Thorsten Overgaard

The occasion was the wedding of the Prince Joachim of Denmark to Marie Cavallier in the little cosy town Mogeltonder in Denmark, May 24, 2008.

They were invited to the wedding, and so was I, sort of. Together with 500 other press people, 6-7,000 bystanders and some million television viewers we would witness the prince’s second remarriage.
I’ve been in the town some weeks ago to shoot the church and town for WireImage and Getty Images so that those media who would be writing about it in the days and weeks up to the wedding had some photos to go with their stories.

Also, I was in town Friday, the day before the wedding, to get some atmosphere. And happened to stumble into the wedding rehearsals.
Royal is crazy stuff. You would be amazed to know how many people make a living by photographing royals and writing about them, not to mention those who publish magazines about them.

There is great interest in the royals, yes.

Here Marie and Prince Joachim come out from the church after the rehearsal, with the two princes from Joachim’s previous marriage entering the backseat.

But Saturday morning I went for The Big Day and happened to meet Mr. Moore (81) on the street, taking a walk with his wife no 4 in the sunny day.

The wedding wouldn’t start before late afternoon why I had some time to go and shoot atmosphere, like the new monogram on the gate of the Royal Castle Schackenborg.
I know E! News bought that shot, have absolutely no idea what they will be using it for.

I also minglede with some locals at the coffee house. Had a good and informative chat with the grandparents of this young lady who seem all set for the wedding.

That toy camera was actually a digital camera you could shoot with and upload to a computer. Never seen one before.
The park and all areas had been nicely prepared. They actually even dig new roads and signs for the wedding. Not that I think anybody will notice.

Such an event is organized in the way that all press has to get accreditation cards weeks in advance. I don’t really see the point, because the city is open to the public.

To be in the real press areas, such as inside the church, just outside the church or outside the castle, you have to apply for a POOL seat, of which there’s a limited number. So you apply for those seperately.

A council of Danish media people then sit down weeks in advance and decide who will get a spot in what pool. Big fuzz and a lot of angry editors because they all want ten photographers in each pool, but there’s only three still photographers allowed inside the church, 30 outside on three different locations (whereof only one is really dead-sure interesting to be in), and 15 in front of the castle.

The Danish media give the Danish media the majority of the POOL seas, and all the ones inside the church went to the Danish wire services that would then make sure to distribute their shots.

Would be the same in Germany, Spain or any other country. The locals would get the best and most seats.

I had a seat in POOL 8 outside the castle and two other photographers from Getty and WireImage had in front of the church.

I wasn’t so sure I wanted to be in front of the castle and had been scouting “the picture opportunity” since I was there the first time.

The scene I imagined was this one, with this light coming from behind and the couple in an open car smiling and waving. I thought that would be a nice romantic picture.

You can’t be all over the event, so you got to decide where you want to put your money, so to speak.

The money shot would definitely be the kiss inside the church. That show would be in 90% of the medias. One which I would not be doing. So another possibility is just to do a great shot, and those seldom can be planned but are often circumstances coming together.

Look at the “Photo of the Year” in any category and almost all of them happened by coincidence. So I was looking for such a coincidence. It’s like lottery. But had the setting organized somewhat in advance.
Next to my location were two television cameras, so we had a good chat about Leica cameras, photography, filmmaking and television. There were two television stations covering the whole wedding with ca. 50 cameras and 200 people and three studios build on the site.

I got to check out the television-camera while he checked out my Leica.
It’s quite amazing how huge a zoom he had on that camera, and how easy it was to slide into the masses of people 100 meters away. Odd thing is that you (still) have to focus manually on those huge cameras. But the zoom function was extremely cool and floating.

Also got a new portrait photo, of which I have very few.
I think I’m responsible for 2, 3 and sometimes 4 new Leica users every month. This cameraman was just another victim of my campaign…

Cameramen are easy. Emma in London also just bought a Leica V-Lux 1 after five minutes of fumbling with my cameras.


We all just walked around; I guess something around 75 still photographers in total, looking for stuff to shoot. Except the ones who had to be in their POOL's an hour or two in advance. The television stations had an easy time sending live television all day, because they can set up in a garden, tell the viewer where they are and interview people.

As a still photographer you have to look for stills that tell the story in one still: This is the royal wedding, the anticipation of it, on the very day. Not that many opportunities, but you keep looking.

In the press parking lot I saw this boy, waiting for his turn in the roilet, with the church in the background.
The anticipation had started to build up around the church where people sat in the roadside with flags, champagne, flowers and all.
There was also music, of course. I like these two shots because of the way the light play in the pictures ;-)


Anyway, I decided to start out in my POOL outside the castle and see if I could get a good shot before the wedding – and then find my planned location an hour later when they would drive back together from the church.

As the program states what happens when, down to minutes, it was kind of easy to know what would happen. The thing is that you don’t know how and only have few seconds to react and figure out what you can make of it.
Exactly as planned, and ont he very second, Prince Joachim came out the gate, surprisingly in a Maserati car that had gotten a Crown 65 plate (all Danish royal cars has a Crown on the plate, followed by a number). He was in the backseat, in the ‘wrong’ side opposite me, so the most interesting photo I got was this.

You could tell he was stiff and nervous, but you couldn’t get the shot. Too much sun outside reflecting in the glass.

But somehow you’re disappointed, which is fun. Because after a few minutes you realize that even if you had a well lit shot of him in the car, it would be obsolete in 10 minutes: Who on earth would want to use a picture of a prince in a car on his way to church when they can get a photo of a prince and a princess newly we in a car, driving from the church?

Then you realize the picture of the car might be interesting to some Japanese or Italian car magazine or website!
The actual wedding I followed from my planned spot, viewing on a television screen. Here was a moment before the bride came into the church where the prince just cracked up completely and had to remove a few tears. The crowd thought that was so cute that we could hear them laught all the way to where we stood, about 600 meters away!

When the church service was over, it was time to be ready. There had been much discussion about which car they would use after the wedding, and it turned out to be a very rare and expensive Bugatti Royale of which only six exist in the world.

Unfortunately it was closed in the back so they would be sitting indoor. But I did my planned picture, though there was a little too much police in it. But also a Bugatti. Another shot for an Italian car magazine!
So I ran from there to the front of the castle, and fortunately the car drowe so slow that I could get another type of shot outside the castle.
It’s okay, actually pretty ok, considering the conditions and what else was done. The best, though was done by a Scanpix photographer who ran out on the road and just released the trigger and got 30-40 shots in a go – and one very lucky one with the right expressions and right light, dead on focus.

The brest shots was gotten outside the POOL’s, you just can’t predict what will happen where, of if somebody or something will get in your way.

For example it was sunshine when they left the church, but when they got to the castle, the light had changed from f/5.6 1/250 to f/2 1/90 (that’s about 95% less light than planned, in just four minutes) which make your shooting a bit tricky. What if the sun comes back the next second?

I actually like that one, the Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik with their grandkids. The light is better.

But then, it’s all over. The gates to the castle close and the rest of the program was private. People go home, the television crews start to pack their gear and I went to the press tent to send my shots off.