I was reminded recently of my experience in covering royal visits over the years and as I recall, as you would expect, they are fairly tightly controlled.

Having said that my first experience of royalty was when the queen visited South Shields in 1977, as part of her celebration of her silver jubilee, when both she and the Duke of Edinburgh were toured in the back of a vehicle at local sports facility.

I had only been at the North West Evening Mail for a few months when the then Prince Charles was due to visit Barrow-in-Furness in 1993.

I was sent down to the Forum 28 venue in the town to mingle in the crowd to try and get a shot. I could not believe my luck when Charlie exited the building to greet the crowds right in front of my wide angle lens which made for a cracking photo from the crowd.

I am fairly sure I would have either used my own Nikon 20mm f2.8 lens or the office’s 17mm lens which I think may have been made by Tamron. Having said that it made the main shot in the coverage the following day’s paper:

It was a question of being in the right place at the right time as he could have turned left instead of right when he exited the building.

Having said that I had to wait until 2016 before I photographed him again when he visited Cumbria in March 2016. He visited a number of locations, including those in the Penrith area, and I was sent to do pics at Rookin House Activity Centre where he met various people and took part in various activities.

I was given a Royal Rota pass, more of that later, where basically I was given free rein to follow him during the visit. My favourite shot of the day was when he witnessed a horse logging display and patted one of the horses on the head which was used by the Westmorland Gazette rather than my own paper the Cumberland & Westmorland Herald.

Having said that one of my favourite shots from the various royal visits was the one that was used on the front page of the North West Evening Mail in 1995 when the Duchess of Kent visited a Barrow residential home. I just love the eye contact between the Duchess and the home’s 101-year-old resident who gave her the bouquet which was truly wonderful to witness.

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While I was working in Inverness I covered the visit of the Princess Royal, who is regularly lauded as the hardest working royal these days, and, unexpectedly her arrival was later than expected.

Having said that the visit was a pleasure to cover. Needless to say you don’t get a chance to get any quotes from the royal in question during the visit but you usually get the opportunity to speak with the people involved in the visit which is what local papers are looking for.

Having said that you can’t forget the notoriously inappropriate Duke of Edinburgh when he visited Middlesbrough FC’s home ground of the Riverside stadium in what I am presuming was around February 1999. I only have these two shots but I do like the eye contact in the images.

According to my college notes, taken when I was learning the trade of photojournalism in Sheffield in 1991, royal visits are highly controlled affairs and they are usually arranged months in advance. The likely persons of interest will include: the mayor, consort, local MPs, and the leader of the council.

And the press release will contain a full itinerary and there will be lots of photo opportunities such as the arrival and the crowds.

According to the lecture notes newspapers would probably have one photographer at the airport to cover the arrival and, in case of disaster, and the rest of the staffers (in the days when newspapers still actually had staff photographers because it was the 1990s) would cover the rest of the visit.

There are two types of press passes:

• a fixed point pass where basically you are put into corral and have to stay there at a fixed point;
• and a royal rota pass where you can move with royal party and they are usually issued to nationals, agencies, morning and evening dailies, and TV stations.

Anyone who gets a royal rota pass has to share any material with other news outlets under the terms of the agreement which is why my photo got used by the Westmorland Gazette.

The royal rota offers best photo opportunities and local people are the real feature for the local press. You need to report at right time when your credentials will be checked.