Physical Fitness + Photography?

Most people don’t put the two together.  In fact most photographers don’t even put the two together.  After all, I believe is there definitely truth to the stereotypical artist who has messed up sleeping and eating habits, let alone the time/desire to workout and stay active.  I’m glad that as a kid my parents enrolled me into all sorts of activies which probably contributes to my overall well-roundedness now as an adult.  Language classes, math courses, music, painting and yes, sports.  I’ve been pretty active and sporty all my life and developed a deep interest in health/nutrition early on.  However, knowing is one thing; doing is another.  I’m SO extremly thankful that Wilson is so conscious of his health and fitness and so dedicated to making it a priority in our home because I can easily fall off the bandwagon.  Half the time I’m not even ON it to fall off of.  I’m probably on the roadside sleeping somewhere and it runs me over.
Photography can be very physically demanding.  It can also not be, depending on what kind of photographer you are :)

This is Joey L’s assistant “training to lift Profoto 7B up mountain.”  Joey is an international photographer from Ontario who loves to travel and shoot portraits in some very obscure places.  The Profoto 7B is a $4000 battery which weighs 30lbs so you can imagine that you need to be in pretty good physical condition to lug this thing around along with God know what, for God knows how long til you reach your destination.  In my line of work, especially the way that we go about working, is definitely physically demanding.  At any given wedding, my team and I are lugging our own camera gear which averages 25lbs each, along with bags of strobes (lights), battery pack, stand bags, a small tw0-step ladder, and all sorts of misc. stuff.  Then we gotta set this stuff up and take it down.  Before we even do any of this, we’re running around from one end of a room to another grabbing shots, standing, kneeling, crawling… you name it.  We ninjas.  We also shoot in mid summer tempretures of 30 degrees or winter weddings where it’s -10.  My camera alone weighs an average of 3-5lbs depending on what’s attached to it and I’ve gotta grip this thing for 8-12 hours with my small Chinese woman hands :( haha So if you see me waving goodbye to you at a wedding and my hand is in the shape of a claw, this is why.
I’m thankful that my first assistant Gee has a similar outlook on fitness and glad that we can workout together! (Chan Ra works out on his own cuz he lives far away and is a boy hehe)  Right now we’ve just completed 3 days straight of a customized CrossFit routine with another one of my close friends.  Even throughout last season we’d get some work done in front of our computers then go for a run or lift some weights because we know it’s good for us and we know we need it.  Hopefully this year we can fit in more rock climbing and more volleyball as well ;)

c.