Today, I have a cover shoot scheduled for late in the day in South Florida. This morning, the owners of the dog I'm shooting emailed and said the breeder had an "amazing" photo that she thought would make a great cover. Un huh. So, I asked if the breeder could send us a copy of the image. The breeder doesn't have a scanner.

So, the trip to South Florida will take us about 2 hours. The current temps are 90 degrees and the chance of showers at around 6 pm, when it should start to cool down, is about 80 percent. Without seeing the "amazing" photo, we can't cancel the shoot but if it truly is amazing then we wouldn't have to go through with it. So I suggested that the owners drive across town, get the print, scan it and send it to us. Which they did.

The "amazing" photo was taken at the Atlanta shows, indoors, at very high ISO and the dog is actually in silhouette. He is also posting (rocked back off of his front) and has his tongue out. The breeder claims that the photographer can "fix" the lighting issues. I claim that if she could, she would have. Plus, I'd never run that image as a cover photo under any circumstances.

So, after an hour of discussions, the photo shoot is back on. It's going to be a difficult situation since we'll be shooting outdoors but whatever we get will be better than the "amazing" image provided by the breeder. I asked if the breeder had paid for that image and they said "yes". Personally, I would have dumped it. It never would have made my "keepers" folder.

It all goes to illustrate both the lack of professional skill at the photographer end and the lack of taste of people on the buying end. Can people really not tell the difference between a good image and a bad one? Or is that more naive than any question I've ever asked in my life?

Jim