Duchess of Cambridge - 40th Birthday

[Daisy]

The Duchess of Cambridge celebrates her 40th birthday today and there are new photos of her to mark the big birthday. There are three - on the link below. What do you think of them?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59922124

[Plantaholic]

I think they are lovely, no doubt there will be critics. I really admire her.

[Gemini]

Lovely photos. I'm sure she will have happy birthday with her lovely family.

[Enfys]

Beautiful photos. I think she comes across as a lovely young woman.

[Oma]

Lovely photos but I don’t think they look like her and the 3rd one she looks like something from gone with the wind 😁
I think she will make a elegant Queen quiet and dignified.

[Gemini]

LOL Oma

[Lizzie48]

Oma, I didn't want to be the one to say it, but, when I saw the photo's first thing this morning I did wonder who it was!

[Oma]

Could imagine Rhett Butler coming in and saying quite frankly my dear I don't give a Damn

[Daisy]

I'm so glad I asked the question. Like, Plant, I admire her. She comes across as a lovely, dignified young woman, she seems to be a great mum to her three lovely children. She's coped with life within the Royal family very well.

But oh, those photos! The dresses are so not her - her style is classical, glamorous when the occasion requires it, but these flamboyant, flouncy dresses, to me, are not her. I like the close up, soft focus one best, but not keen on the desaturation (subdued washed out colours) on the red dress one, and as for the third one, that profile shot makes her look severe and gaunt. I know everybody sees things differently but I would have liked her to turn slightly more to camera and I would have moved her further over to our right to improve the composition. I don't think the Photoshopping is pleasing. If that shot is meant to show her as elegant/thoughtful/regal or whatever the dress is a mis-match - it looks as though it's come out of Princess Charlotte's dressing up box.

The red dress one looks like any wannabe celebrities' effort to get noticed on a red carpet premier.

Oma and Lizzie - I'm glad I'm not alone.

[Lizzie48]

Daisy, you can put it better than I can, she is a pretty girl but the photos don’t show her natural self.

[Daisy]

Lizzie - thank you, but I got your meaning very well. I really want to get very nerdy and say the soft focus (close up) one I'd have sharpened her eyes slightly (put them into clearer focus), but then if I'd been behind the camera my hands would have been shaking with nerves and it would all have been blurred, never mind soft!

[Nanto2girls]

I like her. Not keen on the dressess she is wearing.
Lovely that she is wearing Diana's earrings in two of the photos.
If Diana was still here,i think she would love Kate.
The poses in the photos seem to be a classic for the royal family.
Princess Margaret,Queen Mother and the Queen, have all had photos in the same pose.

[Gemini]

Typical studio 'photo shoot' photos I suppose rather than the more natural ones we are used to seeing of her.

[Daisy]

Gem - you've hit the nail on the head, but I think in years to come those desaturated colours (done on Photoshop after the event) will reflect the difficult and dreary things we're all experiencing with Covid etc. I would love to have seen even one photo of her looking positive, vibrant and more natural.