You really never know when a shoot is going to go well or just suck. Sometimes the most exciting sounding things "Go to Mexico and shoot a pregnant Mom in a Mexican prison praying over her deceased lover during a flower festival in the middle of a riot"(I made this up btw). There would be a 50-50 chance something like this could just not work visually. You just never know. Then there are shoots that sound mundane that turn out quite nice. "Go shoot a guy with his dogs"(this is not made up). I was commissioned to photograph Dr. Larry Hansen with his dogs at his home and was given(due to fading light) about 20 minutes. It was 7:30 pm and I had to make it happen. To add to the agony, he had Four of the most untrained, wild, misbehaven dogs I have ever encountered. There was to be no pretty shot of man with his dogs looking happy and calm into the camera. After quickly realizing this, I just decided to roll with the chaos. I told Larry to just sit there and I'd catch the dogs doing there thing. Luckily, they all pooped out after about 15 minutes and I was able to get them sitting around him. I then decided to get him walking them around his neighborhood. With darkness about 10 minutes off and no chance of getting a shot without blur, I went for the pan shot and to my surprise it worked. Moral of the story, don't ever get cocky and think you'll come back with great shots until you get there. Great photos can happen when you least expected.
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