This month, I helped Preston Mangum (Photos By Magnum) shoot a wedding in Chariton. It was a blast working with him and the bride and groom were so much fun to work with. It was an awesome day, but by the end of it, everything hurt because of a few places where I made poor decisions. The wedding hangover that photographers talk about is a real phenomenon: the achy muscles, the sore feet, the general feeling of having just been hit by a truck. For me, it was in full swing before the wedding was even over.

My first mistake was poor footwear. I shot 8 hours in flip flops. That put me in a world of hurt by 9:45 that night. But the bigger reason I was hurting is the fact that I'm overweight. I could stand to lose at least 40lbs. Wedding photographers, especially, but all photographers need to be in decent enough shape to handle long days on their feet, squatting, kneeling, and sitting with gear in tow. I'm not saying we all need to be ripped, but we need to be able to perform certain tasks for long periods of time. Shooting a wedding or doing even a two-hour shoot can be physically demanding. Over the course of a wedding, I find myself getting on the ground, kneeling, leaning down and working around my lead photographer. For kids especially, I find myself kneeling. This is all on top of being on your feet for hours at a time. None of that goes especially easy on your body.

We all know that when we eat right and exercise, we just function better and stay healthier. I'm not going to give you a crash course on nutrition, because that's far from my area of expertise. I can say that I, like many people, regularly fail at eating right. It's not easy, especially when cake and Skittles exist. While everything hurt on Sunday, one thing that has never given me problems but hurt last weekend was my knees. This was a huge wakeup call for me, as I have at least 7 more weddings to shoot this summer. My knees were sore. After talking to my dad about it, he said he had similar issues when he used to run, and we figured it out that it's because I need to lose some weight.

Shooting that wedding opened up a whole new set of goals for myself. I've already met one of them by purchasing a new pair of shoes. My next goal is to lose 6lbs by May 25th, my next wedding, and 7 lbs by June 2nd, when I have another wedding. I'm also going to try stretching every night, specifically my traps and my hip flexors. I hear tightness in those two muscle groups can be responsible for a lot of pain. If I can meet these goals, this summer can only get easier for me. Looking forward to feeling better and making more beautiful images!