First off, Happy Jubilee Your Majesty!
If I’ve never mentioned it before, I am a self proclaimed Brit-head which is sort of like a Dead-head but with less tattoos.
My English friend Sara says I am a Royalist.
Fascinated by all things British, I have ALWAYS wanted to go live in England so I can saturate myself to the bone with the whole culture. Til it oozes from my pores. Til my accent changes!
When it comes to my heritage I am a bit of a mutt. With the bonus of my Korean heritage always imparted to me with a story about how one of my relative had to lie about her race because Amercians hated them so much back then.
NOW THERE’S SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF!
So I was gobsmacked by an entire country steeped in thousands of years of history.
It began early with tales about the dark ages, knights and Stonehenge. I yearned to belong to such tradition.
My husband, even with his (pure) German heritage, claims a long family history and even has some royal German blood! I wanted royal blood!!
I wanted this so badly that I spent the better part of ten years seriously researching my family history hoping secretly that I would find a royal pedigree up there on one of my branches and finally be validated as a human being once and for all.
Turns out I had to just accept me for me. No data was going to change that. Didn’t find any anyway.
Then Charles and Diana got married and I was smitten.
The Queen
Today the Queen of England is celebrating the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne.
I went to the official website of the Jubilee where you can send your personal congratulatory message to the Queen, which I did and even got an email for Buckingham Palace! So cool! I know it’s all automated, but…THAT’S IS SO STINKIN’ COOL!!!!!!
Especially having the email sender as Buckingham Palace. Sara is rolling her eyes. (Love you Sara!)
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This is the .pdf card that was attached to my thank you email. <3 LOVE!!
My very next thought was "Why did the photographer use one light for her face? Did he (and it was almost certainly a 'he' because I have yet to meet a woman who lights like that) mean to throw that shadow on the wall?
Also, it looks like two lights for her bum (one on each side) with a little ratio lighting going on.
The very next thing that happened was I heard Zack Arias yelling inside my head, “HEADINACLEANSPOT!” All one word.
Then I did this:
Photo Deconstruction
- It is late afternoon or early morning (lighting on the statue outside)
- It looks like the photographer went for a bit of under exposure for the sky to get that nice saturated blue.
- The choice to leave the interior dark might be because lighting it would have caused glare on the window or possibly for separation and drama.
- The light source must be modified because she doesn’t have any specular highlights on her face which is flattering for older skin. There is also a very harsh shadow line which makes me think that the light was small and because her arms are in shadow. Probably a small softbox. An umbrella would have spilled light all around.
- There’s a bit of Mona Lisa-ish-ness going on with the background. Distant left, nearer right.
- There is no doubt in my mind that everything in this photo was pondered over and thought through, so respect to ya mate!
Just a guess but I think the official royal photographer does not/is not allowed to use Photoshop as it is as much documentation as it is portraiture.
Overall I really like the photo with it’s regal quality and somewhat eerie shadow. I wonder if the shadow is some sort of statement or if it is a compromise the photographer had to make.
Because photography, much like life, is full of compromises.
LM
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