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Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge has developed a keen passion for photography and has used her skills to capture many of the official portraits available of her family. Earlier this week, the Duchess shared a picture of Prince William and their three children she took during the lockdown to mark his 38th birthday and all recent pictures of George, Charlotte and Louis have also been shot by Kate. The inspiration for the unprecedented role the Duchess has played in producing the portrait is believed to have come from a close foreign royal.

The Telegraph associate editor Camilla Tominey suggested Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden set a key precedent for the Duchess of Cambridge.

Princess Victoria has long had a patchy relationship with the Swedish media after she struggled with their reports of her eating disorder when she was a teenager.

Following the birth of her eldest child, Princess Estelle, in 2012 Victoria took control of her daughter’s image and began to personally take and share pictures of the newborn.

Ms Tominey wrote: “The public reacted hugely positively, loving not only the fact that they could see such milestones as Estelle blowing out the candles on her first birthday cake but also that Victoria was behind the camera.”

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Kate entrusted professional photographers to take pictures of her eldest son, Prince George, to mark his first two birthdays and earlier outings.

But the Duchess of Cambridge has been solely relying on her personal photographic skills to snap cute shots of her children since Princess Charlotte’s first birthday.

Since 2015, Kate has been behind the camera to photograph her family’s major milestones. 

In April, she shared pictures of one-year-old Prince Louis celebrating his birthday by hand-painting rainbows in honour of the NHS.

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The following week Charlotte appeared joining her family to distribute food to vulnerable people shielding because of the pandemic to mark her 5th birthday.

A picture taken on the same day was later released on social media to mark Volunteers’ Week, with Prince William pictured shielding George and Charlotte with a large umbrella as they headed back home.

Ms Tominey suggested the role allows for the Duchess to hold most of the control over the image of her family.

She added: “Conscious that the public would demand to see “at home” imagery of George – and later Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis – but anxious not to thrust them into the limelight, the Duchess borrowed an idea from Victoria, the Crown Princess of Sweden.”

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Royal historian Dr Lucy Worsley had previously suggested Kate has also been emulating Queen Alexandra with her passion, as the late queen also played a pivotal role in transforming photography into a major tool for the Royal Family.

In her latest BBC documentary Lucy Worsley’s Royal Photo Album, the historian said: “Like her Edwardian predecessor, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge is a keen photographer, using the latest technology.

“But there’s ever greater pressure on her to provide images of her family lives.

“In recent years, she’s released photographs she took herself of life behind the scenes and posted them directly on Instagram.”

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