What's in my Camera Bag?

I get asked what kind of camera I use, quiet a lot, so I thought it would be fun to do a “What’s in my bag?” post.

Let’s start with my camera bag. I am in love with my bag. For years I used a cheap one I found on Ebay and once my business became more successful, I decided I earned myself a pretty (but functional) bag. I have the Scout Bag from Kelly Moore. I love the leather and that it’s the perfect size for what I need. It fits my camera, a lens and a speed light. It’s not to big or to small. I have a feeling I will have this bag for many, many years which makes the investment justifiable.

Next up my camera. I used to shoot with a Pentax camera and I loved it but Pentax didn’t really bring out a newer model, so I decided to switch to Canon. I have the Canon 5d Mark iii. This camera is workhorse. The shutter count (kind of like mileage on a car) is HIGH but it still performs perfect. I’ll be honest here… I am not easy on my equipment. I mostly forget to put a lens cap on, I use it on the beach with all the sand or even in the rain. To me my camera is just a tool. A tool to capture memories. If that is on a beach or in a creek. I bought it to use it.

My favorite go to lens is the Canon 50mm 1.4 and this lens is on my camera pretty much 90% of the time. This lens is also called the “nifty fifty” because it is so versatile and can be used in most situations. This is a prime lens, which means no zoom but the beautiful bokeh (when the background is blurry) it creates makes up for that flaw.

My zoom lens is my Canon 24-70mm 2.8. I use this lens when it’s not easy to move around, such as births and weddings. This lens is tack sharp and just good to have. I like using this camera lens for some of my trips with the family.

I also use the YN560 IV speed light (flash). It is cheap and easy to use. I used to leave it mostly at home but now carry it with me anywhere I go. It has come in handy many times during in home newborn sessions when the natural light wasn’t ideal.

Of course my bag has a few memory cards and batteries as well. I once showed up to a shoot with a empty battery and I can tell you, I won’t make that mistake twice. I will always have backups with me.

I carry a few pens, some change, a lens cleaning cloth and some business card in my bag as well.

I also get asked what camera I use for my personal use. I have the Canon G7x for more adventurous trips. This camera has been with us to Vietnam, kayaking across a lake and climbing a mountain. It’s small but mighty. I love that the screen can flip around, which makes making YouTube videos super easy. I can also use it manually which is something I really was looking for in a point and shoot camera.

So there you have it. Are you a photographer? Amateur or Professional? What’s in YOUR bag?

Hacked!

What happened? December 19th I woke up, grabbed my cell phone and checked my FB. I couldn’t log in, which isn’t unusual because sometimes I am logged in with my husbands account and it takes me a few tries to get my passwords right. Who can remember a billion passwords to a billion different websites? Anyways, after two tries I put my phone down and decided it was just to early and I am not thinking right. Later that morning, I checked again and I couldn’t log in again. I searched through my emails to see if FB sent me a notice. Maybe I violated some of their rules, but what would could that be… a thousand questions are running through my head. I finally find an email in my spam folder. “Someone tried to log in to your account at 2:28am”. The emails gave me a link to change my password. I clicked that link and I got a notice that the link has expired. This can’t be true. I tried again! Same thing, this link has expired! I look closer and I notice that the hacker changed my email address to his (let’s just pretend its a he, ok?) address. I can only see the first letter and the last for “security reasons”. I try a few more times and eventually I get a message to take a photo of my ID and send a new email address that I haven’t used before. I do that. 4 weeks go by! 4 long weeks! I wake up one morning and get an email saying that someone hacked my account and here is a link to fix everything. I click the link. And guess what? IT EXPIRED! I try again. Same message. I go to my FB app and don’t see my account anymore. I log in to my husbands and try to find my account and it is gone. Just gone. 13 + years of memories gone. I start panicking, crying and yes swearing but there is nothing I can do. I tried to contact FB again and just get the same responds as before, upload your ID and wait. After some research on the WWW I come to the realization that once a hacker deletes your account there is nothing you can do! It is gone.

I forgot to mention but while I waited for FB to review my account, the hackers charged FB ads to my PayPal. I did get refunded for those.

So what does this mean? My pictures and memories are gone. I loved looking back every day what we did that day in previous years. My friends are “gone”. And my biz page Sonja B Photography is gone as well. Over 2300 followers gone. All my photography gone. Well, if you click on the link, it is still there but since my personal account vanished in thin air I no longer have access to this page. Again I tried contacting FB but there is nothing they can do, nor do they care.

How can you help? Please hop over to my new page The real Sonja B and like my page. Invite your friends to like my page. Even share this post and beg people to like my page…. I was just kidding about the begging but you could. Just sayin’. And if you are a friend on FB, look me up and sent me a friend request. I am now Sonja McGill instead of Sonja Bennett McGill. If you are a client and want to be FB send me a friend request!

What have I learned? I learned about two way authentication. Which I have set up for my new FB Page. Sometimes we must learn the hard way.

Florida Trip - St. Augustine

St. Augustine was our last (and shortest) stop on our Florida trip!

Picture below is us getting ready to leave our Airbnb near Miami.

We toured the Castillo de san Marcos and Finn collected another stamp and Junior Ranger badge... that makes 17 I think?!

We also got a pretty cool demonstration on firing the canons. The fort was really cool. All made out of sand and shells or known as coquina. And 95% of the fort is still original!!! You guys that means 95% of the fort is over 315 years old! That's pretty impressive.

We spent a few more hours walking around St. Augustine and having lunch. It really is gorgeous town and I definitley want to make this a longer stop in our future. But Christmas break was almost over and school starts again. Plus we still had a VERY long drive home.

And remember from my previous post that we had a chicken thing going on... here are some random chickens at a gas station in Georgia.

We arrived safe and sound at home... Taking three kayaks all the way down to Florida and back, driving around with them in Miami and going through (what seemed like a million) toll booths was no big deal and we will definiteley take them again!

Thanks for reading all of Florida adventures. You can find the other posts here:

Snorkeling in Key Largo

Bradenton

Kayaking with Manatees on Christmas Day

Weeki Wachee

and

Devil's Den

Florida Trip - Snorkeling in Key Largo, Miami & Little Havana

Before I begin... I want to warn you, this post is loaded with pictures! Lots and lots of pictures of sunshine, ocean and so much better weather than we are having now in February in Ohio! Now go on and read... you have been warned!

We left Bradenton early in the morning (to get out of our bad Airbnb asap) and headed to Miami. The plan was to show the boys Little Havana and the South Beach area in Miami and then head to our Airbnb that was located between Miami and Key Largo.

I was a bit worried about driving our kayak trailer through Miami and especially parking. But I couldn't believe that I found almost immediately a spot big enough in Little Havana right off  main street!

The kids loved Little Havana. Jake decided that he needed a hat and asked if he could buy a cigar for the future (no). Both of them loved watching the men play Domino in the park and of course needed their own set.

playing Dominos back at the Airbnb

We drove through Miami but we had a feeling it would be hard to find a spot, yet alone a parking spot that was secure enough to leave the kayaks. So the next few pictures are just random pictures taken from the car.

The original plan was to head to the Airbnb after checking out Miami but on our way we spotted a sign to the Biscayne National Park. Of course we decided to stop and even though it was a short visit it was worth it. Finn added another Junior Ranger Pin to his collection.

what trying to take a nice picture with Finn looks like

my pretty kayaks and trailer haha

Can you spot Miami in the picture below?

After we left the National Park we stopped at at roadside fruit stand (You know we can't skip those) and got two coconuts and some fresh squeezed sugar cane juice. The kids surprised us and didn't like neither.

The next morning was the big day we have been waiting for! Snorkeling in Key Largo. We got there early (hey! I am a good German and will live by the rule of being early for everything) and had enough time to grab something to eat. Scot spotted this little Cuban cafe and it was perfect! The food was excellent! The Empanadas were the best I had all trip (remember my bucket list item from this POST) and the rest of our breakfast was just as good.

With full bellies we drove to the port and were welcomed by Captain Karsten (from Germany) on board. We decided to go with Keys Diver & Snorkeling Tours and we highly recommend them. The really gave us a fantastic snorkeling experience and were so kind and patient with the boys.

How do you like my new prescription sunglasses?

I love this picture of Jake

The snorkeling tour was about 4 hours long and we were taken to 3 different reefs. The boat ride to and from these snorkeling spots were perfect. The sun felt so  good on deck and if we didn't even go snorkeling the boat ride was already perfect enough.

it took me a second to figure this out, but this is Finn haha

the Christ statue

Snorkeling was fantastic as well. We saw so many colorful fish, lost of barracudas and we did see Jesus ;)  The only thing that was difficult to me was to keep an eye on my kids. Every time I looked in a different direction they were gone, they were just way to fast for me and I had visions of them floating away in the Gulf of Mexico. I realize that's being over dramatic but I did not enjoy constantly having to try to find them versus just enjoying the snorkeling experience. Hopefully this will get better the older they get.

On board was a little girl from France and Finn and her hit it off despite the language barrier. They played peek a boo, charades, rock paper sciccors and this weird head bumping game that only the two of them understood.

This day couldn't have been better and I know we will talk about this adventure for a very long time.

Now please can someone take me back to this sunshine???

Being in the Florida Keys we made it our mission to find THE BEST key lime pie. We asked a few locals and everyone had the same answer: PUBLIX the grocery store chain has the best one. So on our way back from snorkeling we stopped at Publix, bought a key lime pie and ate it in the car on our way home. Perfect ending to this day! And yes it was soooooo good!

Btw... we had this weird experience with chickens on this trip. Not only did we see them in the parking lot in Key Largo at Publix but then a few days later we saw a bunch at a gas station in Georgia! So weird!

And because I want to end this post with my favorite picture... VOILA! Brothers actually getting a long!

Florida Trip - Bradenton

We left our amazing AirBnb in Weeki Wachee to spend 2 nights in Bradenton, Florida. Unfortunately our AirBnb there was a bust (after 9 amazing experiences we were doomed for a bad one).

On our way to Bradenton we decided on a detour at Fort Soto. It was an overcast day but we did enjoy a long and relaxing stroll on the beach. We collected some of the biggest shells we have ever seen and the boys tried to find crabs...

Anyone know what kind of fish Scot helped back in the water (it totally swam off again) or what kind of bird is bathing in the above pictures?

The fort itelf was meh... nothing to exciting but it made for a great stop on our way to Breadenton! We had a little lunch near the fort too that was also meh... can't only have amazing days ;)

As mentioned above our AirBnB experience wasn't the greatest but it was situated on a river with a boat (kayak) dock and that was worth it. Just a small kayak paddle away and we saw some pretty cool wildlife.

About the gator... we arrived at our AirBnB and the first thing the kids wanted to do is snorkel. They were pretty upset with us when we told them absolutley no! Until we saw this alligator and then I told them "NOW you may snorkel" haha

On our 2nd day we decided to spend the majority of the day at Siesta Beach. Unfortunately everyone in Florida must have had the same idea. It took us forever to get to the beach, only to drive around for an hour to find a parking spot, then trying to get back out of this traffic nightmare and to a different beach. What should have been a 30 minute drive took us well over 3 hours. We finally arrived at Lido Beach and it was perfect! We found a parking spot right by the beach and it wasn't as packed as Siesta Beach! We swam and played for hours until the late afternoon.

On our way back we stopped at Phillippi Creek Oyster Bar! The sun was setting, the was was amzing and the kids behaved! We couldn't have asked for a better dinner!

What is your guess... Did Finn eat an oyster or not?

We enjoyed our time in Bradenton but couldn't wait for our next few stops! On the road again...