3 Recommendations

As I work on getting a gallery of Italy photos online, I thought I’d write a blatantly materialistic post.  I read a lot of home/design/neat item blogs and I enjoy reading about cool things, even if I don’t or can’t always buy them, so I may start posting more of this type of thing here in the future.  Here are three items I got recently that helped make our Italy trip even more fun.  None of these people asked me to do this, just in case you are wondering.  (As if I were a popular enough blogger to get that kind of treatment!)

Privo Arbor sandals

I wanted to take some sandals to Italy, but I didn’t want to take the flip flops I wear around Houston.  So I bought the Privo Arbor in black patent about a week before we left and I have to say:  They.  Are.  AWESOME.  I’ve worn them almost every single day since I got them, including multiple days in Italy.  That means I did a LOT of walking in them, and can vouch for the fact that they are both stylish AND comfortable.

I was pretty certain that they’d be awesome before I even bought them.  See, I got my first pair of Privo shoes about 3 years ago — sneakers very similar to these (which, not coincidentally, were the only other pair of shoes I took to Italy).  In addition to that first pair, I’ve owned at least 6 other pairs of Privo shoes.  They’re always comfortable, and I personally like the brand’s style.  Maybe it’s weird to have a favorite shoe brand, but Privo is definitely mine.

Jill-E Small Black Leather Camera Bag

I have been looking at “camera purses” for a few months now.  See, I have a photo backpack that I have used often in the past and really like, but this time I wanted something smaller, quicker to access, and just better-looking/more stylish in general.  The Jill-E bag that I bought was actually not my first choice; it was the only one that I could get before leaving.  I ordered it, received it, and then hemmed and hawed over whether to actually take it (thus eliminating any possibility of returning it).  Obviously I decided to stick with it, and it worked well.  There are other bags out there that I like better for their styling, but this bag looked good enough and was very functional.  The inside was removable dividers like most other camera bags, so I could use 2/3 of the space for my camera, and the other 1/3 to hold my wallet, sunglasses, map, etc.

I switched back and forth between using the normal straps, which you can see me doing in the first picture (and see the sandals too, as a bonus), and using the removable cross-body strap, which you can see in the second picture.  It was nice to be able to switch back and forth.  And this bag was far easier to get into than my backpack, since I didn’t have to take it off and put it on the ground to dig out my camera.  I’m still debating whether to put it on ebay in favor of my first choice “camera purse” but the reasoning for selling would be purely cosmetic — the bag is too boxy for my tastes.  But overall, the bag worked well and was exactly what I was looking for in terms of functionality.

Canon 24-105 f/4L IS USM lens rented from LensGiant.com

My other camera-related wish for this trip was to minimize the amount of equipment I carried around.  In the past, I’ve taken 2-3 lenses, but this obviously makes a bag get pretty heavy when you’re carrying it around for a whole day.  For this trip, I wanted to see if I could get by carrying one — and ONLY one — lens.  Unfortunately my lens collection doesn’t lend itself well to the “one lens” philosophy.  I have a 17-40 f/4L wide angle lens and a 70-200 f/2.8L telephoto lens, but nothing that fills the sweet spot of being both wide angle AND telephoto.  For this trip, I needed a good “all-purpose” lens.

Now, the perfect “all-purpose” lens doesn’t actually exist, because it’s hard to build a lens that covers all ranges while maintaining high quality, but I knew I could get close.  Since I couldn’t drop $1000+ on a new lens, I decided to rent one for a fraction of that price.  I checked out a bunch of sites for the rental before deciding to go with lensgiant.com.  I don’t remember why I settled on them, but I was very happy with my experience and will definitely use them again if I need to rent lenses in the future.  The lens arrived right on time, three days before we left.  They do require a signature for delivery, which meant I had to drive to the local Fedex place a little ways up the highway, but that was the only inconvenience.  The lens was extremely well-packed, surrounded by foam and snug inside a lens case.  There were clear instructions on the rental agreement (the most important idea is “you break it, you buy it”) and how to send it back, along with a prepaid return label.  I was very impressed with the organization.

I rented a Canon 24-105 f/4L image-stabilized lens for two weeks and it was EXACTLY what I needed for this trip.  At only 24 mm, this lens wasn’t quite as wide as my 17-40.  While I did miss that very wide angle a couple times, it wasn’t a deal-breaker and I was able to work around it.  On the other end, it was SO much more convenient to have telephoto capability without having to 1) switch lenses or 2) lug my large and heavy 70-200 lens around to get it.  The other lens I considered renting was Canon’s 24-70 f/2.8L for its better handling of low light, but the image stabilization on the 24-105 more than made up for the fact it was only f/4.  In fact, I liked this lens so much that I’m considering selling my 17-40 to buy my own 24-105.

And thus ends my materialistic post!  If anyone from Privo, Jill-E, Canon, or LensGiant reads this and wants to give me free stuff, go for it!  Ha.