I recently had the opportunity to shoot headshots & promo photos for a local teacher & children’s book author. Aly needed shots to help promote herself as well as her hilarious children’s book she’s shopping to publishers. Besides a creative author she’s also an excellent teacher and tutor.

The only direction Aly gave me was that she wanted some brick wall photos (which I’m not really a big fan of) so I instead found a wall that had some really interesting textures to stood in place of the bricks. As a little bonus, It had a really cool doorway that we utilized to a cool effect. Another bonus was that the wind was swirling around making her hair bounce around and giving the photos a sense of action. I also wanted to take some shots with Aly in context as a writer so we headed for the library and got some shots with books & children in the foreground/background.

Then as we were wrapping up, I looked over at the sunset and it was vibrant so I offered up a change of plans. So off we headed for a clearer view to grab some portraits with the sunset background.

This shoot was a ball. Aly started out—like everyone does—a bit shy in front of the camera. Yet, a few shots in she was owning it and really got some great images. Check out the doorway shots for example. She did so well in fact, I’m convinced she’s spent years in front of the lens, even though she still denies it.

Here are the photos. Click to see them larger.