# 10 - Shasta Donegan - May 7, 2017 - Leesburg, Virginia
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
I received a text the other day from a friend of mine wanting to know "Are you needing anyone for 520?" I responded - "Sure! - you want to subject for it"?
"Nope - but my friend Shasta would photograph well. She is a taxidermist." - he texted back.
"Well I have to photograph her just for her name - but a taxidermist?.. that is pretty interesting."
So he put me in contact with Shasta Donegan and we set up for a photo shoot at her shop outside of Leesburg, Virginia. Shasta lives on three acres with her husband, daughter, and a menagerie of animals - chickens, goats, dogs, cats, and a pair of foxes. She lives in the home she grew up in and purchased it from her father a few years ago. She set up her taxidermy shop in the basement of their home. Most of Shasta's paid work comes from local deer hunters, but she often taxidermies all sorts of animals - crows, a rooster, squirrels, an elderly and sick horse that was later transformed into a unicorn, and many other animals. Shasta doesn't advertise her taxidermy business, she doesn't need to - she gets plenty of business via word of mouth. The local deer hunters alone keep her pretty busy. My buddy who is an avid deer hunter and put me in contact with Shasta says she "does some of the best noses I've ever seen on a taxidermied deer" - And he has seen a lot of mounted deer in his years.
There is an art and skill to taxidermy - it takes patience and time - it might take many months to finish a single animal depending on complexity.
For this shoot, I spent almost three hours from start to finish with Shasta. My philosophy is to "make every frame count" when I shoot for this project. I like to approach each photo like I'm building it and that I have a plan as to what will happen in each shot. First, I look for a location or have an idea for what will happen in the location. I set up the camera, choose the focal length of the lens and get the framing and composition I want. Then I bring in lighting. I can and often choose to move anything around once I'm set up. The light might need to move, the subject might need to turn, or the camera might need to move. I meter A LOT with a handheld meter. Since I'm not shooting Polaroids and not using a digital camera to pre-check the shot, I am relying a lot on my instincts and experience. Do this process ten times and time will go by pretty quickly. It is a bit unnerving to only shoot ten frames on a subject - but I like the challenge.
In the past, I would have shot several rolls of film for each setup getting a variety of expressions and poses. Shooting digitally is a bit of a different "game" - do a setup and make dozens of exposures until something looks good on the LCD screen on the back of the camera. Do another setup and repeat. A photographer pretty much instantly knows if the shots are working or not when photographing digitally, this is not at all the case with what I'm doing with the 520 project. This is much more about instinct. Not every frame is going to be a winner - but I think I should get at least one good image from each ten exposure photo shoot. If I can do that I think the shoot is a success.
"Nope - but my friend Shasta would photograph well. She is a taxidermist." - he texted back.
"Well I have to photograph her just for her name - but a taxidermist?.. that is pretty interesting."
So he put me in contact with Shasta Donegan and we set up for a photo shoot at her shop outside of Leesburg, Virginia. Shasta lives on three acres with her husband, daughter, and a menagerie of animals - chickens, goats, dogs, cats, and a pair of foxes. She lives in the home she grew up in and purchased it from her father a few years ago. She set up her taxidermy shop in the basement of their home. Most of Shasta's paid work comes from local deer hunters, but she often taxidermies all sorts of animals - crows, a rooster, squirrels, an elderly and sick horse that was later transformed into a unicorn, and many other animals. Shasta doesn't advertise her taxidermy business, she doesn't need to - she gets plenty of business via word of mouth. The local deer hunters alone keep her pretty busy. My buddy who is an avid deer hunter and put me in contact with Shasta says she "does some of the best noses I've ever seen on a taxidermied deer" - And he has seen a lot of mounted deer in his years.
There is an art and skill to taxidermy - it takes patience and time - it might take many months to finish a single animal depending on complexity.
For this shoot, I spent almost three hours from start to finish with Shasta. My philosophy is to "make every frame count" when I shoot for this project. I like to approach each photo like I'm building it and that I have a plan as to what will happen in each shot. First, I look for a location or have an idea for what will happen in the location. I set up the camera, choose the focal length of the lens and get the framing and composition I want. Then I bring in lighting. I can and often choose to move anything around once I'm set up. The light might need to move, the subject might need to turn, or the camera might need to move. I meter A LOT with a handheld meter. Since I'm not shooting Polaroids and not using a digital camera to pre-check the shot, I am relying a lot on my instincts and experience. Do this process ten times and time will go by pretty quickly. It is a bit unnerving to only shoot ten frames on a subject - but I like the challenge.
In the past, I would have shot several rolls of film for each setup getting a variety of expressions and poses. Shooting digitally is a bit of a different "game" - do a setup and make dozens of exposures until something looks good on the LCD screen on the back of the camera. Do another setup and repeat. A photographer pretty much instantly knows if the shots are working or not when photographing digitally, this is not at all the case with what I'm doing with the 520 project. This is much more about instinct. Not every frame is going to be a winner - but I think I should get at least one good image from each ten exposure photo shoot. If I can do that I think the shoot is a success.
edit