I'm so excited...

And I just can't hide it!

I have wanted a "real" camera for a couple years now. In the last 6 months or so I've gotten serious about wanting one. A nephew, a blog and vacations will do that to you. I want to take amazing pictures. I want to learn a new hobby. I want to be creative.

And guess what? I got a new camera yesterday! We went to a local camera store to "window shop" and talk to someone about recommendations and what might be a good camera for a beginner like me. The woman there was so helpful. She was my age, friendly and explained a lot of things to me about several different cameras. I really didn't even know what kind of questions to ask - that should tell you what a novice I am! Long story short, window shopping turned into purchasing a camera.

I ended up with the Sony A33 based on her recommendation for someone like me. It's (relatively) easy to use and has some features she really likes and I liked too. I'm not going to lie though. It's intimidating! I've been attempting to read the instruction manual since yesterday afternoon.

Here are a few reasons we ended up buying right away:

- Interest free financing will allow us to pay it off more slowly so the up front cost was minimal
- It was on sale
- Signing up for the $20/month photo club thing saved us an additional $75
- I get FOUR free instruction classes, I'm taking my first on Saturday!
- I wanted time to get used to it before our next vacation in May
- The store is close to work and with the photo club membership I get $20 in prints every month. I go to the store whenever I want and can use their editing software for my prints. This forces me to stay organized with printing and they will help me with whatever I need.

I had been doing research online but in all honesty all the photography jargon was over my head. It was so hard to know what I would like and dislike about different models and brands. The help and instruction I received and will continue to receive at the store was priceless. So... I'm still so excited! We've been playing around with it and I even brought it to work today so I could continue reading the manual and testing everything out during down time. I can't wait to have an occasion to take some pictures. So far it's been pets and the house!