New Camera!

As most of you know, I love taking pictures.  I have been taking pictures since I was a pre-teen, starting with just basic film cameras and gradually updating to nicer digital ones.  Up until this point, I have always used a point and shoot.  I have gotten some pretty good pictures with the cameras I've had, because I have learned to make them do what I want them to do. :)  All the pictures on my blog up until now have been taken with my Nikon Coolpix P80. 

 Like this one...

Overall, I have been fairly happy with my Nikon.  It is a 10.1 megapixel camera with 18 power optical zoom, which I loved.  It takes excellent photos outdoors and in good lighting situations.  But I found that indoors and in low lighting situations it had a hard time focusing, and I pretty much needed to use a flash.  And also as time went on, it seemed to have more of a problem focusing, even in lighter situations.  I did love the macro setting, and got a lot of great close-up pictures using it! 

But, last week, my in-laws called me and told me they had a new DSLR camera for me, sitting on their table.  What a surprise!  I have been wanting to upgrade to a DSLR, but we haven't really been able to afford it, and to tell you the truth, I was a little intimidated.  I really had no clue what to do with the aperture and shutter speed and ISO settings.  But I was very excited to give it a try! 

I got the box in the mail yesterday and opened it to find a Sony a390L camera with two lenses...a 18-55mm standard zoom lens and a 55-200mm zoom lens.  Sony's are pretty good cameras, and this one is a great beginner camera because it is so easy to use and understand.  I talked with a professional photographer today and he went over the camera and settings and everything with me.  So now I am anxious to practice and get comfortable using my new DSLR camera!  Hopefully from now on the pictures on my blog will be taken with the Sony.  Here are a couple of the first pictures I took with it today!

It looks like spring around here, doesn't it? :)

Have a great weekend!