Can I make a confession? I have had my Nikon D40 for 5 years now, and I have NO idea how to shoot in manual. I’ve been using this bad boy as a point-and-shoot this entire time. And while it’s AWESOME and I’ve gotten some great photos of the kids, I seriously need to learn some DSLR basics and start using this thing for what it’s worth. (As you can see from my wonderful ‘manual’ selfies, it’s going to take a LOT of work…)

In two weeks I will be heading to St Louis on a four-day business trip. (It’ll be my first time away from both kids for more than a workday!) I’m going to be taking photos of our big veterinary conference AND running a photo booth at the casino night event. I have 500 Instax exposures sitting on my desk at work! It’s going to be huge, I’m excited. The photography part has me a bit anxious though. It’s obviously an indoor event so the lighting is going to be pretty stinky. I got some photography books from the library today and I’ll be doing a lot of reading and experimenting before the event!

The best part of the whole thing, is that I will be in St Louis for The Great Forest Park Balloon Race! SO EXCITED!! The event ends Friday afternoon, so I’ll be stuck in the city by myself for a while before the hot air balloon festival. I’ll have to check out some thrift stores. Poor me.