I had a Photo shoot workout with a friend and fellow photographer, and after I could barely move the next day, I realized I may have stumbled upon something. Yes, I’m gonna patent it, back off. 
Eat your heart out zumba, I’m finally gonna be rich!!
Let me introduce you to the
The Photographer’s Workout!
Crunches
This entails laying on either your back or side to get that perfect angle! Lift your upper body (and that 100 lb camera) 90 degrees off of the ground. Repeat 10 shots reps. All photographers will have rock hard abs in no time!
Crab Walk
This is especially effective while chasing babies and toddlers, or staying out of view during weddings. This must not be done too many times…..or your body may indeed stick like this.
Weightlifting
Here we have our models demonstrating the different weights available; newborns or teddy bears. Remember, as with all workouts, please consult your doctor to ensure you are in proper physical health to lift weights. Do not try to lift the toddler boy your first time doing this workout. They are made of rocks
Toe touches
Without actually ever touching your toes. I’m not even sure I could reach my toes. Wait, I’m not sure I can even see my toes… do my shoes match?
These can be done in various forms: reaching out to your client, or held for 30 minutes over a sleeping baby in a basket. Both are quite effective in toning your core.
The Walk
Whether with attitude, chasing a runaway baby, or stalking a wedding party, this promises to leave you winded…..and possibly prostrate on the floor in an asthma attack. Wait…maybe that’s just me. Why aren’t I thin?
The Rock Climber
Or hood of a truck….or chair in a field….or 7ft ladder…….or the family bed….or quite literally ROCKS.
Find whatever it takes to get that perfect angle and climb aboard! Notify those around you that if you fall, they are to catch THE CAMERA. CATCH THE CAMERA! I do not recommend doing these after the Crab Walk or The Walk.
Mirroring
These are great for instructing your client how exactly you would like them to pose……or possibly making them do incredibly silly things all for a laugh later with your other photographer friends. Tone those abs, stretch that back, strengthen that core while you laugh hysterically regaling the tale of the shoot! What happens with photography friends, stays with photography friends. 
And of course, as with every workout, we must end with the
Cool Down
Never forget the cool down. Ever.
And now that I have successfully “patented” The Photographer’s Workout, I will be going on my book tour autographing my best selling weight loss book:
The Photographer’s Diet
The Photographer’s Diet is limited to:
- Bottled water warm from sitting in the car while you are out on your
photo shootPhotographer’s Work Out. - Granola bar 6 months past the expiration date because you had the forethought 2 years ago to drop it in your camera bag.
- Handful of nuts you snuck from the wedding reception table. Don’t tell about the fingerprint in the wedding cake icing.
- Fruit moldy and dry from being left in your camera bag 2 weeks ago. Call it “dried fruit” and all the naturalists will buy it!
- Candy….mainly chocolate, used after an especially stressful family shoot of 4 children, an inattentive dad, and a screaming mom. This should be taken in high doses.
- Sonic Happy Hour. {sigh} They have 398,929 different drink combinations. No, really! They do! Diet cranberry limeade. YUMMMM-O!
LAUGH ON! And, always be kind to others!
PS. A SPECIAL thank you to Arden Prucha and Mia Coelho for letting me use their behind the scenes photos of their photo shoots!
Dana Suggs is an I Heart Faces Contributor and the owner of Dana Suggs Photography. She loves to blog about her beautiful family and welcomes everyone to follow her on her Facebook Fan Page as well.
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{ 70 comments… read them below or add one }
So true! Thanks for making my day!
This is wonderful! You are so creative. I have to share this with my friends.
Thank you for the fun.
Tamara Motschenbacher recently posted..Shannon Sewell the blank page
You are too funny! What a delightful post. I love your pictures! Thanks for the laugh. So funny, yet sooooo TRUE.
Too funny! Hungrily devouring an expired granola bar tucked away in the camera bag, guzzling an overly warm bottle of water from the car, muscles and joints aching after performing “photographic acrobatics” at a shoot…. I’ve so been there!
Thanks for making me laugh!
After reading this, I had the strange feeling someone had been watching me……
Love it!!! i never realized till now how much of a workout it REALLY is but i see no results lol.
LOVE LOVE this post! Seriously so awesome. And yes, espeically when you are using a heater to keep those newborns warm you might as well be in a sauna!
Emmy recently posted..Favorite May Picture
I LOVE this post , but you forgot the 600 squats at a wedding. =D
I should look a lot better than I do.
Love this! So true! I am always a sweaty mess after a photo shoot. Just waiting for some results though
love this!!
Love it! I am still anxious for all the lb’s to roll off. Until then, I am always telling folks that they may have to call a wrecker service to get me off of the ground. Thanks for the laughs, even if they did make the sore abs hurt a little. LOL!
Great, great, funny and true! Only thing I would add is the 100+ degree temperatures I’m enduring here in Texas while I’m doing my photographers work out! I can literally wring sweat out of my shirt after an outside shoot. gross! LOL. Very cute article. Nice to have a little laughter in these articles.
So true! I think I lost a few pounds at our San Antonio workshop:-)
OMG I Loved this. Made my day!!! People have no idea! xo
Too funny! I love the Photographer’s Diet and especially this line “Notify those around you that if you fall, they are to catch THE CAMERA. CATCH THE CAMERA! ” haha
I should be thinner too… However, I did just get an ab workout.
OMG! I can so relate…..It is like you have been with me on every shoot!! lol….
hahah yes!! I’ve always thought that!
Bahahaha! I am laughing so hard right now! it’s SO true!
Too Funny! I totally agree! The crabwalk is the killer for me!
Dana – hilarious!! Awesome job
Love it and am sharing it!
Helen recently posted..The Sweetest Picture
This gave me such a giggle this morning…love it!
Lori@VisibleSoulPhotography recently posted..Calling All 2012 Seniors TX Senior Portraits Visible Soul Photography
LOL LOL LOL This was great and yes it is a workout. My last photo workout we had to hike into the woods for 1/2 miles and when the future bride saw the snake that I warned her about before she stepped on it….I thought we had lost this entire workout!
LMAO it’s so true! You know you haven’t done a good shoot unless you’re sore after!
Loved this post!! Made me laugh so hard
Will definitely repost it to my blog.
Lora
Life Prints Portrait Design
http://www.lifeprintsportrait.com
Right on, Dana! We really should put “contortionist extraordinaire” on the end of “photographer”! (Um…thinking “circus photographer” here!) An added bonus is that many times, in our crazy efforts to get great shots, it makes our subjects smile and laugh!
Love all you have to share, Dana!
Hello Dana- my sweet,
This is hilarious. I did a baby photo shoot 2 weekends ago and man was my butt sore the next day- thought about all the squatting I did and sure enough I counted it as a workout!! Can’t wait to see you at the end of this month!!!
Oh Dana! I LOVE THIS!!!! And it is so funny that you posted this- because just last week my back and tummy muscles were sore, from one of the many “Workout poses” and a friend of mine told me “Oh whatever, it is such a hard job to push a button on a camera!” HA HA!!! Some people have no idea how many different angles we shoot from and how fast on our feet we have to be to get some shots! I really love this and plan to share it! {I will be sure that certain friend sees it!} lol
great article!!!!!! just made my morning!
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This is perfect! Funny thing is I’m always “feeling it” after a wedding especially but I never seem to lose any weight with it!
omg!!! You are so cute!! This was hilarious! This was a good distraction for the morning!! Love it! keep it up , I will definitely be reading more!! ♥
Oh, that is too funny! I’m far from pro, but the other day my camera and I chased kids around a birthday party and then did an impromptu mini shoot for some friends at a wedding and I was definitely sore next day…what got me, though, were the two workout segments you left out: SQUATS and LUNGES!
c. a. recently posted..I Heart Faces Challenge- Pets
I LOVE this Dana! You are so creative and I love your sense of humor! This was the perfect start to my morning.
oh Dana I heart you! This had me all giggly because just this past weekend I did a shoot with a newborn, an 11 month old and a 4 year old (all same session) and the next day my butt was soooooooooo sore I could hardly sit, or stand back up for that matter. I’ve had sore muscles after a shoot before, but this was killer!
Ok, so I’m just a mom with a camera, but I believe I have done EVERY single one of those moves just to get a decent picture of my four year old. I was busting a gut laughing at this, HILARIOUS. I think you have a gold mine with this one.
HA! I looovee this! Absolutely hilarious…. =)
This really was a great way to start my morning- **smiles**
Gina recently posted..13th Week of Happiness & Shutter Love Tuesdays- Trees
I can’t tell you how hard I laughed through this post. I always complain to my husband that I am sore the day after a photo shoot and he always gives me a weird look and says something along the lines of ‘you didn’t do anything but a photo session yesterday. How could you be sore? You should work out more.’ I just roll my eyes and huff off. I love the guy, but he’s clueless to what a photographer has to do to get The Shot!
I can’t even tell you how hard I was laughing reading this. I now know I am not alone when I wake up the day after a shoot and wonder if I did 1000 squats in my sleep!
yes! i can so totally relate to this! and it makes me feel sooooo much better to know i’m not the only one
and, might i say, i love dana suggs photgraphy! you have a wicked eye for the best shots!
LOVE this!!! so hilarious! yet true!!
Oh Dana I’m wiped out reading that – I need to lie down….
Nikkii recently posted..Little People In Glasgow
HAHA! Oh my…I love it~ So, so true!
hahahahaha Love it!!!!!!!!
You speak the truth! What we should have in our camera bag at all times is MOTRIN! I’ve eaten that 6 month old granola bar (it was either that or the half roll of smarties from my last kid’s session) and drank that warm water on many occasions! Yuck! Oh, who am I kidding? I ate the smarties too! Great post. Love it.
Johanna recently posted..newness long island- new york newborn- child- family photographer
That’s it! I’m claiming I workout now! I thought it was just me that ends up tired and worn out after a “simple” shoot. Up, down, back, forth, squat, lay down, climb up and repeat 10 times. LOL Thanks for the post!
Aah – yeah go Arden! She makes it look so easy
This article is so true – I’m do feel like I’ve worked out after a shoot you’re all sweaty and tired….glad that’s not just me. Thanks for the article!
This is so true! And so funny
! Trust me I am a hot mess after every shoot, don’t get me started on the 75-80 degree newborn shoots. Let’s just say it isn’t pretty 
. Thanks for the smiles this am 
!
Oh Dana, you’re hilarious!
I’m cracking up smiling at the computer screen right now.
I can’t tell you how much I relate to this post. LOL!
Lovely post, thank you!
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