Canon Professional Network - CPS provides support for Royal Wedding photographers

April 2011

The Canon Professional Services (CPS) team will be providing a range of services and support for accredited Canon professional photographers who are covering the Royal Wedding between HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton on 29 April.

The CPS team will be operating downstairs in the Pro Lounge at the Jacobs photographic retail store, which is located at 74 New Oxford Street, London.  On the day before the Royal Wedding, Thursday 28 April, the CPS facility will be open from 10am until 6pm whilst on the wedding day, Friday 29 April, the CPS facility will be open from 9am until 6pm.

A CPS technician examines an EOS DSLR.

Services available to Canon photographers covering the wedding will include camera sensor cleans and checks, minor Canon camera repairs, technical expertise and one-to-one guidance. There will also be equipment loans, including the new Extender EF1.4x III and Extender EF2x III, Canon EF lenses and the EOS-1D Mark IV DSLR (all subject to availability). The CPS Pro Lounge will have WiFi internet access and the space for photographers to edit and wire images.

Many of the world’s newspapers, photo agencies, and freelance photographers have their plans in place for covering the event with estimates that around 800 photographers will be shooting the event.

CPN spoke to Hugh Pinney, Vice President News and Sport EMEA, Getty Images about the agency’s plans for covering the event. Pinney explained: “We will have around about 30 photographers in London and probably another eight or so outside London, or outside of the main route. Then we’ll be pulling in reaction from around the world as well, so it’s going to be extensive. I think editing is going to be as important as shooting. An awful lot of pre-event planning goes into it.”

Pinney added: “Some photographers will be keeping the trigger [shutter] down for the best part of an hour constantly when they [the guests] start coming out of church. Others in set positions will have less to do and they will basically shoot as the procession passes – once it has gone past they’re going to have to move and get into another position before they can shoot again. Movement is going to be probably the hardest thing to achieve on the day.”

As far as editing the thousands of images that will be coming in to Getty Images’ picture desks Pinney revealed: “We’ll split the editing. At Westminster it’ll essentially be a remote picture desk where certain photographers will file through, and others will file through Camden [Getty Images’ London picture desk].”

Pinney added: “We will have wireless setups, but we’re anticipating that it won’t work because of all the interference that we’ll get on the day. We’ve made various provisions with cables to key points, which ought to guarantee getting stuff out in a timely fashion. With cabled photographers, whose cameras are tethered, the key images will move in seconds – that’s the whole point. They will be on the wire within seconds of the shutter dropping.”

CPN asked Canon Ambassador, and top wedding photographer, Jeff Ascough how he would cover the event and he responded: “With regard to something like the Royal Wedding, scale becomes a factor. The wedding in terms of organisation and sheer size would be a challenge to a photographer. In this instance I would concentrate on telling a smaller story within the whole day. The world's press would be covering the main event, but there wouldn't be anything of the day away from the public eye – this to me would be where I would come in. You would be looking at a more intimate portrayal of the day, possibly involving less people than I would normally expect to shoot. A more 'behind the scenes' account.”

* Look out on CPN website in the coming weeks for coverage of the best photographs from the Royal Wedding and the stories behind how they were shot.

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