A few weeks ago, I was looking forward to photographing my niece’s Senior portraits. It seems like just a month ago she asked me, as a freshman in high school, to be the one to do them for – and now the time has come.

My Panasonic Lumix (FZ50k) has been amazing to me, and I’ve loved owning a Panny for the last several years. It’s given me some beautiful shots (you can see a great sampling on my freebie wallpaper page) and I knew that it would serve me well when the day came to photograph my niece.

Then, something unexpected happened.

I was waiting for Catybug to finish volleyball practice one day a few weeks ago and one of the girls came out and asked if I would do her Senior portraits. Of course I said yes – she’s adorable and as soon as she said it I started taking pictures of her in my head. I have all of these compositions in my mind now and I’ll be so disappointed if I don’t execute them the way that I see them!!

Then, it occurred to me that my camera might not be “big” enough for the job. I tossed around the idea of getting a SLR for a couple of years but since photography is more of a hobby for me, I didn’t feel the need to have a bunch of expensive equipment. Now, though, that I’ve got two Senior sessions approaching, I needed to quickly decide if my Panny was going to be enough to give me the shots I was seeing in my head of these young ladies.

I went shopping (at Dell, because they have more than just computers, they have cameras AND credit cards!) and started comparing. Researching. Asking friends. I added the Nikon D90 (and a few lenses) to my cart and hesitated. I just got up, and walked away from my computer. Talk about stress!!

I talked to my hubby about it and we realized a few things:

1. I would be taking a lot more professional shots than hobby shots in the future
2. These Seniors are really important, and I didn’t want to give them anything less than my best
3. I need the tax deduction.

With all of these things in mind, we decided that I should not empty my shopping cart, but proceed to checkout. Once the equipment arrived, I would put it together, take a few shots, compare them to my Panny, and then make the final decision.

The day arrived, the UPS man gave me a big old box and I was both excited and nervous at the same time. I took out the battery and charger and got that going first – it only took a couple of hours to charge the battery, just enough time for the girls to be home from school and be my guinea pigs!

My first shots were my decision shots. Catybug sat in my studio and I set up my tripod. I put my trusty old Panny on the tripod and took the first shot:

And then, I put the Nikon D90 on my tripod in auto mode, using the default 18-105mm lens and knowing nothing about the camera:

I think you can probably guess what my decision was at that point, but I did leave these photos up on my monitor so my hubby could make the call, too. That was a no-brainer. I couldn’t believe the difference – and so now I’m even more excited to get these Senior portrait sessions underway – because it’s quite possible that I’ll be adding portrait sessions to my price list and offering them on a regular basis.

Next week, I’ll be sharing photos from my two upcoming sessions. Stay tuned!!