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!)
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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