Tips for Pro Mom*togs – Week 6

I LOVE wedding season!  I had the most amazing wedding that I can’t wait to share with you all.  Holy cow!  It was beautiful!  Since I was so busy with the wedding over the weekend I spent some quality time with Brayden today so sorry this tip is coming a little late.

This weeks tip for you Pro Mom*togs is to buy the best equipment you can afford.  I get a lot of emails asking if people should buy this camera versus that camera or this computer versus that computer.  If you can afford the best, buy the best.  Why?  Because the better the equipment is the easier it’s probably going to make your life.  Plus, you will end up buying the better equipment down the road anyway.  So, if you have the money to do it do it sooner rather than later.

Last year I was working off of my Mac Book Pro and it was taking forever and a day to get anything done.  It was so frustrating!  It shut down constantly.  It would take 5 minutes to run one action.  It took me a lot of time to get simple and easy things done.  After I had Brayden I just couldn’t take it anymore.  I didn’t have time to waste.  So, I upgraded to the iMac.  I had been thinking about it for months, but wasn’t quite sure where the money was going to come from since I wasn’t working at the time.  Well, I emptied my bank account and it was worth every cent.  I could get my work done in a quarter of the time that it took to get my work done on my laptop.  It didn’t shut down.  It didn’t make funny noises.  I could multi task and do several things at once.  I didn’t have to delete every session right after it was done to make more space.  And guess what?  My bank account went right back up because I was able to book more sessions since I was able to spend less time in front of the computer.  

When I bought my 5D a couple of years ago it made my life easier because I was able to get the color I wanted out of the camera so I was able to spend less time editing the images after the fact.

And this is why I’m so adamant about not buying third party lenses.  You will end up wasting your money on lenses that are mediocre when you could save for a couple of months and have a great lens that you will never want to trade in.

Whenever I invest in an expensive piece of equipment, whether it be a computer, lens, or camera body, I have not looked back.  It has made me a better photographer and has made my life much easier.  And as moms we need to make our lives as easy as possible!

For those who are interested here is my set up.  And, no, this isn’t my office.  I took this today and my computer is downstairs because of all the earthquakes we’ve been having. We live very close to Yorba Linda, which has been experiencing an earthquake swarm for the past couple of months.  I’ve been lucky enough to not feel most of them, but last Thursday we got 3 good jolts in a few hours.  My husband will move my whole set up downstairs  when we have earthquakes because I’m too scared to by upstairs.  Yeah, I know, I’m a baby.  I’ve lived in California my whole life.  Been through all of the big ones.  But, I hate earthquakes.  Hate them, hate them, hate them!  Below are my BIG iMac and my little Mack Book Pro.