Beginning with some Research

So when I became a Mommy I wanted to capture everything on my camera. My little point and shoot Canon camera. And I did capture everything. I captured Paxton's first time holding his head up, I got his first smile on film, I captured his first roll over, I captured everything.

There was one thing that was bothering me about all these moments captured in time. They sucked. Not the moments, but the quality of the picture. I wanted these pictures to be as clear and as crisp as these memories are still in my mind.  I knew that one day, those memories were not going to be so clear in my head. (let's be honest, with 2 kiddos it's hard to remember what I had for supper last night). I missed a lot of cute moments because my point and shoot camera did not have a continuous shutter. Meaning I couldn't take multiple pictures in a matter of seconds. So I knew that I needed better equipment to capture those memories. That is how all of this began. I can thank my beautiful, energetic, spirited boy Paxton!

So a year goes by, and I finally have found the camera for me. A Canon Rebel T3i. But, I didn't just go to the store, look at cameras and purchase right on the spot. No that would be way to risky seeing as I was just about to purchase one of  the most expensive tools in our house. So instead I did a lot of research on which camera is best for new aspiring photographers, which camera has really high recommendations and which camera is the most user friendly. While doing my research I found two very useful websites that led me to purchase my Canon. So, if you are looking to upgrade your camera I highly recommend these two sites, www.snapsort.com and www.lenshero.com 
They were instrumental in my search for the perfect starter camera.

I'm not affiliated with these websites at all I just found them very helpful.

Snapsort is not intimidating at all. It asks you what your price point is,  and what level of expertise you are at. From there you can decide which aspects of the camera are most important to you and then the website will give you their recommendations or they can compare different brands for you. I found this very helpful  when I was trying to decide between a Canon and a Nikon.  What I really liked about this site was that I got to look at each cameras specs side by side and compare. I didn't need to flip from website to website, and get confused in the process.

Eventually I went with the Canon brand based mainly on the user friendly aspect. Canon's rating on Snapsort was a little higher than the Nikon's. Most of the other specs were fairly close in comparison.

Lenshero is very similar to Snapsort in that it helps you compare all the specs of each lens offered out there. I used Lenshero for picking the perfect lens to go with my new camera purchase. You give this website the aspects that are important to you in purchasing a new lens like, price point, focal length, image stabilization  and it gives you all the lenses that fit your parameters. It can also give you recommendations based on the lenses you already have. I will be using this website a lot in the next few months as I am searching for a new telephoto lens with a fairly low aperture.

So then I had this really awesome camera and a pretty rad portrait lens and I had no idea how to start using it. So I did what I feel like every stay at home mommy does. I went on Pinterest and started a photography board where I pinned a bunch of amazing tutorials on how to use my camera. Next week I will share with you a few of the awesome websites that I found instrumental in learning how to take better photos.

And just because it feels wrong to end this post without a picture, a few of my favourites from the past year!