I approached the counter slowly. I felt the butterflies in my stomach.

“What can I do for you?” the man behind the counter asked curtly. He always speaks so straight-forward — he’s a no-nonsense fellow. I always appreciate this about him because you know he’s never trying to be a charming salesman. He gets you what you need and that is that.

I tried to look as nonchalant as possible as I said, “I’m interested in purchasing the 5D Mark II.” But there was no masking the giddyness in my eyes as he set the display camera in front of me. James’ joke for months had been asking me when I was going to finally get the “Mark2-D2” — I’m a sucker for a good Star Wars joke.

I fiddled around with it, snapped some pictures of James and inspected its features as if I still needed to come to a conclusion as to whether or not to buy it, but I knew before I walked into the store. There would be no walking out of that store without this camera.

The man came back to me. “I’ll take it,” I say, again trying to sound casual, but it didn’t work. My face cracked into a massive, uncontrollable and uncontainable smile. As he wrote up my ticket the owner of the store walked by and caught my eye. He had seen me in there for months and months as I would come in and rent camera equipment from his store for shoots and weddings. Today he had a proud sparkle in his eyes, the kind of sparkle that told me he knew how big a purchase this was for me.

He smiled a genuine smile at me and with his big voice said, “So you’re finally trading in your Rebel?”

I nodded emphatically and the smile stretched even farther across my face. This. was. big.

The man behind the counter bagged up my new camera and my new lens and handed it across the counter. And for the first time that I had ever witnessed, he smiled. It was a short smile, and close-lipped, but it was a smile. He too could sense how momentous an occasion this was for me.

As James and I left the store, I hugged the bag to my chest and surprised myself when my eyes started to tear up.

This was not just a purchase of some new camera equipment — for me, this new camera solidified my transition into the realm of professional photography. I had done the shoots, the research, the weddings enough to be called a professional, and now I finally had the big leagues equipment. As cheesy as it sounds, this marked a dream taking one step closer to reality.

James and I sang and laughed like children on the way home. He wanted this for me as much as I had wanted it.

Once we got home, it was down to work . . . as in, how in the world do I work this camera??

As I felt-out the changes in 5D Mark II, James played with my previous camera beeecause he’s now in training to become my full-time second-shooter!

It wasn’t the most smooth learning session — I could not for the LIFE of me figure out how to change the f-stop so I gave up and made James find it in the manual for me. He’s so sweet — he’s seriously always learning something for me. He’s a big fan of google — googles more than anyone I know.

And, when he couldn’t find it in the manual, I asked him to call his friend Ben (a fellow 5D Mark II-er and videographer) to ask HIM how to change the f-stop.

Don’t worry. We finally figured it out and I am now fully proficient in 5D Mark II f-stop changing!

I know this is a long post, but I wanted to share the WONDERFUL news! In addition to the new camera body, I’m also working on a neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew website! Please note the change — the blog url is now www.jillianzamorablog.com and the new website (once its launched in the next few days) will take the place of www.jillianzamora.com

To close, here are a few shots James snagged of me at my first engagement shoot (with the lovely Kimberly and Christopher — blogpost coming soon!) using the new camera.