Wellington photographer has many happy memories of snapping the Queen
Friday, 9 September 2022
For Wellington photographer Simon Woolf, the death of Queen Elizabeth II is a time of mixed emotions.
Woolf and his late father Ron Woolf, also a prominent Wellington photographer, snapped the monarch “dozens” of times during her 10 visits here.
“We Woolfs were honoured and privileged to have met Queen Elizabeth on a number of occasions,” Simon Woolf, who also serves as a Wellington City Councillor, said on Friday.
“I always felt uplifted in her presence, and Queen Elizabeth was always genuinely interested in all the people she met, and instantly put them at ease, with her warmth and wonderful sense of humour. She was actually fun to be around,” he said.
One of his favourite images was taken by his father, during the Queen’s only official sitting during her 1987 tour of New Zealand.
**READ MORE:
* Right royal occasions in South Canterbury
* Duchess Kate photographs Holocaust survivors for 75th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation
* When the royals played up at home
* How the Queen has stayed stylish for 90 years
**
Simon Woolf had his own turn in 1995, when the Queen was attended the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting in Auckland.
He found himself confronted with a huge group of leaders, including South African President Nelson Mandela.
Sensing it was a difficult situation, the Queen used humour to make Simon Woolf feel at ease. “Mr Photographer, is your lens wide enough to get this large group in?” Simon Woolf recalled the monarch joking.
When Ron Woolf father died, in 1987, the family received a personal condolence message from the Queen.
The next time Simon Woolf photographed the Queen, she sought him out and asked how the family was coping, he said.
“It was just lovely to have a head of state come over and express her condolences,” Simon Woolf recalled.
The younger Woolf was also present when the Queen made a royal apology to Tainui in 1995. “There was hardly a dry eye in the room.”
Simon Woolf particularly likes a photo he took in 1981. It was his first time following a royal tour, and it was a memorable day – in more ways than one.
The Queen and Wellington mayor Sir Michael Fowler arrived in the Civic Centre 15 minutes early, and Woolf was in a large group of mainly British photographers.
“I had been warned as to the physical nature of the British media, and on this occasion I learnt first hand how far they would go to get their shot, and try and avoid others getting theirs.”
Woolf knew that a primary school student was going to give the Queen flowers, and was first to the scene to get the shot.
“I got one shot off, and then went flying through the air, backwards, right in front of the Queen,” he remembered. A British photographer had picked him up and thrown him backwards.
Still, he headed back to the studio and was delighted to find he had been successful in taking a memorable shot.
The photo won a series of awards, including one from The Photographic Society of New Zealand. “I was only 20 at the time, and was seriously rapt.”
Over the years, Simon Woolf saw the Queen several times and said it was always a delight to take her photo. “She was very, very motherly and instantly made people feel at ease.”