I decided to try my hand at photography.  Just for the fun of it.  I have always been interested in photography.  When my older kids were little I had a camera that I loaded with black and white film.  I tried my hand at some creative picture taking but that was way before the digital world!!  It cost so much to get film developed and you never knew if your photos would turn out or not.  Nowadays the cameras are all digital and so much easier to use.  I can snap pictures-see what I like, delete what I don't and only develop what I want.  I bought second hand one through Kijiji( like craigslist).  G asked me if I was sure I wanted to do that instead of getting a new one.  This is just something I wanted to try.  I didn't want to invest a lot of money until I decided if this was something I was going to keep doing.  So I searched Kijiji for cameras.  I had an idea of my price range so I just started looking.  As I came across cameras that looked like what I wanted and were in the price range I wanted I did a google search of them.  By searching the specific one that is for sale you will learn what the price would be of it new, what the specs are on it such as how many mega pixels, the age it was manufactured and reviews of what other people think of it.  When I started looking at cameras I had no idea about anything to do with cameras.  I knew mega pixels from my simple point and shoot cameras but really nothing more.  With the searches I did I found out so much and it helped me decide what I did want and what I didn't.  And since I was buying second hand I wasn't quite as nervous about making a "wrong" choice.  Worst case scenario if I bought something I hated I could resell it.  There were many Canon EOS cameras and the reviews were good for these as entry level cameras.

I ended up getting a Canon EOST1i rebel.  It was sold with a bonus Canon EOS 10D.  They were being sold for $200 but no lenses.  I read and re read the info on the rebel and I new $200 was a decent price for it.  With it having the 10D I figured that could be used by my kids to see if they like photography.  The 10D had OK reviews but was an older camera with only 6 MP.  When I met the guy selling it(always take someone with you and meet in a public place) the 10 D showed visible wear and tear-not bad but you could tell it was used.  It came in the original box with battery, charger, disks, manuals.  And this is something you would want to check before you buy-what did the camera originally come with-you don't want to get stuck with a camera that you can't hook up to your computer or is missing the disks so your computer will recognize it.  The T1i also came in the box.  Although it was manufactured in 2009 it still has 18 mp which is great.  It also had all its disks and manuals and a lot of the cords and such were still in there original packaging.  The one thing both were missing were lens.  Now I'm not talking that they had basic lens and didn't have zoom lens-the guy had taken the lens out of both so there were none-like neither camera could be used.  But I new that when I decided to buy them and figured it was still a good deal and I would try to find a decent used lens.  But of course I wanted to start using the cameras right away, soooo I went down to Henry's camera store to see what I could find.  I brought both boxes into the store and showed them what I had just bought and asked about used lenses.  They happened to have one used 18-50mm lens, which is what the original cameras would have come with.  But it would only fit the T1i and it was $100.  Then he showed me a portrait lens that was new and was $120.  It would fit both cameras and he showed me the nice portrait pictures it took.  That's the one I decided on.  So for about $320 I now have 2 cameras that I can play with and see if this is a hobby I will enjoy.

Here's a photo of an antique composite doll 

Now after I started taking the pictures and downloading them to my computer I just had to have some editing software.  I choose Picasa-I had it on my old laptop and I was familiar with it-it is free and comparable to i-photo.  Again it is basic editing software but I can look at higher quality if I really enjoy this and keep at it.  

This is the same photo that I have now edited to sepia, then I softened it and softened the corner

Here's one K took of Susie while she was trying the camera out

I'm really loving the idea of this hobby being something that the whole family is interested in and that we can try and learn together!!