So, picture this: You are shooting one of the most BEAUTIFUL weddings of your year. You’ve gone through the morning and have incredible shots of the details, getting ready, bridal parties, family members + reception space. As the ceremony begins, you’re shooting with your favorite lens (in my case, the Canon 50mm 1.2) and you capture the family members being escorted down the aisle, then the bridal party, then the flower girl. The guests stand to their feet as the doors open to reveal the beautiful bride and you click your shutter. Nothing. You try one more time. Nothing. You check to see if your card is full, even though you had already triple-checked before, and it wasn’t. You look at the back of your camera and see a huge red “X” to let you know that your lens is malfunctioning. By this time, the bride is about to begin her walk down the aisle and you have no lens. You take off the lens and re-attatch it twice before giving up an realizing that it’s just no good. You practically throw it into your bag and attach another lens with just enough time to snag shots of the bride, and thankfully your second photographer captured the ones that you missed. As you recover from your panic attack, you realize that you have a week full of sessions beginning on Wednesday followed by a double header followed by a photography-related trip. And no 50mm lens. And then you have a panic attack again.

Friends, THIS happened to me just a few short months ago. My 50mm 1.2 completely gave out for absolutely no reason during the ceremony at one of my weddings and it was awful. It was even MORE awful because I had absolutely NO idea how I was going to finish out my week of shooting + my double header the following weekend without my lens. BUT, thanks to being a Canon Professional Services member, I was able to ship my lens to them for FREE and have it repaired + returned within 48 hours. No, I’m not kidding. I have NO idea what I would have done without CPS!!! I didn’t even know what Canon Professional Services was for the longest time until I saw THIS post on Jordan & Amy’s blog! I’m hoping this blog post will educate my fellow Canon shooters just a tad + save you from a similar situation!!!

Here’s a little snippet about CPS straight from their site: “Canon Professional Services (CPS) provides exceptional support for full-time imaging professionals. CPS members receive exclusive 24/7 phone and e-mail support, expedited and discounted equipment maintenance and repairs, Equipment Evaluation Loans, on-site support at select events and shows, discounts on select Canon Live Learning seminars and workshops, and more.” The 24-7 support and discounted equipment maintenance is what SOLD me!!! All you have to do is register your equipment to see what level of membership you qualify for. The more equipment you have, the higher level of membership you can use. I pay $300/year to be a platinum member which is NOT a lot for a yearly membership that gives me all of the benefits I get from CPS!! If you are a Canon shooter like myself, you can learn more about it HERE + see if it’s something that could benefit your business!!

Canon didn’t ask me to write this blog post, I promise 🙂 I just truly believe in this system and it saved me from a situation that could have been really hard! I hope this helps some of you + that you all are having an INCREDIBLE Christmas week!!!