In October we held another headshot session for authors at the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia.

The first time I did one of these I was ridiculously nervous at the prospect of shooting so many portraits back to back. Would the window light work for me or against me? Would I have enough time for each person? Would the backdrop of the room work for everyone? It went better than I could have hoped. And it turned out to be a great way to meet a lot of writers in my community. We're kind of notorious for locking ourselves away at the desk. I think this is my fourth or fifth time offering this session now. It's an affordable way for writers and artists to have a professional headshot done while supporting other authors. This time we were raising funds for the Elizabeth Venart Prize. 

In the past I've used locations like the Halifax Central Library and the Delmore Buddy Daye Learning Institute. Both made for excellent locations with plenty of window light and colourful furniture for variety. This time I wanted to pair this session with another portrait session including pets. So, knowing the WFNS has a dog-friendly environment and lots of books to serve as a background, I decided to set up there. On Thursday we did authors on their own and on the Saturday we did photos of dogs with their people (yo'll see a future post with those shots).

These sessions are about 20 minutes, rather than my usual one hour shoot. People sometimes bring a change of accessories or different layer so we can have a variety of looks.  If you're interested in taking part in one of these you can follow me and/or the Writers' Federation on social media. We're sure to do another one in the spring.

Below you'll see some of the headshots with Lesley Crewe, donalee Moulton, Kelly Markovich, Patrick d'Entremont and Sue MacLeod. I haven't finished all of the images yet as not everyone has made their selections. After a portrait session I post a proof gallery where people can choose their favourites and make any retouching requests. So these are the ones people chose as their favourites.