Prince George’s Photo Estimated at a Billion View

New Zealander Simon Woolf may have just taken most popular photograph of the royals in New Zealand ever, having snapped the infamous photo of a smiling George cuddling up to his mother at Plunket on the tour’s third day.

Mr Woolf, who is a professional photographer and Wellington City councillor, was given exclusive access to a side room that adjoined the waiting Plunket families, when he snapped the photo which he admitted could be the defining photo of his career.

Within a matter of hours after it was put on the Government House Facebook page the photo had 1.4 million views.

It has since been on the cover of many major institutions including Hello, The Sun, The Daily Telegraph, and on many TV channels.

Estimates suggest that his photo has been seen more than 1 billion times, which would put it on par with fellow New Zealand photographer, Brian Brake’s famous Monsoon Girl photo.

At first, he thought the photo was “reasonable” but had no idea how sharp the image was. His phone rang until past midnight the next day with news agencies accross the globe requesting more information or different files of it.

However, as the photo was taken on the royal pool system, Mr Woolf will not see a penny for his work. This is because if on the pool system on royal tours, the photographers have to share images freely.

But he said he had “absolutely no regrets” despite the fact he would have been a millionaire if he had sold the image.

At the end of the tour he presented the royals with a framed, black and white copy of the photo. He claims that it is the Duchess of Cambridge’s favourite photo of the tour.

Original article by Charlie Proctor, Royal Central, 23 April

Photo by Simon Woolf