If you paid careful attention as the Queen’s coffin was being carried into St. George’s Chapel, you might have seen something unexpected: a hand, carrying a camera, coming out of a hole in what appeared to be a normal column on the left side of the church’s doors.
Although the identity of the hidden photographer has yet to be revealed, it seems likely that it’s a longtime royal photographer for the Sun, Arthur J. Edwards. He was personally given permission by Prince Philip to hide at the top of the stairs and capture images of the royal family arriving at the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral last year, as he wrote in an essay for the Sun published April 17, 2021.
“The Duke, who planned every moment of yesterday’s moving funeral service, had arranged for me as a photographer to hide inside a fake pillar at the top of the stairs leading to St George’s Chapel,” Edwards wrote. “With a letter box-shaped slit, it was just like the bird-watching hides where Prince Philip spent hours during his retirement at Sandringham, his Norfolk estate.” (BuzzFeed News has reached out to Edwards to see if it was him taking photos on Monday.)
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/queen-elizabeth-ii-funeral-recap-ceremony-event-details