One guy offered me £10,000 for my pass. A close-up shot of Diana that could be used as a magazine cover or newspaper front page could be sold for a fortune as it meant a huge additional readership. But this was my first professional assignment and worth more to me than mere money. It was the start of my hopefully illustrious career! Although I didn’t want to be a paparazzi, it was a step in the right direction. After the briefing, Charles arrived with Diana to say a few words before we went to the launch site. I held up each of my cameras and began firing off a few frames. Then we were led outside to the fixed ropes. I had to stand here for this part of the organised shoot. Unfortunately, here I understood why all the other photographers were carrying aluminium step ladders. Suddenly I was facing a wall of Paparazzi raincoats, all with their backs to me and all three feet higher than me. I jostled for position to find a gap through the crowd. Diana swung the champagne as I raised my camera. Instead of click, I heard a clunk. I had run out of film! The bottle hit the ship but nothing happened except a loud clunk. It did not break! I quickly raised my second camera. Exactly the same thing happened. The bottle bounced and once again my camera had run out of film. Diana paused to laugh and converse with the dignitaries just long enough for me to reload one of my cameras as the champagne bottle, with a slightly adjusted ribbon length came swinging down for the third time and—splash! I caught the shot. The rest of the press were then left outside while I was allowed to follow the royal party around to where some apprentices had built a special barge for handicapped kids as part of the Prince’s Trust. By this time, it was 4 pm and almost dark, it was the shortest day of the year. I quickly turned on my flash.
6. Tyra Banks NYC 7. Alex Rose for Untitled Magazine London 8. Ingrid Seynhaeve for MTV House of Style NYC 9. Andrea Ale for Runaway Magazine Paris
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