His wife thought there should be more smiles... so the creative director canned the shoot and went another way... WTF?

And with this comment, in less than 10 seconds he was miraculously able to make a 180-degree turn and decided she was right. In what the previous day he thought was the best one-day shoot of his career, had now turned into a dismal failure without one good picture. He told me he had gone through the whole set of contact sheets again, and could not find a single frame he liked. Oh the power of wives! Photographers should have fear and loathing and sickness unto death at the thought of some wife or sister overseeing one’s work. He said he wanted to do the shoot over again, this time with everyone smiling, but I refused. I told him the pictures were good (as he originally thought) and that I had done the best that I could. With that he said goodbye, hired another photographer who shot the same men smiling in banal, predictable poses. I got paid but I realized that fame, fortune, and glory are as fleeting as a smile.

via rodneysmith.com

Jaysus!

This was a Creative Director who had NO FUKIN IDEA of what was good unless he ran it by his wife?

I wonder if the ad agency he worked for knew that the final arbiter for this highly paid CD was his wife?

After 40 years in this business, I can certainly believe it. I have had the most inane reasons for choosing a different color or going another direction... wives, husbands, boy/girl friends, aunts/uncles/grandmas... even "my dog doesn't like that color..."

Yes... the dog.

But it is all in a days work, and we simply do the best we can to provide the best work we can.

Remember this when you get that call... you may not be shooting for the person you think you are shooting for.

You may be shooting for his wife.

Or dog.