A VETERAN Hampshire photographer has taken a special portrait of the Queen to mark her 80th birthday later this month.
Jane Bown, of Alresford, took the picture at Buckingham Palace at the end of February.
Miss Bown who is herself 80, captured the monarch in black and white for her employers, The Observer Sunday newspaper.
She described it as the pinnacle of her 50-year career.
Her invitation to the palace came after she had joked to her bosses that "one 80-year-old could photograph the other".
Miss Bown, a grandmother-of-four who has lived in Alresford for ten years, has captured hundreds of celebrities on camera but she said that taking a picture of the Queen had "stopped her in her tracks".
She added: "It was the pinnacle of my career.
"I still have to get used to it."
The black and white portrait shows the Queen sitting, looking relaxed, wearing her pearls.
The Daily Echo will be producing a special supplement marking Her Majesty's birthday.
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