Happy birthday! The youngest child of Prince William and Kate Middleton is celebrating his birthday today. As he turned 5 years old, the royal family marked Prince Louis' big day by releasing new birthday portraits, a tradition with the family.
But this year’s photos break a long-standing tradition for birthday portraits of the royal kids.
The little prince is getting older! Ahead of his fifth birthday, the royals released an official portrait of Louis, who celebrates his birthday on April 23.
In the image, Louis is being pushed in a wheelbarrow. He's wearing a bright blue sweater with patterns around the collar. Under his sweater, Louis wore a checkered shirt and paired the whole look with blue-colored shorts.
Two photos were released, and another royal family member joined Louis in one of them.
In one of the two photos, Louis is joined by his mom, Kate, pushing him in the wheelbarrow he's hanging out in.
Kate's not the focus of the image and we can only see her profile. Even though she's not entirely in focus, we can see her huge smile as she holds the handles of the wheelbarrow the young prince is sitting in.
It's been a royal tradition to have Kate take the official photographs for her kids' birthdays.
Because we can see Kate in the one birthday image for Prince Louis, it's obvious she didn't take the photos this year, breaking away from that tradition.
Instead, the images were taken a few months ago by photographer Millie Pilkington, who is considered "one of the UK's most respected and accomplished portrait photographers, specializing in children, family, and adult portraiture."
Kate has been behind the camera for years, snapping many of the official images for these birthdays.
The tradition of Kate being the official photographer for birthday images of the royal children has been the case for several years. One of the first we saw was after Princess Charlotte's birth, when Prince George held his newborn sister.
Kate was also behind the lens for all of Charlotte's other birthday images, several images for Prince William's birthday and Father's Day, Louis' birthdays, and the more recent image for George's birthdays.
Having Louis' portrait is a break from tradition, but it's nice to see Kate in the photo with her youngest son.
Kate has previously called herself an "enthusiastic amateur photographer," and she's been behind some of the more candid images released of her children, giving royal fans a more natural glimpse into their lives.
Even though Kate didn't snap this photo, we're very likely not seeing the end of her interest in photography.
Just last week, a new photo was released for what would have been Queen Elizabeth's 97th birthday, and Kate took that photo. In it, the Queen sits with many of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
