Lieutenant Dan saved my wedding career

[Read Time - 3 Minutes]

This is a somewhat peculiar and personal segment to cover in a newsletter about wedding photography, but is it an "inside" issue? Yup, it certainly is and I'm pretty sure you'll never see or read about this from another photography magazine or blog.

The mystery topic…taking care of your feet.

I was about six years into my wedding photography career. I was shooting every weekend, and at the end of each night, I was miserable.

When I woke the next morning, my legs, feet and hips were in tremendous pain, and I could barely walk. This was not good.

My career was taking off, and after each wedding, I felt like an octogenarian. Something had to change.

On one memorably debilitating Sunday afternoon, I was watching the movie Forrest Gump…with my feet up, of course.

When Forrest and Bubba landed in Vietnam, the first person they met was their commanding officer, Lieutenant Dan Taylor. He had two standing orders for his platoon: "One, take good care of your feet, and two, try not to do anything stupid."

This is good advice, and if it was good enough for soldiers in combat, it was good enough for wedding photographers.

I started with the shoes. I decided NOT to go down the road of horrible-looking orthopedic shoes. I have some pride and at least a small amount of fashion sense, after all. My shoes needed an upgrade, and I bought some good ones.

I'll let you decide what "good" is for you, but I'd suggest something around $100-$200. They need to be quality leather shoes with a good build and great support (no fashion slipper here!).

It's amazing what a difference a high-quality pair of shoes can make.

I noticed the difference the very next weekend. I still felt fatigued at the end of the night, but at least I could walk the next morning with only a small amount of pain.

The next step (no pun intended) - my socks. Lieutenant Dan's advice finally hit home.

Full disclosure: I'm not a fancy sock guy. I know it's cool for some, and at the time, it was trendy to wear bright-colored socks and appear all edgy in your dark pants. That was not for me. I'm moving a LOT on the wedding day, so I needed socks that would stay up all day and not look like mini legwarmers every 20 minutes (shout out to those who remember the 80s).

I went with the looong black dress socks that honestly look like they came out of the 80s. Those suckers came up to just below my knee, and thanks to the industrial-strength elastic band, they stayed up no matter how active I was. But then I added my own personal touch...

Athletic socks first, then dress socks. Don't laugh, they worked.

I went with the anklet-style so my ankles didn't look like I was nine months pregnant.

Were they difficult to put on, you bet! Did they give me a cushiony support that kept me moving all day? Absolutely! And not only did I feel great at the end of the night, but I'd wake up the next morning and feel like I didn't work at all, despite working a 12 hour wedding just 7 hours earlier.

This changed everything for me, and I know this sounds stupid, but I wouldn't have made it to over 25 years of shooting weddings without this odd wardrobe change.

Now, on to Lieutenant Dan's second order.

…OK, I'm still working on that one.

Taking care of your feet and extending the life of your wedding career is just one of the little parts of the "inner game of wedding photography. THIS is what I write about each week in this newsletter.

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If you're interested in becoming a wedding photographer but don't know where to start, I can help.

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