My Big Girl Camera

Christmas came early this year. I was super lucky in that my former employer allowed me to take part in our company's annual bonus planning even though I had already submitted my formal notice to terminate my employment. I used my bonus to start 529 Plans for each of the twins and with the leftover money I was able to get myself a big girl camera. So what did I pick?

It's a Canon. An EOS Rebel T1i to be exact.

I purchased the camera "body only" after reading about kit lenses and their limitations. Initially I purchased a Canon Normal EF 50mm f/1.8 II Autofocus Lens. The lens itself has been great so far. It takes awesome portraits, although it's hard to get used to stepping closer/moving farther away from your subject to zoom. However, I quickly realized the limitations of a fixed lens - you can't shoot anything wide angle unless you can literally step away from your subject, and in small spaces (i.e. our 11 x 11 nursery) you just can't get a full shot. 

So back to google I went. I couldn't afford (or justify spending) $1200 on the Canon wide-angle lens, so I researched third party lenses by Tamron and Sigma. Thankfully I found a camera store down in Albany that had Tamron and Sigma lenses. After trying each out and reading online reviews and information from other bloggers, I ordered the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8. It should be here on Wednesday and I can't wait to get my paws on it. 

I'm still digesting my camera's manual and trying to understand all of the settings. And I'm reading about APERTURE, ISO and SHUTTER SPEED and how they interact with one another to create pretty pictures. It's a lot to take in! So far Gracie has been a willing and patient test subject.

To cap off my camera craziness, I ordered a few last things - but they were free (thank goodness!) I've had a Citibank credit card since my college days and have never taken advantage of my Thank You rewards points. Recently I got an email saying that some of my points were set to expire (who even knew this could happen??), so I used my points to order a copy of Photoshop CS5 and a Crumpler 6 Million Dollar Camera Bag. I used Photoshop all the time at work and I'm so excited to have a copy for home now (especially since it was "free")!

Since all of the baby stuff, errand stuff and nursery stuff is finally complete, I have time this week to just play with my camera and experiment. Hopefully I'm a quick study. If you have any advice on lenses, shooting or Canons and feel like sharing, I would be thrilled.