Kate Middleton is pretty good at accidentally making people feel bad about themselves. She's gorgeous, rich, and well, come on, she married a Prince. But there's one thing the Duchess of Cambridge isn't good at: taking posed photos. During a visit to some the Australian landmark Ayers Rock this week, Middleton and Prince William stopped to take some "candid" photos. She seemed uncomfortable in front of the lens so Prince William tried joking with her saying, "So, what shall we talk about?" The couple managed to throw together a mock conversation punctuated with Will pointing to random things and saying, "So, that's something there," all while they tried really hard not to swat at the flies that kept buzzing around them. "It was difficult," Middleton admitted after the awkward photo session was over.
Yes, there are a lot of pretty candid pictures of her playing with George and waving to crowds, but when it comes time to take a staged photograph — a staple of the monarchy — she just looks plain awkward. It turns out the recipe for a great Kate Middleton photograph is for her to have something to do, whether it's trying to control wiggly her wiggly son, or carrying bouquets that her adoring public hands over. Her downfall comes when it's the sole goal of the outing to just get a photo.
Believe it or not, those staged circumstances didn't end up make for the most flattering of photos. (Shocking, I know.) We got some awkward shots of their fake conversation:
And even the posed portrait looked stiff, sort of like a bad prom photo. You know, the kind where the guy is afraid to touch the girl in front of her parents so they both just kind of stand there not knowing what to do with their hands?
But this isn't the first time Middleton has looked awkward in pictures. Earlier on the New Zealand/Australia tour she and Prince William took another staged shot and looked just about the same as above, but they had switched places.
And a few days before that they had another similar pic, this time the only difference was Will's hands were clasped in front. Do you think it's a Royal rule that he isn't allowed to put his arms around her in public?
Then there's the time she had to pose for Prince George's christening and we got to see an almost plastic-looking version of her.
At the time I attributed that shot to a long day probably taking a thousand photos to get Prince George to look cute, but now I see that Kate Middleton is just like us, she can't take a normal-looking posed photo. But she shouldn't feel bad about that, posed photos are the worst. They actually make me anxious because I never know what to do with my hands.
But neither does Kate Middleton. She just kind of awkwardly holds them in front of her, probably wishing she had Prince George to deflect some of the attention. This revelation about Middleton not being good at staged photos shows that she's just as much of a normal person as we are. Granted with a lot more money, but money can't make you naturally photogenic. So there's your daily confidence boost: not even the Duchess of Cambridge is good at being in front of the camera.
Images: fanpop; Tumblr/duchessofc