A favorite black and white image of one of my favorite assistants, automatically colorized by Lightroom's Neural Filter: Colorize.

I have been blessed through my entire working life to have had wonderful, brilliant and joyful assistants. People who were always ready for some zany new adventure. People who kept me on the right track. 

I always valued how straightforward Renae was to me. She would never hesitate, on the morning of a shoot, to take a long look at my clothes and my shoes and ask me, point blank: "You're really going to wear that?" Followed by, "Did B. see what you picked before you left the house?" Whereupon I would sigh and go back in the house to change into something more...approvable. 

An occasional addition suggest sometimes followed... "And while you are in the house maybe don't forget to clip those nose hairs...." 

Perhaps having a painfully honest, much younger assistant, is the key to a photographer's chance at success.