The common question asked in every online group, how to upgrade your gear when you are ready.    Do I start with nicer lenses?  Do I upgrade my camera body?  Which Camera body!??  oh man!   How in the world to I prioritize these HUGE investments?   This is such a struggle that I remember all to well!    I still have plenty of major investment decisions and growing to do, but I feel more and more confident with the process I chose, and the choices I’m still making.   But it was NOT always this easy.

I will share with you my personal progression and why I think I made the right choices for me.

My first camera, given to me by my mother, was a Nikon D3000.   Great story by the way, she gave it to me at my bridal shower and I was expecting underwear so I cried like a little girl opening that Nikon!  That Nikon came with the kit lenses.   I had no idea where to start or what I wanted to do with it.    First thing I did is get the Nikon D3000 book for dummies, I read it cover to cover.   Then came my 50mm.   So that was the beginning.   I knew that I wanted to learn everything about that camera and that lens before I even thought about upgrading.

6 months later I knew when I was coming up with a business plan I would have to upgrade.   My hubby bought me the Nikon D7000.  After lots of research I thought this was the best upgrade, but not an overwhelming body.  This is a very nice camera, probably the nicest on the market for $1000.   This camera would get me through my entire first year of business and that bad-boy helped me get published over 15 times.   Lets just say “I rocked what I got.”   As the year went on the best part about this camera is that it taught me EVERYTHING that I loved about it and it also taught me features that I would want in my next upgrade.    The D7000 is a crop sensor so it was only a matter of time before I out grew it.     However, I think having that camera after my 3000 but before my D4, was such a great choice.   There is no way I could jump from the 3000 to the D4, that would be like running a 5K and thinking you could run a Marathon with out training…….. something like that haha.     I’m not saying you can’t go out and buy a really amazing camera and learn it, because you can.   ANYTHING can be done if you put in the hard work.   I’ll come back to the D4 in a minute.

So midway through my first year with my D7000 I now had my 50mm, a 24-70, and my 105 macro…. all Nikon lenses.   Those are still the 3 lenses in my bag at all times.   All my favorites for different stuff!    All my lens options came with much research, I even rented the 24-70 first… because yikes, talk about an investment!   Well let’s be real, by this point I had a nice chunk of change invested in my business and it was starting to all come together.     I invested pretty slow doing tons of research each time.     So while I don’t think it matters whats comes first, the lens investment, or the body, you have to get them all at the end of the day!   But for me, this progression was enough for me to prove to myself I could do this.  It was a pace that I learned along the way, and I didn’t just go out and buy a ton of gear with no idea what I was doing.  Each little purchase was a chance for me to learn inside and out what that item could do!     My D7000 is still my back up camera and I have a ton of confidence in it!

So now on to the biggest and most difficult purchase of all.    So if you are a Nikon, you know that Nikon does not offer the “Mark III of the canon world.”  By that I mean that every wedding photographer who shoots canon goes to that camera…  Nikon does not really have “that” camera.    So based on my experience with my D7000 I made my wish list for my next upgrade.

This is what I wanted:
-great low light shooting
-Dual memory cards
-must faster shooting
-great battery life
-16 -24 Megapixels (not to small not to huge)
-Durable
-More focus points
-More Kelvin options for WB

So those were all my personal non-negotiables.    Had I not shot an entire year with the D7000 I would have had no idea how to come up with that list.    There are some awesome Nikon’s out there, that lots of wedding photographers use, but they were not specific to my needs.    So while the D4 might be a bit overkill for a wedding photographer, it had all the items on my wish list and even came with some pretty awesome stuff that I didn’t have on there.  Yes it was expensive, but by this time I knew I was going to survive in this business and pay it off.   I had enough weddings booked for 2014 that I didn’t lose any sleep making the big purchase…well not much sleep … we all want to vomit when we click that button, but my smart part of my brain knew it was the right thing.    hehe.

I still have a ton of investing to do.   But the more I learn, the easier it gets to trust that investing is ok.   Trust me, I’m a very thrifty and savvy person with my money.   So each purchase has come with a ton of research and torture trying to decide.  And the decisions never get easier, they just become different over time.   Now my struggles are putting the money into branding, web design, marketing, gifting, etc….. the spending does not stop once you have gear.    You gotta keep at it to keep growing.

That was just the progression that worked for me.   There is no wrong way to invest in your gear unless you don’t learn what it can do.    If you don’t maximize the potential of your gear than you are not maximizing your potential as the artist and business person.    Know each piece inside and out, so that when you buy the upgrade you know exactly what you are putting all that hard-earned money into.    Just my two cents <3

My Nikon D4 can shoot in almost pitch black with no flash.   I love what it allows me to do in low light!

1/160 sec at f/5.0, ISO 6400
shot with my Nikon 105mm f.2/8