A huge number of the...celebrities...how can I put this?...aren't exactly surprised when the pictures appear in the newspapers"

Jason Fraser

These are just the kind of feel-good celebrity "unposed portraits" that have become his stock-in-trade.

Whether hanging out of a helicopter, clambering through the undergrowth or merely invited along for the ride, Fraser specialises in getting the pictures other photographers can't get.

In the words of Sunday Express editor Martin Townsend, he captures "an intimate, inside view of stars caught off guard".

Stars tip-off photographers?

But as Fraser reveals to BBC Radio's Five Live Report, in reality very few of his subjects are "off guard" at all.

"In a huge number of the photographs I take," he says, "the celebrities...how can I put this...aren't exactly surprised when the pictures appear in the newspapers afterwards."

Fraser is best known for the Diana and Dodi "kiss picture"

Fraser, who began his career as a news photographer and had covers of Time and Newsweek magazines while still in his teens, says that "friends of the stars" or sometimes even the celebrities themselves, keep him informed about their whereabouts.

Over a twenty year career, he says he's received "tip-offs" from personalities ranging from Princess Diana to Posh Spice.

"For example, I got the Geri Halliwell Robbie Williams shots in the South of France before anyone else knew they were even together," he says. "I was tipped off about them, although I can't say by whom otherwise they'll never do it again."

So what's in it for the celebrities? "They want to see their pictures in the newspapers," Fraser explains. "If you pose for a picture it will end up on an inside page. If you let you hair down by a pool or on a beach, those pictures are going to be a lot sexier and run near or at the front."

Invasion of privacy?

Sara Cox is suing the Sunday People

But not all celebrities play the game. Radio 1 Breakfast Show host Sara Cox is suing the Sunday People for publishing nude pictures of herself and her husband on honeymoon in the Seychelles which she says were taken without her consent on a private property.

People editor Neil Wallis claims he "misunderstood the circumstances in which the pictures were taken". That's hotly disputed by Fraser who was behind the shots - he asserts that Wallis was privy to all the details.

Diana and Dodi pictures

Fraser, 35, is best known for the Diana and Dodi Fayed "kiss picture" which is estimated to have netted him �250,000.

"I was given information that she was seeing Dodi and that they were in the Med. I didn't know exactly where, but I was told the name of the boat. So I discussed it with [Italian photographer] Mario Brenner who found it and got the photographs."

Sources close to Fraser say that in the final frenzied weeks of her life, he spoke to Diana nearly every day.

"After that I took over and photographed her in Porto Fino, Sardinia and the South of France...right up until Paris. I didn't go to Paris. But otherwise I was always there, wherever she went. I was the person who revealed her relationship, I don't know whether that feels good or not, but I will be remembered for it."