Have you ever driven across Texas on I-10? If you haven’t, allow me to paint a picture for you. My wife and I were leaving my home town of Galliano, LA and we were on our way to Tucson, AZ, Holly’s home town. Galliano just south of New Orleans which is situated on I-10 and the same interstate runs right through Tucson. So basically, we just had to hop on the highway and go west some 30 hours or so roughly. The majority of the trip is through Texas as you might imagine and while we both love taking road trips, once you get into west Texas on I-10, you start having thoughts of despair. It is probably the longest stretch of highway in America that is that rural and isolated. Perhaps I-70 in western Kansas may have it beat, but I doubt it.
Do not attempt a trek across a wasteland such as western Texas without being prepared with fuel and rations.
Anyway, if you ever drive through there, you have to mentally prepare. You must also prepare with filling the tank before you go too far. There are some stretches of the highway where you won’t see a gas station for many many miles. So if you are running anywhere near low, you had better fill up before you go into one of those ridiculous long stretches of empty highway. In fact, western Texas is so big that I once heard a university in El Paso will play schools in Southern California, but they will not play eastern Texas schools because the distance is too far. I don’t actually know if this is true, but I wouldn’t doubt it. Anyway, the point of this story is that if I were driving through this enormous desert wasteland ever again, I would ensure I did two things. I would fill my tank with gas and fill up anytime I thought I might be running even close to low and the second would be keep nourishment in the car. I would pack all types of snacks and goodies to eat.
Trail mix like this can save you from feeling faint and can nourish you to give you the energy you need to make through a long day of shooting.
Now as you think about this, you may say to yourself, there’s no way I would want to go that long without eating, so I would prepare for this with aforethought to what conditions might be present if I didn’t prepare. The same should be thought about when going on location to shoot. Now I don’t mean a simple photo shoot that you know will be over in a matter of minutes or even an hour. But rather what I am referring to is photographing an event such as a wedding or labor and delivery photography. And just as it would be foolish not to prepare for a long trip without bringing rations, the same can be said of attempting to tackle an entire day of shooting with nourishment. With a normal 9-5 type of job, there are scheduled breaks, and times that you can take a lunch break. But in these types of job situations, sometimes it is not feasible or possible to take a break for lunch. Sometimes all you can do is eat on the go. It’s not that you necessarily don’t want to take a break and sometimes you might even have time set aside for a break, but in these situations, you don’t always get to take them.
I’d like to give two examples that happened to me that taught me a lesson. Recently, I photographed a wedding that was an all day affair. There was supposed to be lots of breaks throughout the day so as I planned for the day, I planned with the idea that I would be able to take a break here or there and grab something to eat. Now I am accustomed to eating small portions, so I wasn’t very concerned that I wouldn’t be able to eat a full meal for the whole day. I just wanted to make sure that at least a few times of the day I could eat something small to keep me going. To make a long story short, I ate at nine o’clock in the morning and didn’t get a chance to eat again until eight o’clock that night. That’s eleven long hours! I was on my feet the whole day, rushing around trying to get photos of the entire day and practically forgot about eating. Then about five o’clock when were really in the thick of it, I got desperately hungry. I needed to eat! But I didn’t have the time and I didn’t pack any snacks! Big mistake!! I should have packed some granola and threw it in my pocket or camera bag. I became light headed and weak and I know, though we still did a good job, that I didn’t do as good a job as I could have had I been feeling better from the energy that food at the right time would have given me. The thing is, it doesn’t only affect you, it affects your clients, because you can’t give them the absolute best service possible. Thankfully, we did get good portraits and event photographs from throughout the day that it didn’t really matter that those shots maybe were not the absolute best. Overall, they were very happy with everything.
The other example that I remember was when my wife was having our son Moses. We were surprised by when she went into labor. Though she was like almost a week past her due date, it was our first child and we were still surprised when her water broke and she went into labor. As bad as my memory is, I remember that day extremely well. I don’t really remember what happened before that point, but after she called me on the cell to tell me her water broke, I was on my way to her quicker than a jack russell terrier after a Beggin’ Strip. I got her to the hospital probably breaking every speed limit from our house to the hospital thirty miles away. My adrenaline was pumping and I don’t think I had ever been that excited or nervous before in my life. I was in another world. The last thing on my mind was food. I was going on empty but I couldn’t tell because adrenaline covers a mulitude of missed meals. And while I was able to have enough energy to not only help my wife through the first hours of her labor, delivery and photographing the whole thing, I did get weak towards the end. I had no earthly clue how draining the whole experience would be. (My wife laughs at me because “I” say it was draining for “ME”! HAHA!!) It wasn’t long after she gave birth to Mo that we trying to catch some ZZZs. I quickly passed out and was so exhausted that when my wife went to the bathroom and passed out, I didn’t even notice. What a memory! The point is, again had I been nourished, I wouldn’t probably have dealt with the situation in the same way.
There are many days that I shoot all day long. But for the most part, I always carry snacks with me. Even if it’s only a banana or something small like a couple cookies or trail mix. It might be the only thing I get to eat all day and I don’t want to be put in a situation where I might “run out of gas!” Even a softdrink is better than nothing, however empty calories with lots of sugar usually doesn’t make you feel better in the long run.
Again, it’s not only your health and your quality of life during the day to be concerned with but it can also affect your paycheck! So, on my checklist everyday is “Don’t forget the snacks!”
