How a Bride Broke My Finger

I was doing a day after session, where I photograph a couple at a beautiful spot on some day other than the wedding day. The sunset was rapidly approaching. I had the B&G at one end of a covered bridge. I was going to have them and the bridge, with an old brick building and the sunset behind them. Great shot.

I had just finished laying out the train behind her and had it perfectly positioned. Just then, a big, nearsighted bumblebee wandered by, and thought she (the workers are all shes) had stumbled upon the Fabled Giant White Flower. The bee started doing some reconnaissance dive bombing.

The bride, like so many others, had a phobia for bees, and immediately started to dance an impromptu jig (Think Ashlee Simpson in a wedding dress BEFORE the diet).

Having a background in science, I knew this was impossible to sustain for more than a few seconds. What would eventually happen is she would step on her train and go down.

I had just finished thinking that thought when it happened—exactly as I thought. She started to fall backwards towards the hard asphalt. Splattered brains on a wedding dress is not my idea of a healthy TTD session—although it might get JMC to be jealous (Hey! Why didn’t I think of that? Oh wait. I did. I’m still waiting for a volunteer!) and quite colorful.

Unfortunately, I was about 10 feet away and could not possibly arrive on time to stop her from falling. So I did my Superman imitation and tried to fly. OK, I just dove.

I was way too late and she was way too heavy for me to actually catch her (not casting aspersions, just stating the facts!) I was just trying to get my hands under her head to cushion it.I succeeded. Sorta. One finger on my left hand hit her head or her shoulder with enough force to pop the finger at the last joint. It didn’t hurt that much—it just stung. I can’t believe that she did not feel anything! Neither her head nor shoulder was injured by my full force finger poke!

The groom waved off the bee and the bride and I got up. After ascertaining that she was uninjured, I started to walk back to the tripod mounted camera. “What’s wrong with your finger?” the bride asked. I looked down, and the tip was at a very unnatural angle, but fortunately in a FORWARD direction. Am I making anyone queasy yet?

Being an orthopedic tech, she assessed my injury and was sure it was merely dislocated.

Get ready. If you are squeamish, read no further.

So she started pulling on it (please, no fart jokes! ). I was OK until then, but that made me feel a little sick. She was unable to improve the situation, so borrowed my phone and called her boss—an orthopedic surgeon. He said, “It sounds busted, get thee to the ER.”I told her, no way! The sunset was now perfect, I wasn’t in pain, and I don’t use that particular finger very much any way.

So I snapped it off as a joke!

Just checking to see if you are paying attention.

No, I continued with the session and then drove myself to the ER.

I spent 3 hours at the ER—they put on a splint that immobilized my whole hand.

The next day, I felt I had to give her a call at her work to see if she could get me in to see her boss. She got me in to see him and he laughed at the splint.

So the bride that broke my finger re-splinted it for me.

Maybe some other time I’ll tell you about the time I almost broke my leg at a reception.