JoTotes Review

On Wednesday I received my very first long-awaited JoTotes Betsy bag. I've been wanting one for over a year, but I didn't want to pay the hefty $100+ price tag. With a wedding looming in my future, I knew I couldn't rely on Justin's pockets to hold all of my lenses, camera batteries, memory cards, and flash. I bit the bullet and bought the Betsy bag in teal.

Over the past year, I really and truly wanted the yellow Betsy bag. I thought it would be fun and brightly colored. However, since yellow and black are Georgia Tech colors, and I am completely anti-Georgia Tech (Go Bulldogs!), I bought turquoise instead. I would have worn all black to the wedding I was going to shoot a la professionalware, and, as stated before, clearly yellow and black should never be worn together! Nobody in my family saw it as odd that I would order turquoise since that tends to be my go-to anyway.

When you are seeing this brightly colored turquoise bag online, I can guarantee you that the color you see is what you will get (unless your monitor or phone settings are completely whacky!). The turquoise is truly a bright color and not at all muted in any way.

If you aren't a fan of turquoise though, don't despair. The Betsy comes in a variety of colors, specifically yellow, black and brown. You can have an exciting brightly colored bag or something more normal. It's all up to you!

The bag comes in a cardboard box that says "Your Special Delivery" which, frankly, reminds me of babies and cowboys. It's the font, I promise! Then when you open the box. . . you know those things the nurses wear at the hospital on their feet? Yeah, there's like a big one covering the JoTotes bag. Why? I don't know. The branding seems to be all over the place and not consistent. Plus, what is the box going to do to the bag? Why can't it just be wrapped in packing paper? Or nothing? It would be way more exciting to have it wrapped in packing paper; it'd be like opening a gift! Because honestly, when you order a $100+ bag, you kind of want to feel like you are opening a gift. Plus, would it really be so difficult to put a little "Thank you for shopping with JoTotes" handwritten note in there? That would have totally sent me over the moon in happiness! (I was already pretty excited to begin with!)

Needless to say, the customer service I received prior to ordering my bag was sub-par as well. They were decently quick to respond to my concerns (5 hours). Their e-mail was very impersonal though, and it ended up confusing me more than helping. Apparently they have one standard shipping method they will use unless you contact them immediately after purchasing, send money to them through paypal, and let them know you want 2 day shipping. Why this is not an option upon checkout, I have no idea. An e-mail that expresses excitement and interest in me as a customer would have been nice. Even sending me a link to pay the special 2 day shipping fee in the response would have been nice. (JoTotes, are you listening?) Overall, ordering was confusing, and I recommend going through a site like B&H instead. B&H does not promise 2 day shipping, and actually state that they get their bags from elsewhere, and it could take as many as 7 days extra. I appreciate the honesty and directness from B&H. I do have to mention that JoTotes was correct; I did receive my bag within 3-5 days. 4 to be exact.

Let's get back to the bag. . .

The bag is faux leather and awesome. It came with two straps, one longer and one shorter, three short and one long inner adjustable pad with velcro for easily moving around inside the bag, and a removable shoulder pad. I didn't like that I had to put everything together, but, at the same time, it made the bag seem completely customizable to my own preferences. After many years of using free/cheap computer/camera bags, I have fallen in love with this bag. You don't know what you are missing until you get a well made quality bag that actually sits on your shoulder and doesn't hurt. In the past I've had a lot of problems with the weight being off balance. When the weight on your shoulder is off balance, it hurts. so. much. While this bag will not fit my laptop, I can definitely see myself getting a separate bag from JoTotes for just that purpose sometime in the near future.

The inside of the bag is grey. Like I said, it has three removable grey pads and one large removable grey pad to help you separate your gear and keep it safe. I currently have all of my manuals in the larger pocket, my 50mm, flash, and 60d with telephoto lens attached all fitting nicely in the bag with room to spare! Other photographers have had success also fitting a small 13" laptop in the bag as well. If you have a larger laptop, like me, you should not expect it to fit. I always worry about making bags too heavy for me to comfortably carry, so the prospect of having two bags and only carrying the one I need (i.e. camera equipment or laptop) seemed like an ideal scenario for me. There was definitely room in the bag had I wanted to put my canon xt in there as well.

In case you hadn't noticed, this bag has a LOT of pockets! With two pockets on the front exterior, one in the back, and one in the top, you definitely have room to put all of your stuff! I've got my camera batteries and memory cards in the front pockets, but I have seen where other photographers tend to put keys and cell phones in those pockets. The back pocket is, according to the JoTotes website, large enough to hold an ipad, although I don't have one to try this with. I could imagine using that top pocket for paperwork; it seems made for it.

One of the best things about this bag is that it doesn't scream "I'm a camera bag!". It probably is more likely to scream "I'm a purse!" which is not much better when dealing with thieves, but it definitely feels more conspicuous and less attention drawing. However I would be lying if I implied in any way that this is a small bag. Perhaps it's my petite frame, but this bag is indeed a big bag. It drives me crazy that it is so stiff and won't fold in on itself fitting closer to my body, but it is nice that I don't have to worry about the bag falling over when I set it on the ground. And in case I haven't mentioned it before, I love that I can wear the bag either on my shoulder like a purse or I can go for the cross body fit when I'm busy taking pictures and I don't want to worry about the bag falling off of my shoulder. (Of course, I also have a husband for that, but JoTotes did a wonderful job thinking about those single ladies or the ones that don't have a husband following them everywhere!)

Would I recommend JoTotes?

ABSOLUTELY. Go buy one. yesterday.

If you don't like it, they have a 30 day, unused bag return policy. What do you have to lose?

Bubbles!

Ok, so I know most of you don't come to my blog to read about bubbles or see cute kids. I get it. We can't all be kid people. In fact, I can guarantee you sometime in the next week there will be a review for the most amazing JoTotes bag I just received yesterday. However, in the mean time, you get to see some cute pictures of kids playing in bubbles, because that's the other thing I do when I'm not blogging.

Ellie, the little girl I watch, got a bubble machine for her birthday. She was so excited about it! I had the most fun ever watching her play in the bubbles. At first, she was simply playing in the bubbles with lots of smiles, excitement, chasing, and who knows what else! As she continued playing though, bubble chasing became more serious. At one point I told her that I wanted a picture of her surrounded by bubbles. She laughed and agreed, but no matter how many times she set off the bubble machine, she just would not smile. No laughs, no grins, nothing. Rather than continuing to wait for what wasn't to come, finally I started directing her. I impatiently yelled "Smile Ellie! Smile!" Granted the end result, in the last picture, is pretty much a fake smile, but I like it all the same. Serious looks with bubbles just don't work. (The first two shots were genuine smiles.)

When Charlie got home, I knew I would be able to get smiles with bubbles. Isn't that every 3 year olds dream? Charlie wouldn't have any of it though! He wanted to follow big sis around. He found himself in front of this plant pulling it apart, telling me the plant was the reason the bubbles weren't sticking around for very long (i.e. popping). Knowing this would be the perfect spot for a picture, I asked Charlie to smile. The look you see is what he gave me. Then he turned away and got distracted again. That look was all he was going to give me, and we both knew it. That look to me says "I've smiled; are you happy? I'm busy." Funniest kid ever.

There is a third kid I typically watch too, but yesterday he was off playing with his friends. I'm 99% certain that if I were to get a picture of him though, it would probably look like Charlie's photo. Unfortunately that look on an 8 year old is just not as cute or funny as it is on a 3 year old.

I've been taking pictures of the kids all week, and I'm planning on printing some for the parents to give them on the last day I babysit for this year. None of the photos on this post were edited since my computer has decided to be super slow (and not back up). I will be sad to leave these children for the summer and lose my awesome opportunity at photographing them, but I am also very much looking forward to the fun this summer has to offer with a different set of kids, a trip to NYC and who knows what else?!

Rod Stewart Time Review

Thanks to One2One Network I received the newest album from Rod Stewart Time to review! I have to admit I wasn't too terribly excited to review this album which has actually already reached #1 status on the charts since my receiving it! Wow! It's been nearly 34 years since Rod Stewart has had a #1 album, so congratulations to him!

Rod Stewart has spent four decades being a rock star, three being a parent, and has a new album's worth of rollicking stories to tell. Time is his first album of new material in almost 20 years (and his hairstyle hasn't changed one bit!) Time, which was released May 7th, 2013, marks Stewart's long-awaited return to his songwriting roots and features 12 tracks, 11 of which he wrote and produced. The album was born from a burst of inspiration that came while Rod was reviewing his life for his recent memoir, Rod. Rod rediscovered his voice as a songwriter and rekindled his gift for writing the honest, nerve-touching narratives that have been the cornerstone to the first three decades of his career. "Suddenly ideas for lyrics were piling up in my head," he says. "Next thing I knew, I had a song called 'It's Over' about divorce and separation. And now I was getting up in the middle of the night and scrambling for a pen to write things down, which has never happened to me. I finished seven or eight songs very quickly and I still wasn't done, and it became apparent that I would eventually have a whole album of material to record." Along with the release of Time, Stewart is set to embark on the European leg of his Live the Life tour on June 1st, while American dates with Steve Winwood will kick off October 17th.

The album is exactly what you would expect from Stewart, scratchy voice and all. Rather than going song by song like I did with Bublé's album, let me just share my very favorite tracks from the album.

Rod Stewart starts on a high note with "She Makes Me Happy". It's hard not to like such a catchy tune that is so upbeat and happy. When you watch the music video you can really tell he gets into the song and loves singing this song, a bit surprising for a 68 year old.

The second song, "Can't Stop Me Now", about his experience getting into the music business is pretty fun. After that song, it really all starts to sound the same to me. Lots of romance, sex, and divorce. I know "It's Over" has been pretty popular on the charts, and I'm sure it's beautiful, but I have to admit I'm a bit sick of it. The album picks up again with the faster "It's a Beautiful Morning". Every song on this cd is full of emotion making it a very inspiring and surprising cd to listen to.

The album definitely ends on a high note (or low note depending on how you think about it) with a ballad "Pure Love". Talking about friendship, family, and living life to the fullest, this is by far one of the most powerful songs on the cd and a great song on which to end the album.

Is there a better way to end the album then with a song like that?

If you were or are a fan of Stewart's original music, I definitely recommend giving Time a listen. Obviously, as shown by the charts, it will not disappoint! And, if you do listen, let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 

Jekyll & Hyde

Sometimes I feel like that. . . sweet but evil. ;)

We had a little photo session yesterday, and I couldn't resist not showing the cuteness. It makes me laugh.

Budgeting Changes: That Constant Battle

In the last post I revealed that Justin and I are especially struggling with our budget after a big purchase we thought we needed. Hindsight is 20-20. Looking back, we decided to give our budget an over haul.

Justin has been working up to biking to work, and that is exactly what he has started doing this week. The lack of rain has been nice in helping him to do that. (I imagine leaving at 6AM when it is still cool outside also helps.) We have also been looking to have Justin join Gympact. The idea is that if you work out 30 minutes a day either at a gym or using Runkeeper, you can earn money. If you skip your work out, however, your credit card or debit card will be deducted by $5 for every work out you miss. This is a great incentive if you don't like to work out or for those days when Justin isn't so sure he wants to bike in. (Too tired, feeling sick, or whatever.) The major benefit I see is that it could help us cover the costs of him biking to work. As crazy as it sounds, Justin and I are finding the upkeep of a bike is different then the upkeep of a car yet it can still get expensive. Luckily, you don't have to put gas in it once a week!

I mentioned yesterday that Justin and I are actually buying meat with the intention of freezing it to be used in meals. Over the weekend, we also decided that it might help to have some meals already frozen and ready to heat up. Using mostly supplies we already had, Justin threw together some baked ziti last night that he was able to freeze. That along with some sort of Mexican casserole we got at Costco the other day means we have a variety of food stored away for a rainy day (or until we decide to eat it). Having this food put away and frozen, we are hoping, will deter us from eating out when we are limited on time or too tired to cook. Plus, it will be nice to pair the frozen dishes with fresh vegetables making meals much simpler to make and hopefully more cost effective.

Justin and I finally opened up a joint checking account over the weekend! We had received a coupon from Chase Bank to receive $200 when you open a Total Checking Account with them. The account will not be our primary account, and as such we had to move a good bit of money from savings to the checking account. In essence, we will be treating the account like a CD in which we will receive approximately 6% APR. We can't touch the money for 6 months, but it seemed like a good financial move to make. One of the downsides is that for the next few months I will be looking at my savings account freaking out: what happened to my money!?!? AHHHH!!! :)

The good news is that all of our financial changes encouraged us to look at our budget again. (This seems to happen once every 4 months or so.) Since December/January, we have added things to our budget and taken things away. It is constantly being restructured. This month Justin decided to start putting some money away into a savings account for Christmas which reduces our "everything else" budget by 66%. It's actually a really scary number considering the number of things that fall into the "everything else" category, but we are hoping that budget cuts in other areas (like food and gas) will help to make up for the fact. Further more, the way our budget currently works, we always have the money I make to fall back on.

Not only are we going to try and make budget cuts, I think we are finally going to go through all of the stuff we have cleaned out of the house (that is now in my parent's basement). Hopefully I will be able to make some money back on the purchase of my camera by taking some awesome pictures of clothing and various other items to sell on ebay. It seems crazy to me that a year after we started sifting through our belongings we would now be organized and prepared enough for me to take on the whole new task of selling things. Hopefully it will work out.

So what do you think? Have you completely forgotten about your budgeting resolutions? Do you have any crazy schemes to make money? Are you a crazy planner who writes out dates of perspective money gains and losses for the next 12 months before deciding how to budget your money? Or am I the only one?

Share your budgeting secrets! Obviously I don't know what I'm doing, but I'd love to hear your suggestions!

The Rain, Budget + Food

One of my favorite times to photograph is right after a rain storm. The sky is cold, dark, and sad making everything else seem over saturated; the colors just pop.

Plus, I absolutely love shooting flowers (or leaves) with the little water droplets on them. Justin was amused I was abusing my powers of telephoto lens and pretending it was a macro lens when I was taking this picture.

Over the weekend, the wedding shoot I was planning and prepping for canceled on me. It was frustrating in that I had made a few purchases I would not have made otherwise including my lovely new 60d. I'm excited that I will have awesome equipment for taking on the many vacations that Justin and I have coming up, but, because of said extra expenses that we could not afford, Justin and I decided to attempt to conquer our food budget goals. (That was the only area we felt we could really cut down on.) We went on a trek to a bunch of food places to see where we could find food the cheapest.

The one place we wanted to go, The Restaurant Depot, was closed due to a power outage, so we traveled on to Costco. While at Costco, we found 2 whole (young) chickens for $10. Apparently, one chicken is that price at the Farmer's Market. We bought the chickens yesterday thinking that maybe if we include more meat in our diet, we will be better able to buy in bulk and save money on our overall grocery budget. For the past year our diets have consisted of mostly fresh vegetables (not always on sale) and only rarely would we include meat of any kind. I'm hoping that by being more inclusive of meat, Justin and I will be able to expand our meal options without expanding our budget.

Just before heading home, we did, inevitably, stop by the Farmer's Market to get some fresh vegetables and yogurt.

(Julia Child always says to respect your food. I'm not quite sure how cutting up a chicken is being respectful, but, if anyone was respecting it, Justin was. I would probably have been doing my best to not even touch it!)

Personal lessons I took away from this weekend:

1. Don't buy equipment until you have a signed contract. Verbal agreement is not an actual agreement even a week before said shoot.

2. My photography is worth something. The time and effort I have spent perfecting my skill is really showing through with my new camera. All of a sudden, getting a good shot is almost effortless. Rather than struggling to get the right shot, I get to worry about perfecting the right shot. It takes one's photography into a totally different ballgame.

3. Food is expensive, but two chickens provide a lot of meat.

Lessons you should take away from this:

1. Don't ever let close friends and family shoot your wedding. The lady I was going to shoot for decided to go with her son-in-law. I can almost guarantee you that the photography will suck if she gets it back. I have been to two weddings where this has happened and both couples were glad someone else (me) was there to take images. In the first wedding, the friend ran off with the images never to be seen or heard from again. In the second scenario, the photographer provided the images, but they were all blurry. Do you really want either of those situations to happen to you?

Here's what you don't know about photography. The time you are paying for goes to preparation for your shoot, shooting you, and then editing afterwards. Preparation for your shoot begins the minute your photographer first touches a camera. Hopefully, they have had a mentor in their life to guide them and help them develop their skill. Preparation also usually includes the equipment needed: a computer with Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom, a DSLR camera, a flash, lenses, other various equipment, and a website to share your images with you. After your shoot, you can expect any number of things to happen including color adjustments, sifting through images so that you only get the very best, and small edits that clean up your pictures. Your photographer probably even knows (and has researched) the very best places to get your images printed or designed into an album. So unless you know photoshop, you are getting a pretty good deal by choosing a photographer.

2. Always let your husband cut up the chicken. ;)

So there you go. In a nutshell, that was my weekend (and rant about photography).

Canon 60d

After the realization yesterday that I only had one week to prepare for the biggest shoot of my life (thus far), Justin and I went out last night to Fry's Electronics for me to look at both the 7d and the 60d. At nearly $500 price difference in the store with no price matching, Justin and I decided it would be best for me to go ahead and purchase the 60d which would allow me time to play with it and get used to it. The money I would be saving by not purchasing the 7d could be used to obtain a lens from KEH. 

taken with iphone 4s

I'm already in love.

taken with 60d

I told Justin that if I brought the camera home, tried it, and didn't fall in love within the first day, I was going to return it. I've had that experience every time I go to buy a new camera lens, and I didn't think the purchasing/upgrading of a camera body should be all that different.

When we got home at 11PM last night, I practically ripped the box open, hoping that once I got it open I could immediately start taking pictures. Unfortunately, yours truly forgot that things like batteries are actually important for cameras. I had to wait until we had finished dinner to even think about trying the camera. (Yes, we ate dinner at 11PM last night.) While I worked on putting together a contract, Justin played with my camera. Yes, he got to play with it first. :( I would have liked it if we could have swapped places. :)

Either way, from the moment I put my favorite lens on the camera, I was in love. Shooting with 18.8 megapixels and a camera body that works better in low light settings is making me really happy. After shooting with an 8 megapixel camera and trying to improve my skills with it for over 10 years, it was time for an upgrade.

As we were leaving Fry's, Justin and I spotted a fair.

He pulled over and let take the picture above. I made him promise to bring me back over the weekend to let me shoot with my new 60d. Fairs always intrique me with their carousels, ferris wheels, and cotton candy. It's one of my very favorite places to photograph. And when the sun is setting? Beautiful.

Justin and I have a busy weekend planned with a trip to KEH to look at used wide angle lenses, dinner with the parents and in-laws tonight, and, hopefully, an adventure worthy of being photographed. Do you have any awesome weekend plans?