A right royal ...

This is one of my more memorable images...it's not necessarily a mind-blowingly, stunning image, but it's one I am proud of.

It's 1994. I'm still the "junior" photographer on staff at The Advocate and for some reason I'm chosen to travel to Queenstown to photograph the Royal visit of Prince Charles. I still can't work out why it was me selected. To say I was a tad nervous would be a massive understatement.

I was to travel solo (no reporter) to the Mt Lyell mine site and liaise with a media manager ... that was all the info I had ... I had no idea what to expect.

My nervousness was replaced by an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy when, after about 30 minutes, a bus pulled up and commenced disgorging a multitude of international media. These guys were seriously packing heat...dripping with cameras, lenses and even ladders. I had my Nikon FM2, a Metz flash and maybe 3 lenses ... the longest being 300mm with a maximum aperture of F4.5. That thing was like looking through the cardboard core of a roll of Glad Wrap with the lights turned off (compared to the fast glass we get to use today).

We (the media) were herded, corralled and shunted to clearly defined areas (moving outside the cordon was definitely a no-no). 

This pic was taken during a "meet-and-greet" line-up. Charles was working his way down the line being introduced to each miner in turn. My normal view gave me a great look at the prince's back...I had no option but to be patient and hope at some point I would be able to see his face. Patience paid off...but it was more the miners' faces than Charles' that made the shot.

 I would love to know what he said to get the miners to crack up they way they did. 

I learnt a couple of things from my first royal visit; to trust in my ability and great pics don't require great gear.

Know your stuff. Make the most of what you have. Happy shooting folks.