TITLE: A celebration of Elizabeth II's 91st birthday


The official date of the queen’s birthday owes its origins to the age-old dilemma of fickle British weather, and it’s a tradition that started way back in 1748 with King George II, who was born in November 1683. The royals, even back then, loved an over-the-top outdoor celebration, but the frosty chill of a November birthday was rather inconvenient for this sort of fun. Because King George didn’t want to put his subjects at risk of getting ill, his birthday celebration was merged with the annual Trooping the Colour parade, which was traditionally held in June. Before that, Trooping the Colour was strictly a military event in which regiments would display their flags, or “colors,” so that soldiers could familiarize themselves with these colors before a battle.

The idea of a summertime birthday parade caught on, and the tradition continues to this day, with all British sovereigns granted the option of inheriting an “official” birthday. The spring day of April 21 was deemed too chilly for Queen Elizabeth’s opulent bash, so she went with the safer (and warmer) June alternative. Although the date is technically associated with Trooping the Colour in the U.K., commonwealth nations around the world mandate its recognition as a public holiday.

As for the Saturday element, the royals decided to set the date on a weekend so that more members of the public could enjoy the festivities without having to worry about their work schedules.

AUTHOR: Eduard Baikoff (United States)

My name is Eduard Baikoff. I am an amateur photographer. I came to America in the early 1990s from Belarus. Leaving Belarus or Russia in the early 1990s when the "cold curtain" fell was challenging. In spite of this, I always wanted to see more of the world, and I saw living in a new, very culturally different country like the US as a great opportunity to expand my horizons. The collectivist mentality of the Soviet Union was very different from the mentality of the West. In this new world, I had to undergo a huge mental shift in order to adapt and find my place. Since I was born and raised in East Berlin, then raised in the Soviet Union, and now live in the United States, my understanding of the world has been
greatly enriched.
Discovering my passion for photography, I immediately knew what I wanted to capture. I use the camera’s lens to uncover extraordinary moments we can only see through a camera’s lens. It is fascinating how photographs help us to see the world in a different context. To me, photography is about catching a passing moment to make an emotional connection to the world we live in.