I read this on Chase Jarvis’s blog today.

Look here. You’ve got to realize–and I get sick to my stomach every day when I listen to people who don’t get this–that you are getting hired by people for your creative vision and your ability to execute. You’re a professional. You’re not a monkey with a trigger finger and a D90. If you’re getting hired, you have vision. Period. And you’ve got to trust that vision and better yet, you’ve got to put it to use.

A vast majority of the ADs [Art Directors], CDs [Creative Directors], PEs [Photo Editors], want nothing more than to be associated with making exceptional work. But like most photographers I know (myself included for years and years in my past) the people who hire you are also driven by fear and the false belief that good commercial or editorial art meets baseline objectives (this color, this composition, this expression). Everyone on set is protecting their mortgages. Well, I’m here to tell you that that’s, in large part, crap. And it is crap that happens to be is in a self-perpetuating cycle, unless you choose to smash it. Good art meets baseline objectives, but then kicks them on their head, walks all over them, lights some of ‘em on fire and finds a new solution that wasn’t even in the creative brief. Call it magic? I don’t care what you want to call it. But once you get the “client happy” picture in the can (and never run amok without getting that “happy” shot in the can…NEVER without it, because remember the mortgages…) that’s when you should push hard. Turn the concept on its head. Ask for permission to go nuts and try things and break rules and create something that means something to you inside, even if the schedule only gives you ten minutes. Keep that AD from boredom. Keep her mortgage, but give her an opportunity to share in that rare thing that got you hired instead of somebody else. Just try it.

These are the times when truly remarkable pictures get made. When you push your AD, they get fired up and throw some ideas right back. Your creative energy will be contagious. And in the end, if you’ve done well, your AD will thank you for it. And you should thank them right back. Because they’ll come back to the shop looking like a hero, which–if you can create something that feels great to you and makes them look good at the same time–is exactly what your job is really about.

This is one of those things that I’ve always struggled with professionally. I try and go above and beyond for my clients, but it’s always giving them what they say they want, and not necessarily creating something TOTALLY different that is my vision for the shoot. But even before reading this on Chase’s Blog I’d made the commitment to make my photography MINE. To only shoot what I wanted to shoot, regardless of subject matter. People hire creatives for their vision and for their craft, not for technical prowess.