We shot the King of Coins on the same day as the Queen of Coins, as you may notice by the overlap in the bounteous feast in the photos. They’re similar cards in feel (at least to me), the main difference being that the Queen is internally concerned (abundance and protection of the self, the creative, the home, the fields) where the King is more external (abundance and protection of the kingdom, the era, the land).

King of Coins 1.2

I often feel as though the King and Queen of Coins are like the less dramatic versions of the Emperor and Empress in the Major Arcana- more so than the royalty of the other suits- primarily because the suit of coins is associated with Earth, and the Emperor and Empress are both (to me) cards of the self writ large- the physical self, the actions thereof, and the world surrounding.

King of Coins 2.3

I’m not thrilled with how these turned out, but I think they’ll do ok. I do like some of the angles I was able to shoot- it was difficult, because immediately out of the frame on pretty much all sides is furniture and rugs, which I was trying very hard to not get in the frame. I also always try with the Kings to shoot Stephanie from more traditionally “masculine” angles- whether we’re aware of it or not, we tend to shoot women from above, and men from below, which makes women seem smaller and more delicate, and men seem larger and over-leaning. With the Kings, especially since Stephanie is petite, I try to shoot her as large and spaciously as I can. I think that does come across especially in the first shot of this series.

King of Coins 3.3

Because we were shooting at my house, and on my floor, I had a very difficult time convincing my cats that Stephanie was not, in fact, sitting around waiting to pet them. By the end, it was getting to be more trouble than it was worth to keep Gandalf out of the shots, and I decided it was entirely appropriate to have both a cat and a wizard in the King of Coins, so there he is, looking at the viewer with no little disdain.

King of Coins 4.1

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