Shyheels

You shouldn’t beat yourself up about your photos - nothing wrong with them at all. You present a very nice image of a guy wearing heels and that’s all to the good. The world needs more of such images. I just get hung up on the challenge of trying to create art house or magazine style images because that is what I do and the notion of trying to do this with heels appeals to me.

It’s quite funny seeing American politicians grumbling about how you never see those big American pick-up trucks being sold over here, or on the continent! As though trade barriers were the reason. Try driving one of those down an English country lane, or through the mediaeval streets of our towns, or finding a parking space almost anywhere and you quickly see the real reason!

It’s a nice capture. Interesting clouds. Theres a saying amongst photographers that the best camera is the one you have with you. And it’s true. i would love to take some arty shots of heels. It would be quite a departure from my usual work and so I have to think through how I’d do it, and be prepared to put in the time and mess up quite a few. I’m quite good at capturing the mood and feel of a place and good at portraiture - I need to work out what I’m saying or want to say about heels.

I hadn’t realised how much higher my heels were, in absolute terms, with my size 45/46 boots, but of course that makes sense - so you with you size 37 and @mlroseplant with his 39/40 and me with my size are all talking about roughly the same thing in terms of angle, proportions and degrees of difficulty. It makes for a useful shorthand 12cm is 12cm for all of us

Thank you @HappyinHeels Yes I like wearing my boots over my jeans. I’ve always liked the classic style boots - both stilettos and chunky heels. Clean lines and simple styling and worn with jeans. For a guy who likes to wear heels, my tastes are really rather conservative.

Yes we are indeed a unique little group - true aficionados of high heel fashion who know and care about the details. I like that. It’s nice to be in such company.

A tougher drive to Morocco though! 🙂

Yes the heel height all seem to be based on a size 38.

Europe is better than Britain, but we are far ahead of the US in terms of public transport. I am in a very rural part of Britain, a mile from the nearest (small) town. But I can walk in there and do my shopping - all small local shops - and if I want to go to a supermarket I can catch a bus to a bigger town half an hour away. The busses run regularly. They are clean and pleasant, with WiFi and charging points for phones. And gorgeous scenery out the window. At this larger town I can catch a train and go anywhere. Although it makes for a long day, I can and have made day trips to London and Manchester. Day trips to York and Leeds are easy. i really don’t need a car and don’t feel the least bit inconvenienced by not having one.

I’ve not owned a car in decades. I get around on foot, or by bike, boat, bus or train

Well my boots were purchased from Italian Heels and were sold as 12cm heels in their standard size, with the heels being incrementally higher or lower depending on however much bigger or smaller your foot size is. It is what it is. Whether it looks accurate in the photo or not. Whatever the actual measurement of the heels on my boots, I regard them as 12cm heels since that is what they are billed as. its sensible to figure things this way as there can be a general talking point - when @mlroseplant or @higherheels says they’re in 12cm heels we know we are talking about roughly the same angle and degrees of difficulty, allowing for slight variations in the designs of the shoe or boot.

They look nice. Very wearable - I love ankle boots myself.

I think too that with stilettos, the higher the heel the more fragile it is likely to be

Yes, there are other aspects beside heel height that contribute to a shoe or boot's ease of wear. I have a pair of lovely side OTK boots custom made by Jean Gaborit with slender - nearly but not quite true stiletto - heels that measure about 9.5cms. They are so incredibly easy to walk in, not much different than walking in chunky mid-heels really. If I had the money I would love to get some more of their boots.

Working from home as I do, I have no commute. If I go out shopping it’s a minimum of about 8000 steps, most of that on a badly rutted or muddy towpath. If it’s dry or frozen I’ll do it in chunky mid heels but for wearing stilettos I need to take them with me and change at a park bench or bus stop in town. I do sometimes but the time and hassle factor is a disincentive

Yes. I suspect that single extra centimetre makes a whopping difference. When I was tottering about in my 12cm boots I tried imagining what that extra centimetre’s height in your Hot Chicks would be like. Definitely too high for me even to attempt. That said, I think when I either fix my present boots or buy some new 12cm heels I will start making decent progress. Seeing the tilt on that left heel when I was examining the boot on the tabletop explained a lot of my difficulties so far. I’m really looking forward now to giving 12cm a proper try. until then I’m getting plenty of time in my 10cm heels

Here’s a case where appearances are deceiving. The actual height of those heels is 14.7cm as per Italian Heels chart on heel height relative to size - the height based on a standard 12cm heel for size 38. The photo was taken in August in a hotel room while I was on assignment, and shot with an iPhone so perhaps the angle from which it was shot - the phone was propped on a chair - might have skewed the perspective. i have a pair of 10cm heels in that same model, which I am wearing right now. i can tell you as fact that 12cm heels are plenty challenging for me, and that I feel no need to up the ante to 13cm - nor is there much likelihood of my finding decent quality 13cm heels in my size even if I wanted to.

I’m very impressed!

Wow! What height heels were you wearing for most of that. Surely not 12cm or 13cm! I’m guessing mostly 10cm - which is hugely impressive.

Thank you. They are Italian Heels’ Tina model. I have a pair of these with 10cm heels that I am wearing right now. I don’t think it was anything I did which caused the problem - not my walking style or anything - I think it is just a materials failure. A pity because I really like these boots. I was really hoping to master 12cm stilettos - and I have had such good support from @mlroseplant and @higherheels At least I can see that my lack of progress was t just down to ineptitude! For the time being I shall work on becoming very polished and graceful in 10cm heels

Here for the record are my challenge heels - my 12cm knee boots

I’ve just been researching the possibility of repairing my boot and it seems it is possible if you take it to a good cobbler - so I’m taking a bit of heart. It’s worth a shot!

Yes, they can’t read a map or tell time on a traditional clock. If we brought those two things back, plus stick shifts on cars and cursive writing we could take down the whole western world

This morning I was back in my 12cm stilettos and as I was tottering about making breakfast I realised that something just wasn't right with the left boot. It's not just lack of practice or an inability to make the jump from 10cm to 12 cm, but something wrong with the heel itself. I took the boots off and gave the left boot a thorough examination. When I placed the sole flat on my table, so I could crouch down and see how the heel met the surface, it was obvious that the shank has twisted slightly. The heel is definitely a few degrees off vertical. It wasn't just my imagination or lack of talent. It's a relief in some way, I've been feeling frustrated, thinking how @mlroseplant and @higherheels have made such splendid progress while I seem to be getting nowhere. It's depressing too. This is my only pair of 12cm heels. I've been looking at the offerings of Fuss-Schuhe as recommended by @higherheels in another thread, and I like some of their boots very much, but alas the magazine world is not so brilliant at the moment and it might be a while before I can afford to buy myself some nice new 12cm stiletto boots. In the meantime I am going for immersive practice in my 10cm heels - hoping to maintain my abilities!

My first was a Minolta then a Canon AE-1. I loved film and could disappear into a darkroom for hours. I studied photography at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque back in the day when Route 66 still ran through the heart of the city (Central Ave). Lots of cool stuff to shoot. Much as I loved my hours in the darkroom I wouldn’t go back to that - I like digital. i want to try some shots in heels, but I want them to be stylish - artistically speaking even if the subject is not stylish at all!