Photography 101

The girls change so fast at this age, so would be nice to have some quality photos/candids to capture it all.

I was thinking of

1) hiring a professional photographer (vs a studio who really just employs any ole joe schmo to point a camera, although an expensive one), but the going rate is $300 to $1000. can you believe?

2) taking a photography class. but the ones offered dont use digital cameras but a manual SLR type (?).

So here's my feeble attempt at basic photography: