I was reading Alan's review of the D40 and was interested to hear that he sometimes puts his camera onto sport mode to get some good results. I confess to having done so too, especially when a big buzzard flew over my head and I didn't want to miss a series of shots.
An excellent photographer also talked me through spot light metering which really seems to have helped my shots in the trees.
I purchased my camera a couple of months ago and am I am using manual mode a lot more lately and I am gradually getting more confident with it but I do think bird photography can be very challenging.
Lesson 1
The one that miffed me the most was I set my camera up and was taking photographs of all the geese and ducks down the river when the Mandarin swam past. But, to get a good shot I needed to go to the other side of the bridge. I didn't even notice that the other side was in shadow and all my close ups came out uselessly dark, doh! First lesson learnt, look at the viewer every so often!!
