Incidents and accidents

John just gave me the go-ahead on a lightly used 5D. I think I might crap myself.

This is going to get technical, so skip this post if you don’t know fart about cameras.

I have a Canon Rebel XT. I love it, but it’s outliving it usefulness as a pro camera. I’ve been saving up for the Canon 5D for a while now. The main difference between these two cameras is that the 5D is full-frame. The XT has a 1.6 crop, which means that my 35mm lens acts like a 50mm, and my 50mm lens acts like a 75mm. I love the 50/75 look, so when I buy the 5D, I’ll have to buy new lenses. I’ll sell the 35mm and my beloved 50mm and buy a 100mm macro for outside, and buy a 50mm 1.4 for inside.

Got that all worked out. All set. saving up slowly, not an issue.
My mother is getting married in September. I’ll be there, of course, but she wants me to take pictures. No problem, since she’s hired a real wedding photographer to e there as well. No worried. I can use her wedding as portfolio practice and not have to worry about being the only photographer there. I had planned to use my current gear and just get what I could for her.
Not anymore. A very dear friend is now also getting married in September, and wants me to be his photographer. Note: the ONLY photographer. The wedding party may be as large as 14 people. Candids, I’m good at. Outside, no problem. I haven’t the slightest clue how to pose 14 people and have it look good. I recommended hiring a real photographer and having me there to shoot, but the time line is too late. All photographers are booked already. So, it’s me. I love him to pieces, so I’m glad to do it, but I’m wigging out over here. There are now some pretty crucial pieces of gear that I need to buy, before September:

Tamron 28-75 2.8: At 2.8 all the way through, I should be doing well in low light. I’d rather it was something closer, like a 50-125mm, but those go for $1400, so.. no. I like Sigma brand better, but the Sigma 24-75mm is twice as heavy.

A lightsphere: Yes, it looks like Tupperware, but it’s magic Tupperware. Check out the pictures. If I’ll be using a flash (which I hope to avoid), this is a must.

I have a Sigma flash, but I haven’t needed to use it much, so I need to practice. A lot.

The Canon 5D If I can wrangle this before the weddings, I’ll be very lucky, and very grateful. The low noise in high ISO’s will mean that I might be able to avoid the flash.

I’ll have the stuff I wanted, but whew. Goodbye, profit.

121: Pardon the nasty noise on this pair, but they were taken at about 8:30pm, as the sun was setting. Hummingbirds take one last long feed before nightfall and then go to sleep. I have been wondering where they were for days now, but some people in Louisiana reported a big wave of migraters last week. Hopefully, I’ll be seeing more than just this pair. This is an Adult Female Ruby-Throated and an Adult Male Ruby-Throated. Oddly, the male has a wing-whistle, which is often seen on other species, but not the Rubies.

120: I did some spring trashing. Not cleaning, trashing. It’s trashing because in order to clean, I go through the drawers and cabinets and grab everything I haven’t used in a year and know I won’t again. I then throw it in a huge pile in the middle of the room. I’ve cleaned this way since I was a kid. I filled 6 garbage bags this time.

119: Ants.They found my little feeder this morning.

118: See? Even B+H wants me to have the 5D.

117: Larken’s boys make quite the pair of brothers. Thanks goodness I don’t have kids of my own, or my heart would be too full of love for anything else.

116: Went to the GA Ren-Fest today. Got a little bit more sun than I wanted. First sunburn I’ve had in 5-6 years.

115: I got my 24×30 canvas for showing clients today. Miss E is two, so it’s actually (and unplanned) life-size right now!

114: My boot-sector hard drive finally gave it up today. Had to go get another and reinstall everything on the damn machine. I didn’t lose any data though, whew.

113: I made cherry cheese-pies today. Yummy.

112: I shouldn’t have, but I put together a little book for H’s mommy because she can’y afford to buy any for herself. She’s too sweet not to give stuff to though.

111: Ring, dammit. I need work.

110: Finally got the petti’s dry and sand-free. I think I carried half the creek home with me.

109: Finally got to use the Victorian dresses I bought. They’re a bit on the short side on American kids, no matter what the age. She had fun though, despite her face in this picture. This photo happens to be the 20,000th shot out of my Rebel XT.

108: Really fast booking for a mother and her 5 daughers. She’s doing this for her husband for Father’s day! It was a total blast. I had them rolling on the ground, jumping in the air, sitting in a 40 degree creek.. etc. They had fun too.

107: I live my bedroom. Mucha posters from Prauge that I still haven’t paid Brian for.

106: I wish I could do cool stuff with hair doo-dads.

105: Met up with Jessica and Julie for lunch and errands today. It was great to finally meet Julie and her beautiful boy Corbin. The light in the restaurant was great.

104: My photo lab sent blow pops with my order.

103: Had another shoot with Olivia. The gold and burgundy dresses are about 8 inches too short. She’s grown 6 inches since last October! The one in her size should arrive soon. Meanwhile, we had to make do with the pink one again.