[4] There followed several more royal commissions, and his series of stereographs of England and Wales have come to be regarded as some of the finest landscape works of their time.

[5] For much of his career Bedford tended towards photography as an art form, painting in clouds, enhancing fine detail with pencil or brushes, and using tissue paper to darken negatives to improve lighting, but by the late 1870s, he was an advocate of simplicity.

The couple appear on the 1851 census living at 23 Rochester Road, Kentish Town, London, with their two young sons, Arthur and William.

[citation needed] He died on 15 May 1894 and is buried on the west side of Highgate Cemetery, close to the grave of another celebrated Victorian photographer, Henry White.

The National Gallery of Art Library in Washington, D.C. holds a two-volume index of Bedford's photographs that is organized by print type.