It was great to meet you all today. I promised Michael I would post some links to sites I use a lot and find helpful for photography.

This photographer seems to elicit very polarized reactions from poeple (they either love him or hate him) but he was very helpful to me when it came to picking out my point and shoot, and my DSLR. I didn't completely follow his advice (he does not recommend the D80), but I had different reasons than he for picking my DSLR. He also has lots of Nikon lens reviews, and some Canon equipment reviews as well, but he is mostly Nikon. I also have printed out his free user's guide for my model camera and I refer to it quite often. This goes beyond the instr manual that just explains what each setting or feature does.
www.kenrockwell.com/index.htm

Another site for review of Nikon gear is www.bythom.com/ I just ordered his camera guide (his is $$), and if anyone wants to know, I can post my findings about how good it is, once I receive it.

My current favorite "real" artist site is Nitsa's site www.nonphotography.com/blog/
She eschews real cameras for $15 plastic Holgas, and 1980s or earlier Polaroids, yet her photography is one of the BEST I have seen.

Speaking of Holgas: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holga
I am SOOOO tempted to make a Holgaroid!

However, if you don't mind spending $300 to turn your $1000+ DSLR into a $15 Holga, you can just buy a Lensbabies instead: www.lensbabies.com/

I have one, and will be experimenting more with it as time goes on. My D80 won't meter through it, because its not smart enough, but the Nikon D200 and up will (stupid D80!). This lens is manual focus and very very manual apeture (you stick apeture disks into it with a magnet).

Chris