The Duchess of Cambridge gives insight into photos of Prince Louis

Keen photographer The Duchess of Cambridge has shared many gorgeous photos of her three children to mark special occasions, and Prince Louis' second birthday on 23 April was no exception.

The Duchess captured some beautiful snaps of her youngest son with rainbow paint on his hands at their Norfolk home Anmer Hall - alongside an after photo of Prince Louis covered in paint!

The Duchess explained to Phillip and Holly why photography was important to her, "One of the fantastic things about photography is you’re really capturing that moment. So it’s not stage setting it, it’s not setting it up perfectly, it’s not clearing your house away so you’ve got the perfect studio set up but it’s really capturing those moments that feel real to you and that capture a moment or an expression or a feeling I suppose and that’s the power of photography it can capture a moment and tell a story.

The Duchess earned parenting points by lining up a smart photo of Prince Louis showing off his rainbow-painted palms alongside a second photo where the Prince has rubbed the paint all over his face, with the caption Instagram vs Reality.

The Duchess revealed, "I should have taken a photograph of what I looked like after as well. Luckily, that wasn’t documented, but I pretty much, I looked like Louis at the end of it."

Princess Charlotte has also been in front of the lens as the duchess photographed her daughter preparing and delivering food packages.

The pictures, released to mark Charlotte's fifth birthday on May 2, also show the princess knocking at a shielding resident’s door to drop off the food during lockdown.

The Duchess explained that she hopes her photos will inspire people to take part in the recently announced Hold Still project, "That photograph, particularly of Charlotte, was part of a collection to try and tell a story and that’s really what we hope people will take inspiration from. This project is really just to try and tell their part of a story from a personal level to try and help showcase and share what they’re going though."

You can find more information about The Duchess’ Hold Still project at www.npg.org.uk/holdstill