**Michael Willison
New Zealand Woman’s Weekly photographer
1962 to 1996 **
Michael sums up his experience of covering the wedding of Charles and Diana in one word – “Harrowing! There was a lot of pressure, but when you look back it was fun too.”
Michael flew to London three days before the wedding on 29 July, 1981. He was up at dawn on the big day to join other photographers in their allocated spot on a stand built in the nave of St Paul’s Cathedral.
“We had to peer over the top of everyone to see the wedding,” says Michael (80). “You couldn’t move – you could only take pictures from that one position.”
He was pleased with the shots he got, but because the magazine wanted a variety of pictures, once the ceremony ended Michael had to rush out into the streets to find other photographers prepared to give him their photos of the happy couple in their carriage and kissing on the balcony at Buckingham Palace.
“I was armed with bottles of whiskey, and fortunately some Fleet St photographers were prepared to swap a 35mm colour transparency for a bottle.”
He then boarded a flight for Auckland that night, arriving home to the presses running as they waited for his colour photos. “It was all very exciting but it was worth it – we sold nearly 300,000 copies.”
That wasn’t the last time Michael photographed Charles and Diana – he followed them around New Zealand when they toured here in 1983 with baby Prince William, and he shot one of the iconic pictures of William playing with a Buzzy Bee on a rug at Government House.
“It was bedlam – there were about 40 photographers and we had to lie on the grass to get the photo. I remember Charles was a bit irritable because Diana was getting all the attention.”
Michael has photographed many members of the royal family on various visits here, and currently has an exhibition of his work running in Auckland. He says photographers couldn’t help being drawn to Diana.
“She was lovely – so young and so sweet. She looked like a real princess.”**
Ross White
New Zealand Herald photographer
1964 to 2000**
The last thing Ross expected was to be inside St Paul’s Cathedral snapping the royal wedding – he thought his duties in London would be limited to selecting images shot by other photographers to be used in the Herald.
But then the paper was given media accreditation, and Ross found himself on the Pilgrim’s Steps, halfway down the aisle of St Paul’s.
“Lots of other photographers were brassed off because they didn’t get inside. I had a good spot – I was on a platform above everyone and I could have leaned over and patted all these dignitaries on the head.”
Ross (69) says shooting the 45-minute ceremony was a time of high tension. “We couldn’t use motor drives because of the noise, but I still got through 48 rolls of film.
“There was a young chap beside me who took the film out of my camera and reloaded it. oessengers took the films to be processed in a lab – somehow they managed to get in and out without disturbing things.
“And then it was all over. I remember when Charles and Diana walked outside and the crowds outside saw them – there was a huge surge of noise.”
He laughs as he remembers ringing his mother in Auckland that evening. “She said, ‘Wasn’t it lovely?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know, I was too flat out to actually look at it.’ It’s definitely one of the most hectic things I’ve ever done.”
Ross says the atmosphere was incredible. “There were people who were living on nothing, who spent their last pound buying a flag to hang out their window. It brought London to life.”
He admits he normally hated photographing weddings – “they’re one of the worst things for a news photographer to do” – but this event was different. “When I look back, it was a great experience and definitely one of my most memorable jobs. And you do get a bit of a kick when you see your pictures being used, all these years later.”
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