Learning my Nikon D40 in 10 minutes a Day

How is that for a long winded title.  I have drooled over the Nikon D7000 for awhile now. Costco had the kit (body and lens together) for a killer price this past year.  I do not know if they still do, you know with Costco it is usually grab it when you spot it as next time it won’t be there.

But since it is a superfluous purchase and definitely not in the budget I have determined to learn to use my Nikon D40 more fully.


It has features and buttons that I have never fully explored or utilized and it is time I did. 

I use my camera daily but I never seem to have the time to explore all it can really do and it is a great camera.  I just have found some of it’s limitations in areas I would like a bit more flexibility. 

I take lots and lots of photos of my garden, the flower photos get me thru the long months of being buried in white (aka: snow).  I also use it for my blog post, website and custom sign photos. 

In my previous post I showed you a photo of my Luna Pink Swirl trying to bloom.



The next morning it opened.  (I am just sad that I only was able to enjoy it one day, we may get a freeze tonight and it rained all yesterday and today. Glad I took the photo when I did!)



Though the photos do not look bad I do know I can improve them once I learn my camera better.

All that being said I have whipped out my Nikon D40 for Dummies book, dusted it off and learned the first thing that may help in getting sharper photos.  

Did you know you can adjust your viewfinder focus? 

 I did not and doesn’t it make sense that as we mature and our vision begins to blur that looking thru that viewfinder can trick us into thinking we are getting a clear shot when in reality it only looks that way to us?

So I followed the directions and sure enough my viewfinder was one click off and it was easy enough to adjust. 

It took me longer to read the instructions than to actually make the adjustment.

I also learned that a faster SD card will improve my continuous shooting mode.  That is one thing I found disappointing in this camera, it is rather sluggish in continuous shooting.  Any improvement will be appreciated.  Now to price a faster card. 

So my goal is to take at least 10 minutes a day to learn the next feature, trick or anything about my camera.  They say if you tell someone else about what you’ve learned then you remember it better.  Repetition for retention. 

So you get to hear about what I learned.  Now we will see how well I stick with the daily 10 minute plan.

On another note, let’s see if you can guess what this is going to be.  It shouldn’t be too hard.  I have wanted to do one way too long and am now just getting around to it.





I will leave you with that and now I shall go relax with some crocheting.