For eleven years, I lived a double life but not like what you’re thinking.😉
I was constantly traveling back and forth between LA and Detroit because I was in a long-distance relationship with my partner, Blake. We had to wait until his son graduated from high school for him to move to LA, so every other month, I’d pack my bags and head to Michigan for 8-10 days and every other month, he’d pack his bags and head to LA for 8-10 days.
Yeah we made Delta ✈️ rich.
But here’s the thing: those trips weren’t vacations. I worked the entire week I was there doing headshots for Michiganders.
One Sunday, I flew into Detroit like I had a dozen times before. I had my camera with me because I had a shoot on Tuesday. As I stood by the luggage carousel, I set my camera bag on a bench to grab my suitcase from the belt.
When I turned back around, my equipment was gone.
Just like that. My main camera body, my backup body, my primary lens, my backup lens, two batteries, chargers, and all my CF cards. All of it, gone.
I had a shoot in less than 48 hours and zero equipment to my name.
Monday morning, I had to drive half an hour to get to the only camera store in town. Thank gowwwd there was one.
I had no choice but to drop thousands of dollars on a brand-new setup. No opportunity to find the best “deal.” I paid what I had to pay.
Ironically, that was the moment I finally switched over to mirrorless (specifically the Canon R6), and on a side note, it was the best thing that ever happened to my business.
I spent all of Monday learning the new system so I could show up and be ready for my shoot on Tuesday. But once I started shooting, I was floored. It was like “Photography for Dummies.” For years, I’d stayed at f/3.5 and 1/250 to avoid blur, but with mirrorless technology and image stabilization, I could suddenly shoot at f/2.8 with depth and my subjects were always tack-sharp.
🤯 Like huh??
I started producing sharper images, capturing candid moments faster than ever, and expanding beyond the traditional limitations of a DSLR. It was a game-changing upgrade I probably never would have made if I hadn’t been forced into it by having my gear stolen. Cuz I’m a big believer in “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
But I digress…
💁🏼♀️ My point being, the only reason I wasn’t having a complete mental breakdown was one thing: Insurance.
Because I was insured, my insurance company covered the purchase of both bodies, both lenses, and all the accessories, from the batteries down to the SD cards. My experience was MORE than fair and I was grateful.
I’m telling you this because as a business owner, you have to protect yourself from the “unthinkable.”
So I have a question for you: Do you have business insurance for your gear?
If you don’t and you’d like to know which company I use (the one that made this nightmare experience so easy to resolve), just reply back to this email.
I’ll send you the name of the specialty company for photographers I personally trust, because non-specialty companies are going to charge you more.
And for the record, while I do provide affiliate links every once in a while, I’m not an affiliate in this case. I just want to make sure you understand the importance of having equipment insurance.
Until next time,🫶
P.S. 🙄 And yeah, of course I can just tell you the name of the company here in this email, but I want to see if you’re actually reading my emails and get a gauge on whether what I’m sending you is something you’re interested in. So reply back if you’d like to know who I recommend for photography insurance.
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