Former Hungerford man reveals royal wedding photo secrets

Official royal wedding photographer, Hugo Burnand, cycled to Buckingham Palace for the biggest job of his career

Former Hungerford man, Hugo Burnand, the official photographer for the royal wedding, says he is still on cloud nine after the ‘special day'.

Mr Burnand, who grew up in Hungerford and whose parents, Peter and Ursy, still live in the town, first picked up a camera while at Cheam School in Headley, Newbury.

The 47-year-old cites winning the Cheam School photographic competition aged 7 as his first career milestone, 40 years later he found himself in Buckingham Palace waiting for the new Duke and Duchess to arrive for their wedding photos.

“I had to pinch myself on the actual day to make sure it was real,” he said. “I had to remember these were photographs for two people's special day and forget it was a worldwide event.

“Kate has a keen interest in photography so it was nice to have a brief with someone who knew about photography. Kate, William and I had many discussions about the photos. We wanted the photos to look as natural as possible and we wanted it to look like a spring morning with light spilling into the room and I think we achieved that.

He added: “When I take photographs of people I want the person looking at the photograph to feel like they are in conversation with the person in the photograph. I hope this is achieved in these photographs.”

Mr Burnand and his six-man team, including his mother and his wife Louisa Hallifax, decided to cycle from his studio in Notting Hill to the palace before the biggest job of his career.

“I cycle a lot and it just seemed like a really nice way to start the day,” he said. “There were lots of people wearing red, white and blue, waving union jacks and bunting. We met a few eccentric on the way.”

The father-of-four was chosen as the official wedding photographer after he was the official photographer at the wedding of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall in 2005.

He was also commissioned to take the official 60th birthday portrait of Prince Charles in 2008.

“I had been in communication with the royal family so I had my fingers crossed,” he said. “I was asked about two or three months ago and since then it's been dry runs and dress rehearsals. We practiced for every occasion such as a bulb breaking.”

Mr Burnand only had 26 minutes to take all the photographs, including the now famous image of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with their page boys and bridesmaids.

“We really wanted to take that one at the end,” Mr Burnand said. “We only had seconds to take the photo. I promised the page boys and bridesmaids jellybeans and they did get them. I had some left over that I finished myself.

“There was a very special moment when I walked out of the palace and saw a painting of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria with their bridesmaids on their wedding day and I just thought ‘I've taken the modern day equivalent of that'.”