Prince Louis is celebrating his seventh birthday today and to mark the special occasion, a new portrait of the young royal has been released by Kensington Palace. While Princess Kate sometimes takes her children’s birthday portraits herself, this year she has relied on Josh Shinner to take the photograph, marking the second time he has worked for The Prince and Princess of Wales.

Having previously photographed Prince William and Princess Kate with their three children for their 2023 Christmas card, the Yorkshire-born photographer seems to be one of the family’s favourite photographers. With an eye for how to take an impressive portrait, it is also likely that William and Kate will use Josh’s photography services again in the future. This is likely to mean a lot to Josh, who started out in photography at the age of 17.

The photographer’s love for his hobby developed further at university, with Josh having previously said his mum taking wonderful pictures during his childhood was a great inspiration for him.

In a previous interview with Harper's Bazaar magazine, he said: "My mum has a great eye and she used to take wonderful pictures of us as kids. Some of that obviously rubbed off, as I remember the joy of getting films back from Boots fairly early on in life – no doubt with some very average holiday snaps on.

“It was at university that I realised I could get in to see my favourite bands for free if I just took photographs, which felt like a pretty good deal, so that’s when I really got into it."

While his first photography job was photographing a garden party at a nursing home while working for a local paper, it seems the photographer’s career has only gone from strength to strength over recent years.

As well as photographing Prince William, Princess Kate, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, Josh has also worked for a number of celebrities including Andrew Scott and Take That.

Since the release of the portrait of Prince Louis taken by Josh today, the photographer has received plenty of compliments.

One person commented on X: “The picture is absolutely gorgeous.”

Another said: “Such a cute photo.”