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| Cinque Terre, Italy; May 2014 |
Right before I went to Europe for the first time in 2014, I bought a new $2000 canon lens. My husband and I put together credit card points and Amazon gift cards we had saved up for this purchase. I was so anxious putting so much money into this purchase. Was I wasting money? What if my new purchase was stolen while we were exploring Europe? The clincher: what if this new lens didn't actually improve my photography?
I spent a lot of time researching the lens before I bought it. I wanted a wide angle zoom lens that would allow me to capture a variety of scenes effortlessly. I wanted the Canon best of the best with the ability to shoot from as low of an aperture as possible.
You'll never believe it though. When the lens arrived shortly before Christmas in 2013, I found myself disappointed. I figured I would know I had gotten the best lens for me if I could shoot my whole Christmas tree in one shot. Guess what? On a canon 60D, 24mm simply wasn't enough. I needed to go lower.
My next lens was only 25% of the cost of the Canon. It was a sigma 10mm-24mm with the lowest aperture of f/4. This lens we didn't have money saved up for. I convinced my husband to let me get it anyway, because who knew when we would return to Europe again? Would we ever? … I needed to get my shots the first time.
When my sigma lens came in… it worked. I got the tree and the whole of our living room into the shot … just barely.
It's funny how you can spend tons of time researching a product, worrying, stressing about the purchase … when what you really need is something completely different.
Have you ever had that experience? Where you research and plan your whole life around one thing, but as it turns out you really should have done something else? …Or you bought something thinking it was the perfect solution only to find out that another product would have served you better?
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