Quick & dirty

I got a last-minute call from Maybach saying that Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis, from the TV programme Dragons’ Den, were having a meeting at the Grosvenor Hotel in London - could I pop down and do a quick profile photo of them with their cars?
As is often the case when dealing with high profile businessmen, I was warned I'd have a couple of minutes tops to do this in
(in my early days I once had to do a portrait of the head of Dixons DURING a board meeting, because he couldn't possibly spare a minute for me before or after. In my fluster, I forgot to load any film and started snapping away. I realised my mistake just as he motioned that he'd had enough of me. Mumbling something about having to change film from B&W to colour, I loaded a fresh cartridge into the empty camera and snapped 3 frames before he barked me out of the room. Luckily one frame was all they wanted, and I got away with it. Just.)
Anyway, while Theo and Peter were in their meeting I asked their drivers to put the cars into a V in front of the hotel. I knew direct flash would just reflect off the cars' bonnets and licence plates, so got my client to act as a mobile light stand, holding a remote flash up and off to my left. I metered the ambient light, setting it slightly under on my camera, and made a few test exposures for the flash.
When the boys came out to play I shot some variations on this theme, changing my angle of view and height - but, as briefed, was all done in under 2 minutes.