Mark Cousins, Screenwriter, director, cinematographer...

Mark Cousins (IMDB) is another person with too many strings to his bow for me to list. Certainly he writes and is based in Edinburgh, which is enough for me.



Having been told of his boundless enthusiasm and extrovert tendencies (I did not, unlike previous photographers, get him to dance naked on camera) I had the image in my head of Mark perched on the castle esplanade, overlooking the city. As it turns out, he perches all over the place! But I hadn't allowed for the scorchingly bright sun - this being Edinburgh - so it would have been very tricky to get the shot I wanted. Instead we went around the outskirts of Arthur's Seat looking for places to perch.

I'm still frustrated at not getting what I was aiming for and may well ask him for a (twilight) rematch...

Jonathan Whiteside: Writer ,graphic novels

Jonathan Whiteside recently finished a Masters in Creative Writing at Napier University, where he specialised in writing comic book style fiction. Before I met him I had been told of him, and that he was being encouraged to take his studies further and do a PhD (A Doctor of Comics? How cool would that be!?). He's working on a book at the moment involving witches and insurance, set in Edinburgh.



I find that I'm drawn more to the eccentric images as I progress. I had the idea of Jonathan poking his head out from behind a bush like a very dapper woodland creature but there weren't any appropriate bushes. This was a tree I liked as we were wandering and when I went through the day's output it jumped out at me. Completely unlike anything I had intended, it looks more like a promotional shot for a stage show about fairies, but I really liked it.

Sophie Cooke: Author, poet, travel writer

It's difficult to cover everything Sophie (no blog, but she's on Wikipedia!) has done in the world of writing so I won't even try. Certainly she has published two novels (with a third on its way), short stories and a travel column in the Guardian; she won the ESRC Genomic Forum's poetry competition and has been nominated for a fair number of awards - all while holding down a job!



We had a wander (notice a trend?) from Jacob's Ladder and around the back of the Old Town, getting only a little bit rained on in the process. I had taken a very elemental feeling from her poetry and was hoping to convey that in the portrait, so when the wind started whipping her hair and skirt around I was very glad.

Despite this shot being very obviously lit by flash - which I generally dislike - it seemed to the the one, capturing something none of the others did.

Tracey S Rosenberg: Writer, Poet

Tracey was a recent recipient of the Scottish Book Trust's New Writers Award and is about to see her first novel published.



Tracey is a long term challenge for me, and partly to blame for me embarking on this project; as she was due to be published she needed a headshot but there weren't any good ones. We had a walk around George Square and Teviot Union, were dismayed by the bookcases with red lights in them and enjoyed blocking the spiral staircase on a Friday evening.

Keith Gray: Writer, young adult / teen

Keith comes from Grimsby but is very friendly. He does a lot of work with children for the Scottish Book Trust when not writing, talking to his parrot or making board games fun again.



As much of his writing seems to be quite urban and set against a backdrop of grim post-industrial northern England I liked the idea of setting Keith as a splash of colour and life against abandoned warehouses or industrial estates. We met in Granton and discovered that on a sunny day nothing looks particularly miserable. Once we were finished I realised that this image, unusual because he's rarely seen not smiling and laughing, was my clear favourite.

Aiko Harman: Poet

Aiko (blog blog here) is another volunteer at the Scottish Poetry Library, coming to us from Los Angeles. She blogs and writes poetry and oozes serenity and a sense of disarming intelligence. She said she would like to be photographed somewhere green and as she was going to be visiting the Botanic Gardens I agreed to meet her there.



On a previous visit I had spotted this archway leading up to the Chinese garden and filed it away, thinking it would be lovely in the spring. And we found it. And it was lovely.

I know there seem to be a lot of poets so far, but it's because I know a lot of them and their routines seem to match mine quite well.

Claire Askew: Poet and other things too

Claire does too many things for me to list, as you can see from this. She writes, teaches, organises and inspires which, coupled with the fact that I'd never seen a photograph that really looked like her meant that I had to try.



Because she's spent an astonishing proportion of her life to date attached to the University of Edinburgh she suggested that we try around the George Square area. After a bit of a wander and trying to get her to pose with attitude in the underpass, this one pleased me.