Once got a call from a local ad/marketing outfit, they wanted some promo shots of a credit card embossing operation in Miami. I flew down with two cases. One with the Nikons and optics, one with half a dozen Vivitar strobes, various colored filters and scrims and some Reflectasol brollies. Once in the facility, the "art director" (a subject in and of itself) seemed unhappy. As we went around the place and he gave me some idea what he was looking for, he then "came clean" with the questions: "You have no assistants? Where are the lights? Where is the Hasselblad gear?"

I just told him I had a small stellar event contained in one case and the end-use for the images being a tri-fold "envelope stuffer" to mail with credit card bills, the 35mm 'chromes would do the job quite well. I used color gels and wide lenses, some close-up (macro) shots of cards by the hundreds... how "dramatic" can a card embossing process be(?), made plenty of images and left without seeing that guy again. The check cleared and the resulting brochure was quite nice in the end. But never got another Miami job from that agency. I didn't have a traveling circus to salve the art director's ego. The end product was secondary, apparently.