my new toy

This is it.  The big step into merging my old school photography habits with the new age of digital.  I know, digital is not new.  But, digital SLR's have been so far out of our price range that is has always just been a dream to some day own one.  I have been using my little Canon Elph for years.  Just dealing with the mediocre 'shots' (really hard to actually call them photos) because of the complete ease of transport.  I will not lie...I LOVE being able to stash my camera in my pocket...but I miss taking good photos.
But circumstances seemed to come together in the form of a death and a wedding.  My siblings and I got a little bit of money from my dad when he passed away, and everything has been settled.  In the meantime, friends of ours are getting married next July and have asked me to be the photographer.  They have seen stuff I did back in the day when I used my old film camera and like my style.  And, since they will be chartering a lobster cruise for their day, it is obviously going to be super casual.  As they put it, they just want casual, fun shots but don't trust friends enough to let them have disposables on the tables.
So I found a good deal, and decided to use some of my 'unexpected' money to finally buy myself something nice...and fun.
Overstock.com had this Canon Rebel T3 kit.  Camera body with 18-55mm lens, battery, charger, strap...the usual.  But, also a 75-300mm zoom, extra battery, 16gb SCHD memory card, lens cleaning kit, LCD screen protectors, camera bag, memory card wallet, cables for playing video straight to computer, card reader adaptor, a dvd on how to use the camera, and a tripod!  I mean, some of the stuff is just silly stuff, but that's a lot of accessories!!  And, with overstock, the shipping was just $2.95!!  So even with shipping, I was excited to finally get my D-SLR camera kit for about $720!!  It's the 12 megapixle version...the 16mp version was another $300 or so...and that's outside my budget for toys!
Today, we are off to spend a day wandering around, learning how to use this thing.  With any luck, I will have some nice pictures to share in my next post!