DSLR Geek

When I started doing photography, I quickly learned that knowing how to use a camera does not make you a good photographer. The technical part of it is actually just a fraction of the work involved. There is a lot more involved and one of the most important elements is how to interact with your subjects. This is forever going to be a learning curve for me. I feel like I got a lot better than when I first started but it is often difficult to guide your models to match your visions and make them feel comfortable at the same time.

Now imagine if your subject was the Queen of England! Photographer Annie Leibovitz, who photographed more celebrities and politicians than anybody else, got the opportunity to do it. Annie isn’t one to be intimidated by such a challenge. She’s got so much experience and such a good reputation. She has the ability to make her subjects trust her talent.

Shortly after I watched that video, I read this paragraph from Annie’s wikipedia article that I thought should be mentioned:

In 2007, The BBC misrepresented a portrait shooting by Leibovitz of Queen Elizabeth II to take the queen’s official picture for her state visit to Virginia. This was filmed for the BBC documentary A Year with the Queen. A promotional trailer for the film showed the Queen reacting angrily to Leibovitz’s suggestion (“less dressy”) that she remove her tiara, then a scene of the Queen walking down a corridor, telling an aide “I’m not changing anything. I’ve had enough dressing like this, thank you very much.”[12] The BBC later apologised and admitted that the sequence of events had been misrepresented, as the Queen was in fact walking to the sitting in the second scene.[13] This led to a BBC scandal and a shake-up of ethics training. See The Tiaragate Affair.