Vancouver photographer's 'imperfect' Royal photo makes for perfect internet fodder

A Vancouver photographer assigned to the Royal tour is getting a chuckle out of the suggestive spin placed on one of his images showing an encounter between the Duchess of Cambridge and Canada's Prime Minister.

On Thursday, Andrew Chin with Getty Images described one of the interpretations of his photo of Justin Trudeau greeting a coy-looking Kate, "hilarious."

"The face you make when you're married to a prince but you meet Justin Trudeau," reads a post by Robert Pictou, suggesting Kate may have been hit by Trudeaumania.

Chin initially believed the photo in the meme was his, but on Saturday, upon closer examination, he realized he didn't capture the image in Pictou's post — and he doesn't know who did.

Chin contacted CBC to point out the inadvertent error.

Regardless, media outlets around the world such as Us Weekly and New York Magazine have continued to use Chin's photo — captioned with the flirty tone — likely because Pictou's post seems to have struck a chord.

It's been shared more than 100,000 times on Facebook alone.

Chin said when he took the photo on September 25 outside the entrance of the Immigrant Services Society of B.C., it was an "innocent" moment but Kate happened to brush away her hair mid-conversation with Trudeau.

"I actually didn't want to send this photo out to the world but I thought, hey it was cute," said the photographer who called his photo technically imperfect.

It came as a surprise to him Thursday morning to see his photo shared so widely online.

"I think it's really hilarious, it's just funny," he said about the creative captions.

Chin said he didn't even think he had a productive shoot that day.

"I was looking for the perfect moment between Kate and Prince William, but it so happens this ended up being the shot around the world."

This whole ordeal has taught the self-professed "picky" photographer a lesson: it's not just about lighting, technical issues, and composition — even an "accidental" photo can end up being a hit.

"When I'm shooting ... you want everything to be perfect and polished but sometimes in moments like this, it's very difficult and you have to capture what is an interesting moment."