Eighteen Summers of Memories: My First DSLR Camera

I can't contain my excitement *shrieks*... hubby got me a new DSLR camera!!!

I've always loved photography, but for as long as I can remember, the one and only thing I have used for that purpose has been my iPhone. I've always been happy and content with that; I mean, who wouldn't?? With an iPhone anyone has the ability to snap, edit and post pictures to social media with a few swipes of your thumb. But iPhone photography had its limitations, and this couldn't have been more true than the day my brother graduated from the police academy.

That day I arrived just in time to the ceremony and as I stood at the entrance of the venue looking for a place to sit, I realized that the only available seats were at the very back! As the ceremony went on I realized that I couldn't take one good picture of one of my brother's most important days of his life *sigh*. There were people all around me taking pictures with their fancy cameras and then there was me...with an iPhone. I was so upset.

That day I realized that I needed to get a good camera—one with which I could take decent pictures of important milestones, like gazillion high school and college graduations that await me—I don't ever want to miss memories of special events ever again!

I started doing some research and finally decided that I wanted a DSLR camera. I mentioned it to my hubby and he went out of his way to get me a Canon Rebel T5i!

I'm so in love with it :)!!

I consider myself a creative photographer, but when it comes to photography there's one thing I learned very quick - DSLR's are NOT iPhones *surprise surprise*! I was instantly overwhelmed. There were a gagillion and one buttons and all I could figure out of the box was how to press on the shooting button to take a photo. I thought I could get away from not reading the manual...I was so wrong! lol.

Now I read it all the time, even while eating!

I've also been doing lots of research online (thank God for Pinterest!), checking out tutorials and practicing by making my kids pose for me (They hate it. Oh well! lol). I carry my camera with me whenever possible so I can try out different settings, and I have actually learned a lot in very little time. Go me! :)

This past weekend my nieces and nephew came over for Easter brunch and an Easter egg hunt! This gave me an opportunity to test out some of the things I've learned.

Here are some of the shots I took: