i wasn't going to take this picture. or rather a picture of this car—i prefer more vintage, classic cars. but the owner, carl, asked me nicely to take a few shots of his car. he told me it was a '74, but looking around on the net, closest i can find is a '77, so i'll take your word for it, carl.
so this is one of many reasons why i typically won't work for hire: letting the owner art direct. i know it would have been a fine shot from the other side, as he wanted, but the sun was beginning to set, and i had to show him how my tripod and me would cast a fine shadow across the car. i was going to do my thing, my style – i'd showed him my book of prints—but he had his own picture in his head. he wanted this, a shot that was more typical, showing more of the length of the car.
i wasn't going to go into discussions on the limitations or expections on what you get from the lens i use. i should have moved in closer for this shot, but i was just going with it for him. geez, i think he was starting to remind me of my dad, and you can't really argue with him when he thinks he's right.
i had to get him to trust me that it would be just as good from this side. i even let him look in the camera to see if it was the shot he wanted. in fact, from this side, you start to get the beginning of the sunset in the sky...maybe i should have told him to wait a bit even, to pick up even more color. he was having a hard enough time getting other owners from parking around him, afraid it would ruin his shot.
i hope he sees this and likes it enough to buy the print, but now i'm wondering if he would have preferred a more typical photographer just doing a typical picture. hey carl, if you don't like it, it won't bother me if you don't want to buy it. i think i'm just reacting to letting someone else tell me what to do and how to do it, instead of trusting myself and my own eyes.
so i'm posting this just for him, and i hope he doesn't take my commentary wrong, but it's meant with love. trust the artist, then either like it or don't.