Royal Photographer Looks Back At Working With Princess Diana
by Jamie SamhanOne royal photographer is looking back at his time photographing Diana, Princess of Wales.
Tim Rooke, fondly referred to Rookie by most, appeared on the “Royally Us” podcast where he looked back at his decades photographing the royal family including when Diana joined the family.
“Often, what we do can be very boring. It can be someone walking from a car into a doorway… What the Princess of Wales used to do, she would always just turn before she went into the building, so she’d just look at you at the last second, and it always produced great pictures,” Rooke said.
He added, “I think I did a picture of her, it was on her 36th birthday, which sadly was her last birthday, and she went to the Tate Gallery and there was a reception. She just turned, just before she went in, and it made an absolutely great picture. Whereas now, the younger royals do it slightly differently. They tend to talk to the person that’s greeting them, which is, of course only polite, but of course, with her, it was great because you always knew you’d get a picture.”
“She was a very warm person,” he said. “She was great to photograph.”
Rooke is considered one of Prince Charles’ go-to photographers, travelling with the future king around the world.
“I spent years photographing the Prince of Wales, particularly after Princess Diana died,” he explained. “He’s actually great for taking pictures with. He’ll put hats on and do all sorts of things.”
One of his favourite memories was in Jamaica.
“We went to visit Bob Marley’s house in Jamaica, and he was met by Rita Marley. She presented him with a rasta hat with dreadlocks and he put it on the wrong way round. We all missed the picture the first time, and he did it three times,” Rooke explained. “All three times, he put it on the wrong way round, but he doesn’t do it deliberately and he doesn’t like to pose, but he’s very good.”
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall is also a lot of fun to be around.
“The duchess will get the prince to stop when he wouldn’t normally stop, because she’s more aware of us. She’s more aware of the photographers and she always chats to you and says, hello,” he said. “It’s great. They are great together.”