Living in Gloucestershire, where both HRH The Prince
of Wales and HRH The Princess Royal have homes, our
paths have crossed many times.

I have photographed most of the Royal family during their
official visits to the county. I have been the official rota
photographer on numerous occasions and photographed
more ribbon cuttings and unveilings than I can remember.

One such occasion involved me photographing Prince
Charles at his home, Highgrove. The Prince had kindly
agreed to judge a children's English writing competition,
run in conjunction with The Citizen.

I was the only photographer present whilst the Prince and
the Editor made their selection. The winner was agreed and
the Prince on leaving the room shook my hand and said:
"I hope they come out". I replied: "So do I Sir, or I am
out of a job."

The Prince roared with laughter and it was probably the
best picture of the day, but I daren't raise my camera to
photograph him.

Another occasion was when the Prince paid a visit to local
woodland to see first-hand conservation work. On the list
was a presentation of a bag of peat which was also being
burnt close to the site where the presentation was to take
place. At the exact moment the peat was presented to the
Prince a gust of wind blew the smoke towards me and fellow
media representatives, enveloping us in a dense cloud of
thick smoke.

Whilst coughing and spluttering I could hear the
Prince laughing. When the smoke cleared the Prince, visibly
amused, asked us if he should be presented with the bag of
peat again. He passed the bag of peat back to the presenter,
who duly presented it back to the Prince.

I later went onto photograph the Prince sneezing probably
due to the smoke, and this picture won an award in a
regional photography competition .I guess I had the
last laugh.

I have photographed Princess Diana on many occasions,
and the thing that struck me the most was her amazing
blue eyes. Most of my pictures were taken in black and
white - mainly because colour wasn't used as much as it
is today, so I haven't any examples of my own to show.

Nearly all of my photographs of Princess Diana were taken
at official events, and the only time I papped her was when
she turned up unofficially at Tetbury fireworks. I waited until
the end when she and Harry had had their fun and took a
few photographs as she left, not totally upsetting her evening.
Diana's personal bodyguard wasn't very happy though.

Exclusive scoop with sport's golden couple

In December 2006 a Citizen sports reporter gained an
exclusive interview with England and Gloucester rugby player
Mike Tindall (Zara Philips' boyfriend) at Gatcombe Park -
home to the Princess Royal.

Read all about it here