So you want to rent a lens

There’s so many things that are out there in the world that we have no clue we can rent, until magically, it’s pointed out to us.

A designer gown for an incredible price? - Rent the Runway will let you.

A wedding gown, tuxedos, furniture, cars, kids.. you get the idea.

But did you know you can rent lenses? Professional luxury lens? and even the camera bodies too?? If you’re close to a reliable camera store, they’ll all be at your fingertips for what could be a very hefty price, but online! Online is where your selection goes beyond your wildest dreams.

When I was planning to go to Mexico, I wanted to make sure I had the easiest time with my camera as possible. My camera is already heavy enough, I didn’t want to bring my 5lb, break my arm zoom lens, plus another lens that will let me shoot close. No. I wanted one lens that would let me do it all. Zoom in. Zoom out without ever having to stop to switch it out for the ‘other one’ so I could get the shot I wanted.

I put it out there to a lot of professional photographers to find the ‘perfect vacation lens’ and though they all had their opinions, one made the most sense. The 24-105L series zoom lens. Now my next question to myself was: “where will I get it, and how can I pay the least amount of money for it?”

Though there are a lot of trusted reliable websites, I went with the best one for me. Lens Pro To Go. Not only did I get a great deal – 14 day rental for the price of 7!! But I also got to experience true customer service. Of course I had questions, which led me to call while I was placing the order, and they picked up right away. No automated voice, no press 1 for English, they answer and they’re funny. Or at least my guy was. Not to mention very patient and helpful.

After placing my order, they called me…and being the hyper skeptical, overly cautious person that I am, wasn’t prepared for their call. He asked me a series of questions, ranging from why I was renting the lens, to if I were a professional, to whether or not I have a blog/website so they can see the photos after.

Since I can be less than forthcoming at times, I wasn’t willing to give my blog and details and only supplied the necessities so he could complete my order. I have no doubt this is standard, but I was new to renting and I’m a private (information) person, so it was hard for me to give it all up.

I didn’t know what to expect when it arrived, but it came in a huge box. I dove into it and quickly understood why it was such a huge box. This massive hard cover case was inside.

Just seeing it was getting me happy and I loved the touch of the question on their sticker of who my favorite superhero is. Once I worked the {very difficult} snaps, I opened up to see the lens nestled nicely into thick thick padded foam. Plus a tootsie pop! Another fun detail that Lens Pro To Go adds to their rental.

I really liked that {while it was in the case} I didn’t have to worry about breaking the lens. Outside the case was another ballgame, but this case seemed indestructible.

I took it with me to Mexico and loved every minute with the lens. I had 5 days after to keep playing with it, and I was sad to see it go. I’ve always thought I wanted a 24-70mm lens, but now using this one, I’m thinking I know what I’ll be saving up for. It’s the perfect all around zoom when you only agree to bring one.

Its not as heavy as other zoom lenses, which is another reason why I chose it, but still after awhile (read: 8 hours) of the camera and lens together, the weight will catch up.. as evidenced by my vein beginning to pop out of my arm from holding it up.

And a reminder of the fantastic photos taken with it…

If you ever get the chance to rent a lens, check out Lens Pro To Go, they’re really great to work with and they provide everything for you to ship it right back. Whenever I get the itch to rent again, I’ll definitely be using them again.

Have you ever rented a lens before?

What’s the most obscure thing you’ve rented that we would be surprised that you can?


*they have no idea I wrote a review. All opinions are mine. I did this solely on my own because I had such a great experience with them and not many people know you can rent lenses!

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Photo book fun with a how to for you!

Back in January, I jumped on a groupon for a Shutterfly photo book. I’m on this quest right now to put all our travels into their individual photo books and figured I’d make book number two with the groupon. My last photo book I made, through another website turned out to be dreadful. Taking 13 months to complete because their software (to me) was the worst I’d ever dealt with. So even though I was a little leery making them, I thought I’d give it a go with Shutterfly.

I’ve read a ton of reviews about their colors being completely off and doing some very funky effects to your photos without you knowing and having the books turn out horrible, so it made me even more cautious. I read a person’s tips about turning off the ‘vivid effect’ and planned to do that once I completed my book, and proceeded to fill the book with my photos.

It was easy. If you’ve never used Shutterfly, that’s one thing I have to tell you. Its unbelievably easy to do. But once I was completely done; had added over 100 photos to the 44 pages, I went to find that ‘vivid effect’ and couldn’t find it. anywhere! Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and jumped on their online chat to ask for help.

That’s when she told me that if I wanted to remove the vivid effect, I had to start all over. I was getting upset. All that work, and I had to start from the beginning again. For 45 minutes we went back and forth as she slowly..and I mean s-l-o-w-l-y walked me through each and every step. I’m sure I tested her patience with asking the same question 3 times over, but I wanted to be absolutely sure I understood what I was supposed to do so I could have a perfect photo book.

And I do.

But what I find interesting is they don’t advertise that they apply this vivid effect and even more, that they make it rather difficult to remove it too. They hide it, if you will. I don’t know why they think its something you should have or would want, but I’m going to show you how to remove it from all of your photos you want to put in an album so that you can be sure you’ll have the photos you want the way you want.

Step 1 - go into the photo album you’ll be using to put in your photo book and “select all”. All your photos will have the rim around them, as shown.

Step 2 – Click on “edit” and click on “Apply effect”.

Step 3 – make sure it shows that all photos (in my case, all 201) in your photo album are there and click “don’t apply automatic corrections to picture”. Once checked, click “Apply this effect”.

Step 4 – Are you sure? YES! its like they want to trick you into thinking you’re applying an effect, but you aren’t.

Step 5 – sit there and wait for it to remove the effect from every image. Keep the popup up, otherwise it will stop the process.

Step 6 – you can now go into the photo books tab and begin to create your photo book!!

I’m particular about my images. Even though I took these photos during my point and shoot days, I still valued the way they looked and didn’t want them to be altered in any way and I truly am pleased by the end result of my Shutterfly photo book.

We drove across the country, and I am so happy I have it all in this one album to show our trip from California to Virginia.

My groupon only allowed hardcover and normal photo paper, but I didn’t mind because the quality turned out great.

I have so many more to make and I can’t wait to have a stack full of photo books to look through for years and years to come!

If you choose to use Shutterfly, make sure you do those steps before you start your album, otherwise you’ll end up like me and have to do it all over again and we don’t want that.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. If you have any questions about this, email me or comment and I’ll be happy to help you!

in no way was I compensated for this post. Heck, they have no clue.. I simply love my book and wanted to share so everyone can be aware of that silly ‘vivid effect’ and how to remove it to make a perfect album you’ll love.

 

PS - HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSSIE!! Love you friend!!

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Myths about eating “less”

Sometimes I can talk like I really know what I’m talking about. Yesterday was one of those times. I was even impressing myself, until the very end when I started to lose my train of thought and stutter. *I’m thinking I’m developing a stutter problem*

In light of yesterday’s post and all my cooking Sunday, I had a little more confidence with my knowledge and held onto it while talking with a co worker. This co worker is battling her weight and she declared to me and another co worker that she was going to lose weight! And by telling us, it was her way of holding herself accountable, whereas before she would keep it to herself and fail.

I’ve heard her talking before with other co workers a month or so ago, but I sat back and listened to their ‘advice’, cringing as they were steering her in the wrong direction. Despite my frequent lack of eating enough throughout my day, I know what I’m supposed to do. I’ve had personal trainers over the years, not to mention G-man who is constantly researching exercise and eating the proper amount of calories, so I have a lot of knowledge on the subject.

So when she made her declaration, I asked her what she planned to do. “EAT LESS!” was her answer. This made me nervous, so I asked her how less? And that’s when she said 1,000 calories a day. 1,000 calories a day. That is too low!

I really think this is the common myth women believe. That by consuming an awfully low amount of calories that it will take the weight off, and its just not true! Should you eat less? of course! But dropping to such a low amount is going to put your body in, ‘hold tight to that fat’ mode! Especially if you’re going to start incorporating exercise in your life. You need that fuel. I think this is a big reason women get so discouraged and stop working at it, because they’re not seeing the results they expected.

We got to talking about what she could do. I showed her the pictures from my cook fest and it got her all excited of the possibility. She even wants to pay me to cook it all for her. {if anyone can come up with my price, I’m up for suggestions} but I explained to her the importance of eating enough, especially if she starts to workout, drinking tons and tons of water and keeping it healthy.

I’m not sure if you thought avoiding eating until dinner was the way to lose weight. Or that by eating considerably ‘less’ and working out would burn all that fat. Or that weight training will add bulk when you’re wanting to lose the weight, but let me tell you. Starving yourself daily is not the way to go..working out requires you to eat more (of the right foods) to fuel that body and get the burn to work on the fat..and weight training will help you lose weight. It won’t bulk you up but help burn the fat more and lean you down.

Yes, muscle weighs more than fat but its m-u-s-c-l-e.

Am I professional? No. But I’ve maintained this physique for the past 10 years

Do I make the right dinner choices all the time? No, but even when I wasn’t eating enough food, I was still always eating healthy foods. Nothing processed. Veggies, sweet potatoes and chicken only. This is my current routine with my eating.

Breakfast
2 cups of coffee (1 level spoon of sugar and 1/2 and 1/2)
steel cut oats w/fresh fruit and flaxseed sprinkled on top w/brown sugar and a dash of milk

Mid morning snack
apple slices w/all natural peanut butter (every single day for the past 9 months)

Lunch
(this week) sweet potato wraps
{or}
a salad or chicken leftovers
next week I’m making this for lunches (and let me tell you, its delicious!)

Mid afternoon snack
(if I get hungry)
plain cottage cheese w/pretzel crisps
{or}
a piece of chocolate dipped in peanut butter (I have this obsession w/peanut butter)

Dinner
Chicken/fish/shrimp and veggies

Drinking close to a gallon of water every single day and I get 2-4 workouts in a week. Depending on my mood.

But that’s it. It sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t. I hope I helped my co worker. I really want her to succeed and feel better about herself, and hopefully this post can help someone else see the realities of what it takes.

What myths have you been told about losing weight?

Do you have a tried and true way you maintain your figure?


*remember, I’m not a professional. Only offering suggestions of what’s worked for me and what I’ve found over the years to be effective.

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When the situation calls for a gun

Guns do come in handy sometimes. I have footage of a C/O (correctional officer) sitting on his front steps with his girlfriend when a guy walks by real slow, stops right in front of them and shoots the C/O at point blank range. Fortunately for the C/O the guy was a horrible shot and got him in his foot. Unfortunately for the guy, the C/O had his gun and shot and killed him.

~ ~ There’s been few instances where I’ve needed to grab a gun.

Working up in a ‘booth’ watching a very dangerous inmate getting escorted back to his cell, when he turned on the cop and began a heated argument. There I stood with 2 weapons in my hands to use. A launcher that shoots less lethal rounds and the rifle that shoots lethal.

Thankfully I didn’t have to use either but it was the closest I came at work to using one.

Another time I was driving down a highway, coming upon a red light, when a car full of ‘questionable’ guys comes along side me. I had my gun put away in its case, but pulled it out and set it next to me because I had such an odd feeling with them.

And then there was just last week.

Hanging out watching tv one night, when I get a loud knock on my door. Its after 8pm and its dark outside. No one and I mean no one knocks on my door at night. I asked through the door, ‘who is it?’ and a guy answers that he’s giving away free newspapers. {…at 8:15 at night..right.} I told him, ‘no thank you.’ He says, ‘you don’t want a free newspaper??’ All I say is, ‘thank you, no’ and I hear him mutter something to another guy as he walks away.

I stand there for a second thinking it over and immediately grab my shotgun from my room.

They didn’t knock on any of my neighbor’s doors. Just mine.

My mind works in funny ways. I didn’t peek through the blinds to get a look at them, because the light was on my back and they would’ve seen me seeing them.

I didn’t think to call the cops to report suspicious activity in my area.

I didn’t think to double check my locks until after I grabbed the gun. {they were locked, by the way}

All I did was walk in the back room, grab my gun and take it off of safety to have it ready in case I needed to use it.

I even slept fine that night. I debated locking my bedroom door, but didn’t. My guns were by my side the whole night and have been since. I don’t know what would have happened if I’d opened my door. I’m a suspicious person by nature and can imagine the absolute worse but thankfully I have the mind to know when something just isn’t right.

I hope you have that mind too. It isn’t always the wisest to grab your gun but rather call the cops if someone is lurking around your home or if you hear something suspicious. They say robbers know to make one sound only because often times if we hear a crash {like glass breaking} we’ll pause what we’re doing to see if we hear the sound again. And when we don’t, we continue on, thinking we ‘were hearing things’.

So don’t count out what you heard. Proceed with your safety in mind. If all else fails, call the cops and say ‘this is not an emergency’ first before describing the reason for your call. I do wish I’d peeked to see what they looked like, I do wish I’d called the cops so they’d drive around, but I chose to be Jane Wayne instead.

It worked this time, but that’s not to say it will the next.

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The art of thick skin

What would you do if a complete stranger came up to you and said: ‘I was told there would be a photographer shooting this event {looks at you pointedly} but then I saw your camera.’

followed by

’I brought my camera and lenses if you want to use my stuff instead.’


It happened to me over the weekend. I was taken aback by it to say the least. Since I was caught off guard, I agreed to look at her equipment. She happily showed me her telephoto lens, that I quickly gave back to her, her external flash, that I declared I didn’t know how to use and wasn’t going to ‘practice on’ that night and her other zoom lens that I said I’d check out.

She continued to tell me that I needed to use my built in flash in the low lit room and proceeds to take a picture with her camera w/flash to prove her point. Showing me the LCD screen, saying ‘see? this is how your pictures need to look.’

I took a picture with my camera, explaining I changed the white balance, lowered the aperture and fixed my ISO and showed her my LCD and said, ‘this is what my pictures look like.’

She then informed me she doesn’t know anything about that, and shoots from auto the entire time, where I let her know I shoot in manual.

At that moment, she turned around back to her bag of equipment and insisted I use her camera body, a Canon 30D. I said I wasn’t familiar with 30D’s and was content with my own Rebel, but she persisted over and over again. I again stated our cameras were different and I knew mine, so I preferred to continue using mine, but she kept pushing saying they had ‘all the same features’ and showed them to me.

I politely declined for the last time. But it seemed like what may have started out as kindness to her, became a ‘my equipment is better than yours’ game…that she clearly won.

After taking 5 pictures with her lens, I quickly took it off and put my simple (to others) 50mm 1.8 lens back on and went back to work.

I thought I was in the clear after crossing the room, but was approached 20 minutes later by a man with a very fancy camera and external flash, who began questioning my photography abilities and choice..or lack of equipment.

I was starting to feel defeated at this point. I realize I have an older model Canon, and I realize I don’t have an external flash for low lit rooms or a fancy zoom lens that looks more professional than my small 50 I had to use, does, but to have people…strangers! pointing it out is a whole other thing.

He turned out to be a very sweet man, who ended up knowing half of what I know in terms of photography and who in the end, paid me a compliment, but it was a rough start.

What made it all okay, was after both encounters; approaching my friend, who asked me to shoot in the first place; and her saying she trusted my abilities. That’s all I needed to keep going.


~~~~~~~
There will always be someone who has better equipment than you, who will be better at something you think you’re good at doing, but someone will always have more and be better than them. Trust in what you can do. Don’t let someone make you think what you have isn’t enough to be good…to be great. It might turn out you know more with less.

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Many ways to spend your days

Because I’m overflowing with knowledge on the many different ways to spend yours days, I felt it was my duty, nay, that it was my calling, to shower you with the plethora of ways to in fact, spend your days.

I have been highly trained and am now highly qualified to instruct you in these ways. (I have certificates to prove it) Enduring 14 months of grueling exercises, tests, drills and many sleepless hours to perfect the ways you can, spend your days.

So without further ado, soak in all that I’m going to teach you today. Take notes if you feel the need, I know if I were you, I would be writing every little thing down to study later.

In no particular order:

There’s the straight on method, with feet propped on a pillow.


Straight on method without the pillow. Definitely work yourself up to eliminating the pillow. It’s a big step to take and not to be taken lightly.


They can be angled across the chaise for a more lazy approach.

Over the arm of the couch method. Be prepared when doing this method to sleep as it will put you quickly into a peaceful dreamless sleep for up to 3 hours.


And one of my favorites. Crossed at ankles. There’s just something about having them crossed that just feels…safe.


*disclaimer: Consult with your physician before attempting any of these ways to spend your days as they may prove too difficult to get out of. Ensure you have ample water by your side, with all remotes, computers, phones, books, chapstick and either kleenex or napkins within arms reach.
Side effects may include: drowsiness, listlessness, hunger, frequent desires to urinate, temporary loss of circulation, numbness, backache, cramping in butt or legs, laziness and boredom. (only when alone)

WARNING: SHOWING FEET
I unwrapped them last night. It was like unwrapping 2 presents. It was great! I only took a little flesh off one of the incisions. No worries, it’ll close back up!


In all honesty, out of all my surgeries, they look the best immediately after removing the bandages. So far hardly any bruising, swollen yet minimal. This guy knows what he’s doing! The evidence is in this picture (to me, any way).

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