A new Camera

Well Hi there!

I think I might have mentioned here awhile ago that my point and shoot camera was on the fritz. Well it ended up dying last Spring. At first I thought it was the battery, so I fiddled with the back-up battery and kept switching them up.  I think it was in April and I was in mid-picture taking at Canada's Wonderland and the shutter wouldn't close. I came home switched the batteries again... and nothing... nada... zilch... zippo.  I brought it to a local camera store and they said I couldn't order another battery, and the cost to have the camera looked at was about 1/2 the cost of buying a new one.  hmmm... no thanks. 
So the entire summer I did not get a decent picture of my kids.  We had Anthony's birthday... no camera.  We went camping... no camera.  Pool... no camera.  First days of school... no camera.  I can go on, but I think you get the idea. Oh yeah, and no blogging, cause who wants to blog without pretty pictures to upload.
Well, with Halloween and the girl's birthday's coming up, I had had enough.  The number one thing on my Christmas and Birthday list was a new camera. A new expensive DSLR camera.  That's all I want.  And yes, I have been quite vocal about telling hubby.  So this weekend I sweet talked hubby and off we went to talk to the fine knowledgeable folks at  Henry's and after about 2 hours and a quick lunch we walked out with my new camera!!!

We went with this one from Sony ...  SONY ALPHA A55 DSLR W/18-55 LENS


 

We also, bought an extra lense... cause I knew if I didn't do it now, I never would.

SONY ALPHA 75-300MM F4.5-5.6 ZOOM LENS

I had certain criteria that had to be met for my ideal camera.
 
Are you ready?  This is what I told Caralyn at Henry's..
 
"It has to take pictures fast... and I have to be able to be in the back of the school gymnasium and take pictures of my kids singing/performing/standing on the school stage."
 
Pretty technical stuff huh?
 
So after two hours and looking and testing a bunch of cameras, this is the one that met my criteria.
 
I took the kids to the park yesterday and took a bunch (about 300) pictures, I'll share those later on these week.  But here's one that I just love (and the one up top too).
 

Thanks to my hubby for my early birthday/Christmas/Valentines/Anniversary/Easter/ Groundhog and-every-other-holiday gift!

I am very happy!

So it's gonna be quite the learning curve, considering this past summer I have been taking pictures with my cell phone. I might take a photography class or two as well. Have you seen any on-line that you would recommend?