Nicola Morgan

Nicola is one of those writers who engages very well with her audience. I met her at the Book Festival last year when there was a sudden need for a picture of her in the yurt [The Yurt is where the authors hang out and nobody is allowed to take pictures in there; we had to cheat and do it in the Press yurt] and afterwards I noticed that although there are plenty of images of her there are few portraits, so I wanted to collect her.



She has access to the secret gardens which cover half of Calton Hill and I merrily took the opportunity to have a nose around. I could have spend hours shooting people up there...

Andrew Philip

Andrew has so many fingers in pies that I'm not even going to attempt a summary - check out his website. We met near the Scottish Parliament on a lovely sunny day which rapidly turned to rain, quenching my clever plans. But he was a good sport and we managed to get a few nice shots.

Colin McGuire: Not as crazy as he'd have you think

The first person for this batch was Colin McGuire (blog). Originally from Glasgow he's settled into Edinburgh's literary scene quietly but comfortably, dropping poetry around him as he goes. He suggested we meet at the underpass behind the Musem as it once hosted an momentous romantic occasion. I hesitated as previously Claire Askew had been placed there but in the end we had a go. I particularly like the roof of the underpass here as, along with the square crop, it hints at a classic Hasselblad look...

Working on a sequel

I've not put this project to sleep but it's certainly had a few naps. As part of a college project to produce images suitable for a stock library I'm going to be working up ten submissions to Writer Pictures, a local stock library specialising in - yes, pictures of writers! I do love being able to do things at once. So, watch this space, rapid-fire updates imminent!

Keith Ridgway: Morose and reluctantly photogenic

Keith, an Irish writer, had been living in Edinburgh for a while and was about to leave again so I rushed to collect him. A wander through the Dean Valley provided some lovely pictures of him but being a modest chap he doesn't think he looks good in them. Tsk.

Ari & Lizzie Cass-Maran: Not just for boys

Being able to combine school work with my own was such a thrill that I wanted more. I spoke to Ari about trying to do something with her involving a big frame - like a comic but an actual physical version. This would make sense because she had recently started up Graphic Scotland. While plotting this image someone pointed out that she had set it up with her wife, Lizzie. So to be reasonable I had to expand the idea to include two people...

I decided that building a huge wooden frame for an effect which could actually be done more appropriately in post-production was perhaps a touch wasteful. The line 'Comic books - not just for boys' came into my head while tossing ideas around and suddenly I knew what I wanted to do. Very accommodatingly they let me invade their boudoir and rearrange it to my liking (pausing to chap to their lovely cat) in order to come up with this shot.

Sara Sheridan: Very modern histories

I bump into Sara all over the place; she writes historical fiction and seems to be quite good at it, judging by her success. During the Book Festival I asked if she would let me add her to my collection and happily she agreed! Of course, there's been no time at all since then to catch up on my to do list because of crazy deadlines so nothing much happened.

This week we were given an assignment at college to produce an editorial portrait, outdoors, showing something of the person's hobby/occupation... so I jumped at the chance to kill two birds with one stone. Within two hours of emailing her to ask if she was available I had booked her into Miss Dixiebelle for a 50s hairdo (her forthcoming novel Brighton Belle, described as a 'cozy crime noir', is set in 1950s Brighton); in the morning I went to borrow an iPad and find a feather.