A new toy for me

Steve's sister Alyse is getting married the day after Thanksgiving and I am sooo excited! Not only because they're getting married (duh) but because she asked me to be her wedding photographer!Craziness! I'm really, really excited about this and a little bit nervous too, because well, I've never shot a wedding before but I've always wanted to and it's pretty much going to be an awesome experience. On top of the awesome opportunity of being a wedding photographer for a day, Steve's mom offered to buy me a new lens to shoot the wedding with, because let's be honest, shooting a wedding with a 50 mm wasn't going to realistically happen. After consulting with my sister Marie about which lens would be good for a wedding, I actually found it on Craigslist for $200 cheaper than what it goes for (I love Craigslist now). It was the cheapest price I've seen it go for and it's practically brand new. Technically it's used but since the owner never used it and he kept it in pristine condition, I just say that it's new. A new lens that I got for $200 off!!! I'm pretty proud of myself for getting it for so cheap :) Now I have a new lens to shoot the wedding with and I will have it for everything else too!! Win, win! Thank you so much to Steve's mom. Feeling so blessed and grateful for her :)

I'm also feeling grateful for my friend, Brittany, who agreed to make the drive with me to Fort Worth to buy the lens from the owner. You know how it is. Craigslist is cool and everything but it kind of creeps me out to just go to some stranger's house with a wad of cash in my pocket. I didn't even know if it was a girl or guy selling me the lens until I was about a mile from his house and I had to call him to get directions. His deep voice gave it away. Our only conversation before was over text, although I kind of had the feeling he was a guy since all of his texts were absent of exclamation points and smiley faces. Guys are so non-expressive in texts. Why is that?! Anyway, I would have just taken Steve with me but he was at school and this guy would only be home until 1 pm before he left for work and he didn't get back til 10:30 pm. So Brittany came with me instead to make sure I wasn't abducted or anything crazy like that. Turns out he was a cop, who does portrait photography on the side (?!) which explains why he works til 10:30. So I guess I didn't really need to be so cautious after all, and I guess I didn't really have to leave Cole with a babysitter. Either way, I'm glad she was with me. And I'm glad Cole didn't have to just sit in his carseat for a couple hours. As we left his house with my new lens, I was super giddy and Brittany said to me "It's fun to get new toys."

Yes, yes it is :)

So this past week I played around with it as much as I could; at the playground and out and about last night. Let me just say that I loooove it. It fits so much more into the viewfinder and it's also a zoom lens so I can fit as much or as little into the frame as I want without having to actually move myself. So awesome. And so perfect for wedding day craziness. I'm still getting used to it but I don't know that I'll ever be using my 50 mm anymore. That kind of makes me sad, but not really. It was a good lens while it lasted.

I'm excited to make this my go-to lens. I can say that now since I own more than one lens now ;)