11 March 2024 , 15:43
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Princess Kate revealed she "occasionally" experiments with photo editing this week after questions were raised about her Mother's Day photo.
The royal described herself as an "amateur photographer" in her message, as she confirmed claims that alterations had been made to the family image.
It's no secret that Kate is an enthusiastic photographer - and a talented one at that. For many years, she has documented some major milestones, and it's clear that her favourite subjects are her three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis.
The mother-of-three's passion for photography was ignited long before she became a royal. She was inspired to pick up a camera as a child by a much-loved family member - her paternal grandfather, Peter Middleton.
"Her grandfather was a very good photographer," said Claudia Acott Williams, Collections Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, according to the Sunday Express. "When she was a child, he would show her his slides. It was him who taught her how to take photographs."
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Kate's love of the camera continued long past childhood. When she worked at her parents' company Party Pieces, she was in charge of photographing stock for the catalogue and website.
And later on, at University, the topic of her dissertation was photography. The Princess' undergraduate thesis - which helped her earn a 2:1 Hons MA art history degree from the University of St. Andrews - was on the photographic representations of childhood created by Lewis Carroll, author of the famous Alice in Wonderland books, HELLO! reports.
Since then, Kate's photographs have been featured on front covers of magazines and newspapers all around the world. She is usually behind birthday portraits of her three children, as well as documenting their first days at school. And she's even impressed professional photographers with her work.
Arthur Edwards, who has photographed the royal family since the 1970s, previously shared that he's a "great admirer" of Kate's snapshots.
"The picture that I love most that she's done is William and the three children on the swing," he said, of the photo shared in June 2020 to celebrate Prince William's 38th birthday. "I would have killed to have taken that picture."
He continued, "Everybody's laughing at their mum, and you know that only a mother or a father could get that picture, and it's an absolute winner. Charlotte with her arm around daddy, you know, 'daddy's girl.' It's a lovely picture, I was so full of praise for her on that."
Testament to her skills, Queen Camilla even chose the Princess to shoot her for the cover of Country Life to celebrate her 75th birthday, which King Charles' wife also guest-edited.
Of her experience sitting for Kate, Queen Camilla was full of praise, saying: "She did very good pictures and she does it sort of naturally. We had a lot of fun doing it. It was very relaxed and, of course, very kind of the [ Princess of Wales ]. She came with her camera and she's an extremely good photographer."
Mark Hedges, editor-in-chief of Country Life magazine, later said: "We are thrilled to have our guest editor captured so magnificently by royal photographer the Duchess of Cambridge," as Kate was known at the time.
"We understand this is the first time a formal portrait of the Duchess of Cornwall has been taken by the Duchess of Cambridge for a magazine and we are honoured to have been chosen to be the first to publish this beautiful photograph."
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He further joked that Princess Kate would be welcome to a job at the magazine, commenting: "The photographs are superb, and we would be delighted to offer the Duchess of Cambridge another commission!"