Getting more zoom — adding a telephoto lens

After my trips to the local parks, I decided to purchase a telephoto lens so that I could photograph distant subjects. In the past, there were many times that I wished my compact cam could get just a little closer to the action — especially when capturing games and vacation scenery. I opted for the Nikon 55-200mm lens to complement the 18-55mm lens that came with the D40.

I tested the zoom lens on a hike in Shenandoah National Park and sure enough, it came in very handy. This photo wouldn't have been nearly as impressive if it were shot from further away.

The zoom lens I purchased let me get close to this deer.

The next testing ground for me and my D40 was Europe, where I'd be visiting a friend who was studying abroad. To make sure I was prepared for an extended vacation with my camera, I bought an extra battery, a larger 2-gigabyte SD memory card, a polarizing filter, and a camera backpack. The camera backpack was big enough to hold all my gear, along with my wallet and other items that I normally stored in a handbag. With all my gear packed, I was ready to head off to Ireland and Paris — the perfect places to try out my new camera.

Learning the D40 on the road (on the trip of a lifetime)

At the start of my vacation, I hadn't spent much time using my D40, but by the end of my journey, it felt more comfortable in my hand than my smaller point-and-shoot cam. I took just over 500 photos in 12 days — probably more than most people take in their first few months with a new camera. We toured every beautiful monument, landmark, and scenic view that we could fit into our time there, and I captured it all.

As I mentioned before, the D40 has a decent auto mode, and I was thankful for that. It was extremely useful at times when I was too exhausted to fiddle with manual settings or when I flagged down a stranger to take a quick snapshot of our group.

From auto mode, I branched out into more advanced shooting controls. Shutter Priority and Aperture Priority let me adjust one setting manually, either the shutter speed or the aperture, while the camera changed the other setting to match my selection. These semi-manual modes gave me the opportunity to experiment with other manual controls like ISO, white balance, and exposure compensation.

The D40's controls made it easy to access advanced features.

The D40's menu was easy to understand, but might have been confusing if I hadn't spent time reading the owner's manual. The menu has two levels. The first one let me set shutter speed, aperture, and exposure compensation. It also displayed how many more photos I could fit on my memory card, the remaining battery life, and the current settings for photo size, white balance, ISO, focus modes, and metering. The second level of the menu let me adjust white balance, ISO, focus modes, metering, and flash output.

Changing shutter speeds was one of the easiest things for me to get the hang of. The more time that the shutter spent open, the more light and action it captured in a single frame. I tested this at the Eiffel Tower as we were waiting to ride the elevator to the top. The lights of the Eiffel Tower sparkle for the first 10 minutes of every hour at night. I slowly increased the shutter speed while shooting the twinkling Eiffel Tower and this was the effect:

Lengthening the time the shutter was open let me capture more twinkling lights on the Eiffel Tower. These photos shot with shutter speeds of 1/10, 1/5, and 1/3 of a second.

It's worth noting that the D40 has a number of other shooting modes that I didn't spend too much time with — scene modes and the ever-daunting full manual mode, which will be my next challenge as I learn more about photography.