I’ve talked before about the macro filters that I use and they have been really good to me!  Once I got the hang of them and knew what kind of light I needed, how close to my subject I needed to be, etc. I could get a good shot almost all of the time.  But as we were getting ready to travel to Chicago for Kristen and David’s wedding just after the new year, I knew that her wedding was going to have lots of pretty details and I wanted to be on top of my game!  So, I rented Nikon’s 105mm macro lens from LensProToGo.com (love those guys!) and along it went with us.

I tried using it at home the night it was delivered, but it was already after dark the night before we were leaving and our living room is a tad dark so I didn’t “practice” that much with it.  But as it turns out, I didn’t really need to.  Y’all.  This lens was a dream to use!  Because of various things, my time to shoot the bride’s details before she got dressed was limited so I had to fly through shots of her jewelry, the rings, shoes, etc.  But this lens let me get as close or as far away as I needed and still it captured the detail I was looking for!  Now don’t get me wrong… not everyone NEEDS a macro lens.  I’ve seen lot of photographers do incredible detail shots with all kinds of lenses.  So I’m a big fan of working with what you’ve got.

But my raves of this lens don’t end there.  We were able to get to the reception site and photograph it untouched before the guests arrived and I’m so glad we were able to do that!  With the macro lens, we were able to fly around the room and get shots of everything quickly and efficiently.  And once dinner was underway and people started to give toasts, I needed a little more length on my camera than my 50 or 85 so I put the 105 back on and it was beautiful!  There were a few times it took a moment or two to focus, but for what I was shooting at the time, it wasn’t a big deal.  Because of that one thing, I don’t think I would use it for something like the first dance or even a first kiss, but for this, it worked just fine.

If you’re not sure about it, rent the lens for a few days. It’s $65 for a 4 day rental (the Canon 100 macro is just $54) and that includes shipping to you and back to them as well as a blow pop!  Renting is by far one of the things that’s helped carry me through as well as to try out equipment for a reasonable price.  The only problem though is if you find a lens you love and have a really hard time waiting to purchase it… but I’ll just say, “I can do it… I can do it… I can do it…” until the time is right.  And then I’ll move onto the next lens that I want to have in my bag ;-)

Happy Friday, everyone!