New equipment

Ive been wanting a replacement for my kit lens for a long time now. Shopping for camera equipment for me is an arduous process. This is an expensive hobby so I try to make sure that every purchase is a needed and worthwhile purchase. Lens are pretty expensive so I shopped around for a long time. I needed something that had more reach than my kit lens that goes up to 55 mm, at least up to 70 mm where my other sigma starts (70-200mm). I however still wanted the wide angle the kit lens gave me (@ 18 mm). Im a sucker for shallow DOF so it would be good to get something that could open up to 2.8. The constant 2.8 lens were tempting but they were more expensive and people were getting rid of them as they were heavy.

I finally settled on the Sigma 17-70 mm:

It opens up to 2.8 but doesnt stay constant. I should be able to work with that. Goes up to 70 mm where my other Sigma starts so im covered throughout the range 17 mm - 200 mm, and I also have decent wide angle.

The last time I shot a wedding I found that I had gone almost 4 GB on the "getting ready" pictures alone on my memory card. This had me concerned so I decided to get a bigger memory card:

I figure16 GB should do the trick. This card is also suited to video, which I plan to start exploring when I get my new  body, which will be either the T2i or the 3Ti. Why the older model as a choice? Price, and I hear the video capabilities on the older model is better.

I also decided to get a diffuser for my flash, the Gary Fong collapsible Lightsphere:

A nice little addition to my kit to help diffuse light better.Its an interesting device that I think can be used in a number of ways, so I have some learning and experimenting to do.

My camera bag is now full so I dunno how im going to carry around the lightsphere, but must find a way, its compact enough. I think I will very soon need a bigger bag.

Strobist info: All shot on my dining table with black foam core as the background. First two shot with one speed light on the left with the Gary Fong Lightsphere lighting the subject, and a 2nd speed light gridded on the right for the spot light on the background. The last shot was with the gridded speed light on the right.