Royals

EXCLUSIVE: Royal Wedding photographer Chris Jackson reveals how he’s preparing for the big day

Lenses at the ready! Here's exactly what it takes to capture a picture-perfect wedding day moment...
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The upcoming Royal Wedding is set to be the largest broadcast event in history.

Throughout the day, Prince Harry and his new wife Meghan Markle will be snapped, papped and filmed from literally every angle as the world’s media battle it out to bring adoring fans the most comprehensive coverage available.

One of the biggest and most reliable resources for Royal Wedding imagery will come via Getty Images, who provide news outlets around the world, including Now To Love, with a live feed of photos set to drop throughout the day.

It’s an incredible feat that will be championed by Getty Images Royal Photographer, Chris Jackson.

For months now, Chris and his team have been have preparing for the big day.

“There’s a lot of planning involved,” he tells Now To Love in an exclusive interview.

It’s hard to take a bad photo of these two!

For Chris, there’s no better training manual for this upcoming assignment than the last Royal Wedding in 2011.

“I can certainly look to my previous experiences with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding when I was at Getty Images,” he reflects of the couples’ 2011 wedding at Westminster Abbey in London.

“It was a huge event and we had a team of over 30 photographers working on there and editing as well. We had a huge team of editors and technicians.”

Indeed, Chris is well-known for capturing magical royal encounters and was responsible for one of the most memorable photographs to come out of William and Catherine’s wedding – the moment we were given the first glimpse of the new husband and wife as they left the Abbey hand-in-hand, beaming with joy.

We can’t wait to see a similar moment like this on May 19th!

“I was actually positioned right outside the front of Westminster Abbey to take those first moments of the Duke and Duchess coming out as a married couple,” he recalls, before revealing just how much work goes on behind-the-scenes to get The Shot.

“I had an internet cable from my cable that had been put under the road outside Westminster to our team of editors, so the pictures went straight out the back of my camera, under the road, to my editors. They were landing on the desks of clients around the world within sort of five minutes, which is incredible,” Chris explains.

“A lot of people don’t realise the planning that goes into these team efforts. Moving around on the day, it will be exactly the same in Windsor, you’ve got hundreds of thousands of members of the public, you’ll have photographers in different position covering every different aspect. We’ll even be shooting it 3D and panoramic!”

Chris has been photographing the Royal Family for over a decade.

“When you have these days and there’s only moments, we’re literally talking 20 seconds to get that picture, but it’s an image that’s going to live on in history for decades and maybe centuries to come, there’s a lot of pressure to get that shot.”

Despite the intense pressure, Chris thrives on the fast-paced environment and just like us, is counting down the days until May 19th.

“I’ll take that experience forward to what Prince Harry’s wedding will be like. It will be slightly different, it’s in Windsor and that’s great! I think there’ll be a huge amount of excitement and interest around the world and all eyes will be on Windsor that day, I’m very much looking forward to it,” he says.

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