I Still Get Jealous...

Shauna Rai, photo by Lauren Kennedy

It's no secret that at times, I am totally jealous of Shaunna Rai. Today (Sunday) gave me yet another reason to be jealous.
Today was a photo shoot with a local photographer, Lauren Kennedy.

Dan got up early, to get Shaunna together, for a 10:30 am appointment. I slept in, if you can consider sleeping until 8:30 am sleeping in. By the time I got up, Shaunna was already taking shape.

We got to the location for the shoot, Lauren's mother's house, before Lauren. She'd gone to get coffee.  She was back minutes after we got there, but, not before I was convinced that I was at the wrong house.

Lauren showed us in, and let us know kind of what to expect from the shoot. She had some questions for Shaunna about drag, that came out, throughout the shoot. 

Shaunna Rai,
photo by Lauren Kennedy

The first question was about pronouns, a topic that I feel like I'm relatively well versed in. I was glad I didn't try to answer for Shaunna, though, when she gave her answer. "Some people want you to use the pronoun that fits how they look. I, personally don't care either way. If you call me Dan when I'm Shaunna, I'll look. Just like if you call me Shaunna when I'm Dan, I'll look. To me it doesn't really make a difference, they're both me."  She then talked about how there are some queens, such as Mizery, who she has known for decades, but has no idea what Mizery's actual name is.

While Shaunna got into the first outfit, I talked with Lauren about whether it would be okay for me to take pictures of her taking pictures, for the blog. She said that would be fine, and encouraged me to get up and take pictures while she took hers.

"If you could turn this way..."

The first round of shots were to get the lighting right. As everything was being shot with a digital camera, I took adadvantage of being able to see the pictures as they were taken.  Once these shots were taken, she went to town. I thought that I took a lot of pictures,  as my average per show is about 100-150 useable shots...I'm sure that the total was well over twice that of shots in general.  Between having the vision and the speed with which the camera recovered from the flash, I was super jealous.


Lauren asked Shaunna about Drag Mothers. What are they,  exactly,  and are you one? Shaunna is drag mother to Jacinda, although,  she tries to avoid saying that she's anyone's drag mother. She would much prefer to be referred to as their "fairy drag mother," as Bunny Wonderland once called her.

Red Ribbon Gown, 
photo by Lauren Kennedy

For a little bit,  I got to play Shaunna's personal assistant...helping with costume changes, getting jewelry ready for this shot or that, and a couple times, I jumped to keep the lights from falling on someone. Oh, and a couple times, I ran to shoo Lauren's cats out of Shaunna's suitcase.

As Lauren posed Shaunna,  I often was looking at the pose from a much different angle, and had no idea how the picture was going to look good.  "Put your hand like this, but away from your face." What I saw made no sense, but apparently, translated much better from where she was standing.

"Just like that."

During another costume change, Lauren asked me about what I do...aside from writing the blog.  I explained about being a DSP and working in a group home.  And, lo and behold, she had actually done DSP work, as an ovenight staff.  I often forget how many agencies there are that provide long term and/or short term care for people.  And, it's always nice to be able to talk about my job, when I'm talking to someone who has actually done the work before, because they can understand some of the frustrations that other people may not.

Shaunna came back out, in the last outfit, and after what seemed like a million pictures,  the shoot was over. I was a little sad, because there were so many outfits that Shaunna had brought along, that never got used.  I jokingly said later, that Lauren just wanted to shoot Shaunna naked.

One of my shots of Shaunna Rai

Lauren who had been using her laptop to bring up a Pinterest board with pictures that she was using for inspiration for the shoot, took the memory card, and started uploading the images into her laptop, asking Shaunna to go through and mark the pictures that she liked.  Even the pictures that were just the pre-shoot test shots were amazing.

Lauren asked about if there were any photographers who only took pictures of queens.  Shaunna mentioned a couple of names of photographers (that I don't remember).  Really, the only name that came to mind for me was Jose Guzman Colon, who has shot a few of the RuPaul girls's pictures, that tend to be used mostly for promotional materials.  Lauren then talked about wanting to do some more shoots, with other drag queens, and maybe doing some group shots, and that sort of thing.  Shaunna was totally interested in doing something like that, and made sure to say so.

And, now, I'm jealous.  I want to have a photo shoot of my own.  Not that I expect much from it.  I'm far less photogenic than Shaunna is.  And, like everything else in my life, when I'm in front of the camera, I'm awkward.  I smile like a Cheshire cat, and look like a goofball.  But, I still wouldn't mind having some pictures of myself so that I could pretend for a few days that I'm famous enough for someone to want to take my pictures.