Queen of Cups 1.1

The Queen of Cups was shot in January, and given that we were both more than a little ill, it was probably one of our least enjoyable shoots. But we were trying to finish off the last of the Cups so that we could get started on the Coins, and so we soldiered onward.

Queen of Cups 2.2

Our original idea had been to have Stephanie stand in a river or stream in front of a bridge, and raising up a glass- sort of a “offerings from the river of the unconscious” idea. We’d found a possible bridge location up in Wildcat Canyon, but when it came time to do it, the thought of hiking in the cold rain was just not an appealing one. Also, standing in cold water in January didn’t seem like the best recovery plan for either of us. Fortunately, there’s a lovely stone bridge on Cal campus, and class was still not in session, so we went ahead and shot there.

Queen of Cups 3.2

We’d wanted a more medieval-ish air for this queen, but unfortunately the best costume we could find and afford at the time was a sort of renaissance-y halloween costume. It looks alright in the photos; the color is nice; but I would have rather something a little more authentic.

Queen of Cups 4.2

All told, I’m actually surprised that the shots turned out as well as they did- I’d rather thought it was going to be a wash. In a lot of the outtakes you can really tell that Stephanie was sick as a dog, and I was also definitely not doing my best work. But the editing process pulled them through enough that they’re not an automatic re-shoot. I still feel like they’re in the “didn’t work to potential” category, so we might end up re-shooting anyway, but we definitely don’t have to.

Queen of Cups 5.1

The full flickr set is here, and Stephanie’s blog is here. And don’t forget the blackwidowhoney site, where you can see all the cards with additional interpretive blogs from both of us.