Several years ago I got a call from an ad agency in the midwest. They needed a shot of a train on a well-manicured main line with wooden ties. Their client was a tie-manufacturer (guess who). Anyway, the shot had to be a vertical and show a tall forest, a train and (prominent) tracks on wooden ties. I had a shot that worked beautifully except for the concrete ties...
Anyway, they were on a tight schedule and asked if I could set up such a shot. I made a few phone calls and gave them two quotes...one close to me (MRL in Montana) and one close to them (A&M in Arkansas). They wanted more specifics on the Arkansas shoot and like a dummy, I gave it to them...location I had in mind, helicopter to be used, etc., etc. Shot them a price again., which was probably 20 percent lower than a commercial (non-railfan) photog would have charged. I even left the air fare out of the equation since I'd utilize a Delta freebie that was about to expire. Anyway, I heard nothing after that. Figured they would go with some other kind of art...digitally-altered photo, line drawing or something else So you can imagine how PISSED OFF I was when, two months later, the exact photo I envisioned appeared in a Kerr-McGee ad in railway age, shot in Arkansas on the A&M, from a helicopter! Moral: if an ad agency ever contacts you about setting up shots (professional liars that they are) don't tip your hand, even slightly! --> SPORRS: Serious Photographers of Railroad Related Subjects X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 3860
