My most embarrassing moment as a photographer has actually happened a couple of times. I like to use prime lenses when I shoot, which means that among other things, they don’t zoom. If I want to get in tighter for the shot I have to move my body and get closer. If I want a wider shot from where I’m standing I have to back up! Apparently I have kind of a bad habit of backing up quickly.

I was shooting a couple on their wedding day, in Waterton, on the beach. The beaches in Waterton are rocky, as you probably know, and as the couple was gazing into each others eyes having a moment, I backed up for a wider shot to get more of the view. I backed right into a large rock, caught it with my foot and fell. Trying to save my camera and my camera bag full of lenses as I went down was pretty comical I’m sure! Feeling totally awkward I glanced up and the couple seemed to be oblivious to my predicament (they were probably being really nice and pretending! haha).  I jumped up and pretended like nothing happened and kept on shooting.

The other time this happened was at a family session. I was running in towards the kids to give them a high-five to make them smile and as I was running back away (backwards of course) to get the shot, I tripped over a clump of grass and went right down. Talk about awkward! And funny. Thankfully they laughed with me at my clumsiness and we kept going with the session, but I am sure that the image of me that they will remember forever is me falling over backwards!