Thankful Thursday - I'm Getting a Camera!

After some careful thought and many prayers, my husband and I decided that it would be a good investment for me to get a camera. I'm super excited about this since I've really been wanting one for about 9 months.

It was a tough decision because we were planning to not make any major purchases until our debt was paid off (which we tracked to be by the end of this year). But since I already have one paid wedding this fall (for which I was originally going to borrow a camera, since all I have right now is a rather cheap point and shoot) and several other booked photo sessions for this summer/fall, we felt that the investment would likely pay for itself rather quickly and might actually help us pay off our debt sooner.

After much research, I decided to purchase the Nikon D40 w/ a 18-55mm lens as well as a 55-200mm VR lens. (If you're not into cameras, that probably means nothing to you. I know it meant nothing to me prior to a few months ago.) I bought it through a very reputable company on E-bay, but I will probably not receive it for another 2 weeks or so. (I'm hoping for less, but I don't want to get my hopes up.)

Up to this point, I've been doing photo shoots with friends and family and have not been charging anything - not because I don't think my pictures are worthy of being paid but rather because I could not bear to charge someone for a photo that I took using a point and shoot camera. Regardless of how good the pictures are, it just seems tacky to me. Once my new camera arrives, I will probably begin charging although my rates are yet to be determined.

Here is a picture of my new beauty:

Isn't it purdy?!

The package deal that I purchased includes: camera body, 3 lenses, 3 filters, a hard and a soft camera case, and lots of other little accessories (tripod, memory card, etc.). I'm sure most of the accessories are pretty cheap quality, but they will serve my purpose for now and be enough to help me get started. The package ended up costing me under $800 (cash, of course), so I was pretty pleased with that.

I'm considering starting a photography blog one of these days. Well, actually I have the blog in place, but so far I have yet to post any pictures there. I will let you know if I ever get that started.

If you're interested in checking out my photo portfolio, it is here.