Royal photographer Chris Jackson has spoken fondly of working with Queen Elizabeth, describing the experience as a "huge privilege."?
"Yeah, it's been a huge privilege and you know, incredibly sad couple of days but you know I think 'icon' has been used a lot to describe the Queen," Jackson told 9News.
"It's an understatement," he continued. "She's an incredible... was an incredible historic figure."
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Jackson, who has worked with the Royal Family for 20 years, explained his services photographing Her Majesty were less frequent over the past few months as she struggled with worsening mobility issues.
"?Every time I got the opportunity it was special to have the front row seat to these historic moments," he added.
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He described the feeling following her death as "surreal."
"Of course, when we heard the news yesterday I was at Windsor Castle and as I was photographing the castle a rainbow appeared above the castle, a rainbow appeared above the tower, and that was just a particularly surreal moment for me," he said.
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Most recently Jackson has been documenting key moments including mourners laying flowers at the palace following the Queen's death and King Charles III and the Camilla, the Queen's Consort, arriving outside Buckingham? Palace and interacting with the crowd.
He said behind the scenes, Queen Elizabeth demonstrated an "incredible sense of duty."
?"She was just a true professionalist [sic]," he said. "Every time you photographed her you knew she would be focused on the job at hand.
"She wouldn't give you the photograph," Jackson continued. "You would have to capture them."
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Jackson described the Queen's smile as "heart-warming."
"To be able to capture that over the years has been special and some of my favourite moments of the Queen smiling, occasionally in quite a cheeky way... people look at those photos and they make people feel happy."
"You are very much a fly on the wall and trying to capture the moments that happen in front of you," he said, adding that it can be an "organic process."
"Its my favourite way of working," he explained.
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"Of course there's official portraits where you're lighting your subjects it's a different set up," he explained. "With the pomp and ceremony that's an important part of what I do
"It's those day-to-day interactions which are special to me trying to capture the interactions between the Royal Family, different members of the Royal Family and members the Royal Family are meeting."
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