Out with the OLD - In with the NEW

Meet my new baby.... the Nikon D700! 

*If you aren't interested in cameras then you probably won't be interested in reading this one!

After taking a leap of faith, my BIG plans to upgrade my camera gear and jump start my photography business are officially in the works. For the past few months, I've done tons of research on DSLR cameras and have read just about every review on the internet. My favorite photography review site is here. I started with a Nikon D40 (photo on left side), it was a great starter camera but it is at the bottom of the Nikon DSLR camera food chain. I bought that camera knowing that I was interested in photography but at the time I didn't know just how serious I was. I had never owned a DSLR camera before and I quickly learned a lot. :) Also thanks to some amazing online tutorials and photography bloggers. After taking at least 20,000 photos with it I started to call it the little engine that could. It just wasn't cutting it for me anymore. I wanted a faster, sharper, and more serious camera. Another huge downfall with the Nikon D40 is that some of the lenses I really wanted don't autofocus on the camera body. While I found focusing my Nikon FILM camera fun, I have no interest in taking the time to focus a Nikon DSLR camera lens in a photography session or for my everyday photos. I have two bouncing little kids so I need lenses that can keep up with them! After taking a photography class and really learning about what cameras were capable of, I knew an upgrade would be in my future. 

At first, I was thinking about upgrading to the D90, I know someone with this camera and they love it! Then I moved onto the D300.. and finally decided on buying the D700. Can you tell I've been thinking about this for a looonnng time?! It's a big investment for me! The D700 is compared to Canon's 5D Mark II (for those of you who speak Canon language.. obviously I'm a Nikon girl), has an interior FX build that is similar to the $8,000 Nikon D3 and a smaller body like that of the Nikon D300. I found the best price on amazon and have been tracking the shipping for past 48 hours. Yes, I'm that person. I also watched out the window for the UPS man all morning! The wait was worth it! I was so excited to open the brown amazon box and see everything that I ordered packaged so beautifully. I got the D700 body, extended battery grip, extra battery, Nikon 50mm f 1.4 lens, filter, new camera bag, and of course a new memory card. I have software to download and a whole manual to read! *FUN*

I was so excited I quickly assembled everything, charged the battery, and took the girls to the park so that I could play with my new toy! The difference between my old Nikon D40 and my new Nikon D700 is night and day! So far, I'm very happy.. I'm just going to have to get used to a much heaver and larger camera!

Keep your eyes on my blog... once I get my website up (in about 2 weeks) I will be giving away 1 free session to celebrate! Dallas Blooms is coming up... great photo opportunity for all!

Super shallow depth of field on the photo above... I wanted to see what it looked like when I let in lots of light at f1.4.. I might need to stick with f2. :) Still looks kind of cool!

My Addison Jane is growing up so fast!