Summer Photos

William George recently announced that his front tooth is loose. For months I have been meaning to take some five-year-old photos (to match/coordinate/complement some we had taken of the girls when they were five), and that obviously extended past his six birthday. Oops. We kept trying to make time in the spring, and then it was too hot in the summer. However, since I want George's five-ish photos to match the girls' photos (at five), a loose tooth gave us motivation to get it done because all of the girls' baby teeth are intact in their photos.

George has been looking for an opportunity to wear his tuxedo (he really loves it), and formal photos were the perfect occasion.  

Below is the candidate for his official portrait for framing, or I may do a single head shot since the girls' are more close up.  

These lovely ladies were kind enough to let me photograph them as well, so that we have fall summer (Who are we kidding? They will have to pose again once the leaves burst with color.) photos of everyone.  

George's favorite part was the train car, of course. Frankly, I talked up this red train quite a bit to get him to agree to photos in the August heat. 

Skip was a great assistant... he got everyone posed, and he even performed a street rescue when a loud motorcycle came by.  

After the pics, the trio changed in the car, and we had a fun, family date night. Even George wanted to change out of his favorite clothes into cooler clothing! This ended up being a really fun evening, complete with pizza and Target, two of our favorites.  

LensRentals

My camera stopped working in May at a very inopportune time. Specifically, it stopped firing during Grace and Lauren's dance recital performances. Fortunately, I had taken tons of photos during the dress rehearsal so all was not lost. Plus, I was able to resuscitate the camera later by removing the SD card and was able to get a few more shots later on in the month. However, soon enough the camera died completely, and I am planning to send it in for repair because, although it's 8+ years old, there has to be some more life remaining.

In the meantime, I had been saving money for, like, five years (seriously) for a replacement, and for the last two years Skip has been encouraging me to go ahead and pull the trigger on the purchase because my favorite subjects are getting older by the day. I continued to hesitate for two reasons... first, I knew I wanted to upgrade, and I was very reluctant to hand over the money. Second, I wasn't sure what to buy and was terrified of making a mistake.

"Terrified" might be a strong word, but I get very concerned about making major purchases. Skip once told me that my face turned beet red at the Apple store while purchasing an iPad for myself, and I'm sure my blood pressure was elevated.  In short, I never get "new car" fever, and I never have money burning a whole in my pocket. Instead, I get "new car" panic attacks.

Any rate. After narrowing the options down to two (a new Nikon D810 or a used D5 - both choices would be roughly the same cost with obvious pros/cons), I was still stumped, and therefore, took a couple of years to overthink the whole thing. What if these cameras were too complicated? What if I painfully parted with my savings and regretted the purchase? Best to stick with what I know until the existing camera dies...which it finally did.

I narrowed down the choices and was leaning toward the D810 due to its impressive 36mp and the warranty that would be available with a new purchase. Since I was still nervous about being able to use the camera, I looked into rentals and had the very best experience with LensRentals.com out of Memphis, Tennessee.

First, I went online and ordered the camera. I figured the rental price was a small insurance policy against buying the wrong camera, and speaking of insurance, I decided to avail myself of their added coverage since we would be taking the rental on vacation to Amelia Island. I knew this company had a sense of humor when I saw all of the eventualities that would be covered under their policy.

Good to know bear attacks are covered, but as a former insurance person, I couldn't help but wonder if other types of animal attacks would be excluded. Bear = yes; mountain lion = no?

Second, I waited patiently for the camera to arrive, which it did exactly two days later, and was wrapped carefully. Also, the box was playfully designed with "Open the Fun!" exclamations on the box, making it harder to be intimidated by the camera. I was very impressed with the condition of the camera, which was brand spanking new.

Third, the camera performed perfectly on our trip. Although there was definitely a lot of user error (as with anything new), the D810 was intuitive and not completely overwhelming. LensRentals has an option to purchase any equipment rented from them, but because the camera I received was new, they were unable to match the pricing from my go-to option, B and H Photo, and they actually encouraged me to work with B and H in this instance in order to have the warranty. In short, they were awesome, and I was very sad to package and return their camera on our last full day of vacay.

Also, they had some more jokes with their furnished packaging supplies:

It is hard to turn red-faced and have panic attacks when you are amused.

If I had any remaining concerns about the purchase, I was completely convinced when I loaded these pics at home. Thirty-six megapixels of beauty!

I will definitely keep LensRentals in mind the next time I want to try out additional equipment.

PS: I should also mention that I had the usual great experience with B and H as well. They are awesome.

*This post is not sponsored by LensRentals nor B and H Photo.