Many years ago, for our final group project in Advertising Photography class at RIT, we were assigned to do a "Period Piece." Our first inclination was to do a shot of Knights in Armor over at The University of Rochester. There was actually a club dedicated to Knights in Armor that was going to let us waltz in and shoot a few shots of their display for an easy shoot that was supposed to take weeks of planning. We waited to the last minute and the club said we could not have access as they were tied up studying for their finals. We had less than a week before the assignment was due and had nothing to show for it. We brainstormed and came up with "Bonnie & Clyde." One guy in our group found the car, another found the outfits and models and I did the photography. The day of the print presentation in Advertising Photo class, everyone lined up their best images along the wall. The lead instructor (who was a retired high-end Advertising photographer from Chicago) went down the line making his comments for each image and skipped over ours for some reason until he reached the end of the line. We thought he was going to single us out for waiting until the last minute and then trying to pass off a quick effort. He skipped over ours to come back to it to make the comment that he thought our piece was the best he had seen among all the assignments for the entire year. Just blew our minds...
Toyo-View 4x5 Camera, Nikkor 210mm Lens. 4x5 Tri-X. Exposure unrecorded.