Just have a few minutes, then we’re off to a wedding shoot. Should be fun — we know the couple pretty well. (I’m a bit worried about the groom and his family, though. He’s being deployed to Afghanistan again in a couple weeks, so they’ve all got that weighing on their minds, AND his grandmother passed away yesterday. So this will be an emotional wedding indeed!)

My favorite lens quit working on me, so I’ve sent that back to Tamron to be fixed. It’s under warranty, so that’s not an issue — but it’s my best stabilizing zoom lens (28-300 f/5.6) and I have a wedding to shoot. Even with the 5.6 aperture I tended to use that lens in low light simply because the stabilization was so good. I’m hoping to pick up a good low-light lens, somewhere around the f/1.4 to 2.4 range and initially thought I could snag one before today’s wedding to use (it’s an indoor wedding), but Dagmar and I are in the midst of buying an acreage and money’s at a premium around the house at the moment…

So I called a friend. “Hey, I remember you talking about having a good low-light lens for your Canon. May I borrow it for a day?” He agreed readily, as he has a heart of gold.

I was, to be honest, expecting some rather low-budget lenses as he’s a strict amateur (I’ve heard him talk about his camera equipment, but I’ve never seen it — he’s not making money doing photography, but is rather a hobbyist). I just this morning opened his camera bag to get prepared for the shoot and was surprised to find a WAY cool 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 (the honker’s HUGE) and a very nice 24-70 f/2.8! While I really, really wanna strap on that huge 100-400 and go take pictures of someone’s left nostril from two counties away, I think I’ll probably get much more use out of his 24-70 simply because of the lighting conditions in a church.

After just a couple test shots, now I’m convinced that my next lens has to have a much wider aperture than the lenses I have now — I take tons of indoor shots and I hate using a flash. Being able to dial down to 2.8 from my current lens’ 5.6 really makes a difference!

Anyway, so I’ve got that on my mind.