of the couple leaving as man and wife), had failed overnight and it was a frantic hour or so while replacement parts were sought and installed by our technical team. As with most assignments like this, the on day reality of the event often bears little resemblance to how it appeared in rehearsal or the day earlier.

from Photographers Blog:

Final preparations for the big day

The guest list was finalized weeks ago and the invitations sent out. For the lucky ones their presence was requested, nobody refused.

There was no fancily decorated envelope from the lord chancellors office landing on our doormat, but an email from the UK chief photographer asking you to be part of the Reuters team to shoot William and Kate's wedding is an invitation you don't turn down.

It's like any other wedding in many respects; you worry about what to wear. How do you keep dry and warm whilst dressing for a wedding? Not as easy task.

And then it comes to where will you sit and who will you sit with; please not annoying Aunty Betty and Uncle Jim, well in this case which position will I get and what will I see?

For myself I was not disappointed, there was no Aunty Betty to worry about, I was given a prime position near the abbey and would be sharing it with my good friend and Reuters Frankfurt photographer Kai Pfaffenbach.

from The Great Debate:

Why the royal wedding is not so royal

By Dan Friedman The opinions expressed are his own.

July 29, 1981 was a beautiful day for playing soccer. The sun was bright, the sky was blue and, like a schoolboy’s dream, the normally crowded streets were empty, making the whole world a soccer field. The only drawback was that I had to make my own sandwiches for lunch because my mum was otherwise occupied, glued to the television.

It was the day of The Royal Wedding, when the definite article was resounding. Television in a hundred countries played nothing else and chinaware in a million British households carried the imprint of a fresh-faced Lady Di opposite her less fresh, famously big-eared groom. The eyes of the world were on England and the eyes of England were on the thronged streets through which the royal carriages would proceed with pomp and ceremony.

In 1981 I didn’t care because I didn’t know enough to appreciate its moment in history. I still don’t care to this day because the last three decades have seen the drastic devaluation of the importance of such an event. Three and a half royal weddings (if you include Charles’s marriage to Camilla as a half), two royal divorces and a tragic royal death have made royal dramas almost commonplace. Moreover, royalty doesn’t command the premium it once did.

Back when the Windsors were still called Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and could hide in their palaces with their privacy intact, they could pretend to be dignified, but, after Prince Philip’s racist remarks, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s sordid financial bloopers and Prince Charles’s well-aired desire to be Camilla’s tampon there’s not much romance or respect left for them.

from Photographers Blog:

A Royal prayer to the weather gods

It can't be very often that I have the same thought as Prince William, or indeed his fiance Kate Middleton. But after today's visit to Darwen in northern England I'm sure there was at least one point, as the rain bounced off the pavement, that we were all thinking the same thing; I hope the weather is better than this on the 29th!

It was billed as the couples last public engagement before the big day and myself and Reuters colleague Darren Staples had arrived at our separate venues early in the morning to set up and claim our positions.

Security and competition from other photographers means the call time is usually at least a couple of hours before the VIP's arrival. This is fine when the weather is on your side, but after a gloriously sunny weekend England's famed April showers chose today to put in an appearance and soaked us to the bone.

When covering football as a photographer you are always prepared for sudden changes in the weather, but protocol dictates that waterproof trousers and hiking boots aren't usually de rigeur for royal visits and smart attire is neither comfortable or waterproof.

Keeping your cameras dry is the main priority in these situations so with rain covers applied and them tucked under umbrellas for safety the only thing is to tough it out and get wet. The last thing you want to hear from the palace PR team is they are running late, but late they were. It was only 15 minutes but long enough to ensure that by the time they arrived the rain had finally penetrated my gore-tex jacket and the puddles in my shoes were ready to accept fish.

from Royal Wedding Diary:

Press faces royal wedding day dilemmas

Media companies, particularly from Britain and North America, are pouring a lot of resources into covering the April 29 wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton in London. The amount of money they are spending, and the temptation to decide what their millions of viewers want to see, could cloud editorial judgment on the day should things not go according to plan.

One potential problem could be if a small number of protesters turn violent, and attempt to "hijack" an event which the British government believes will be watched in some shape or form by more than a quarter of the Earth's population. This happened only recently in London when a march by up to half a million people protesting at spending cuts by the government was overshadowed by the violent actions of a few hundred "radicals". The British broadcasters generally focussed more closely on the few than on the many, but would they do the same later this month?

Certainly the royal press teams and the monarch herself will be keen for media companies to stay "on message". They will see the wedding of the generally popular young couple as a good opportunity to bolster the royal family, and anything to spoil the big day would irk them no end. So far the press has been generally compliant, giving Middleton and William a relatively easy ride and producing overwhelmingly positive coverage of the marriage. Of course, there may be no violence on the day at all, but were things to turn nasty, would the broadcasters point their cameras away from the pomp and pageantry of the royal occasion to capture smashed windows and police in riot gear?

Another temptation may be to give the impression that there are more people lining the streets than is actually the case. There is no particular reason to doubt the event will be well attended (the wedding between Prince Charles and Diana drew an estimated crowd of 600,000 people to the streets of central London), but should it "flop" in terms of numbers, would this be accurately reflected in coverage? Graham Smith, who heads up the anti-monarchy Republic group, said he would be watching broadcasters like the BBC carefully on the day, ready to make a formal complaint if what he sees on his TV screen does not reflect what is going on on the street.

from Photographers Blog:

Bring your Granny to work day

With a month to go before the big day the British media is revving up its engine and increasing the output of wedding related stories. The head chef and household staff at Buckingham house have been filmed preparing food and readying carriages and companies making souvenirs ranging from plates and mugs to beer and sweets have been splashed across the evening news and morning papers.

In a recent interview given by the Prince he admitted to feeling a bit nervous ahead of the big day and even suffered from a mild bout of 'knee-knocking' at a recent wedding rehearsal.

Perhaps it was for this reason that his grandmother decided to 'pop in' and see how he was settling in to his new job as a search and rescue pilot with the Royal Air Force based on the North Wales island of Anglesey.

The blue skies and bright sunshine evidenced a few weeks earlier when William and his fiancee had named a lifeboat nearby had been replaced by slate grey skies and strong winds for the visit of the Queen to RAF Valley. As the monarch arrived the 40-50 mph gusts nearly gave the Prince his first rescue of the day as she struggled to hold on to her hat.

from Royal Wedding Diary:

Can cops stop royal wedding trouble?

Will Prince William and Kate Middleton's big day be overshadowed by a minority of protesters smashing up central London and attacking police?

That's the fear of ministers and senior officers after a few hundred anarchists broke off from a mass march by unions through central London at the weekend and smashed the front of shops, banks, and the exclusive Ritz hotel among others.

Instead of pictures of the happy couple waving to crowds as they ride in a carriage from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace, the worry is hundreds of millions of global TV viewers will instead be treated to images of black-clad protesters scuffling with officers.

It wouldn't be the first time that those angry with the government's public spending cuts and tax rises have taken out their anger on the royal family.

During rioting last December, the limo carrying William's father Prince Charles and his wife Camilla was attacked, and Camilla reportedly poked with a stick through an open window.

So concerned are the government that Home Secretary Theresa May has asked police, already faced with the major headache that Islamist militants might target the event, if they need new powers to prevent any trouble erupting.

But is there really much the police can do if they are faced with some people determined to cause problems without resorting to an over-the-top strategy that could do more harm than good?

from Fan Fare:

Parents cashing in on royal couple?

The parents of Prince William and Kate Middleton have not missed the marketing opportunity their children's upcoming royal wedding presents.

Middleton's family, which runs a party paraphernalia company called Party Pieces, has begun stocking regal trivia cards with crowns to scratch off and retailing at 3.99 pounds for a pack of 10. The cards, added to a range of products on offer for street parties -- expected to be held up and down the country on the day of the wedding -- have left the Middletons open to criticism that they are tastelessly cashing in on their daughter's marriage to the second in line to the throne.

Now Prince William's father Charles has hit the headlines after a jigsaw puzzle featuring a photograph of the young couple went on sale at the shop of his Gloucestershire home Highgrove. The wooden set is priced at 29.95 pounds, and while other wedding-related gifts are already available at the store, the Daily Mail argues that the puzzle "stands out from a range of more demure wedding souvenirs."

A spokeswoman for the prince said such items went on sale "in response to customer demand", and pointed out that all profits from the sales go to charity.

Are the parents guilty of vulgar profiteering? Or are they doing the sensible thing by taking an opportunity to boost revenues? And are they any worse than countless other companies selling souvenirs -- ranging from cheap porcelain to condoms to sick bags -- ahead of the April 29 celebrations?