I'm a new Nikon D40x Digital SLR Photographer

Last week I bought a Nikon D40x, which is a Digital Single Lense Reflex (SLR) camera. I've been reading lots of reviews (after the fact) and learning as much as I can. Using my new camera and Google's Picasa2 Program, I made this photo. I took it at night during a baseball game. The catcher was about 400 feet from me. He's in the process of catching a base ball, which is the streak in front of his mitt. Click on the picture to see a much larger view of it.

Some of the useful links that I've found are:

• Austin's Precision Camera & Video sold me my camera. They are a top notch company and have prices that are close that to of other stores and within 10% of online prices. Camera purchases include professional classes that teach the customer how to use the camera. Precision Camera & Video's employees are enthusiastic about photography and at the same time they are low pressure. I was highly motivated to start taking pictures immediately.
• Nikonians - a sight dedicated to Nikon owners. If has a free and paid portion. Free users can access everything from the website and cannot post pictures. Paid members can post their pictures in varying degrees. Additionally, paid members can attend camera field trips around the world. Nikonians arrange the local travel, housing, found, and have camera coaches available for learning to take the most interesting pictures. I think I might have actually seen them at the Alluvial Falls are Rocky Mountain National Park at the end of July


• NikonNet - a website profiling established photographers photos including nice biographies


• GIMP - No it's not some naught site, it's the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is handy for powerfully touching up photos, using a concept called layers, on a budget. GIMP is freely available, and all of the pluggin's I've seen are also free. It appears that there are some branches of GIMP, one called GimpShop


• Piscasa2 - a powerful photo cataloging program. It's Google for your pictures. Piscasa, like Google Desktop, indexes photos, and understands the photo META data. It allows for captions that several programs understand and which survives image manipulations. Last, Picasa2 has the most popular image manipulation features that I use. Piscasa integrates with a Google account and allows for emailing photos, printing services, and making of CD's and DVD as well as sharing photos online. So, it's an overall excellent program.

Last there are some local Austin photography groups referenced at a post on Flickr

• Texas Photographic Society (TPS)
• Austin Shutterbugs
• Texas Documentary Photography Group