Royal photographer on what it was really like taking the Waleses' Christmas card photo

Last week, as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle dropped the second instalment of their Netflix docu-series, it was business as usual for the Royal Family - and Prince William, his wife Catherine, Princess of Wales, and their three children (Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis), shared their annual Christmas card photo, much as they do every year.

The image, which was posted on both the Waleses' Instagram account, and that of photographer Matt Porteous', has already amassed over 2 million likes, and shows the family dressed casually and walking together, hand in hand, in the great outdoors.

Captioning it, the future monarch's Instagram account opted for a simple line: "Sharing a new picture of the family for this year's Christmas card! 🎄".

However, over on his personal account, Porteous get further insight and revealed to his 56,000 photographers what it was really like doing the honours and being asked to take a candid shot of the most famous family in the world.

Posting the same snap, Porteous described that particular commission as being a real "honour" and added that he was "delighted" that the Wales family chose to use his work for their official festive portrait. He also revealed that the image was shot in Norfolk earlier this year, the historic county in East Anglia where the couple have a ten-bedroom resident called Anmer Hall, which is where they spent a lot of time during lockdown.

"I was delighted to spend time photographing The Prince and Princess and their children in Norfolk earlier this year," Porteous wrote. "It is always such an honour to capture these special moments within a family and I’m delighted they have chosen this portrait for their 2022 Christmas card."

In response, plenty of well wishers flooded his comments - with many hinting that they'd love to see some more images of the family taken by the royal photographer.

"Such an amazing photo and such a beautiful family... they’re all so in sync, it’s lovely to see ♥️," one social media user shared, whilst another dropped a comment saying, "They look so relaxed and happy, you've captured the family beautifully 👏".

A third chimed in with, "Absolutely beautiful photograph that's so natural ❤️. This is a photo I think every parent hopes to achieve".

This is far from the first time Matt Porteous has been on hand to capture Kate, William and co – his images of the family were also used for their 2020 and 2018 Christmas cards too.

We're big fans of the festive pic, too!

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