[anti]

yeah i took me awhile before i really properly understood apt. and shutterspeed; but my highschool photography class helped alot. once you get a grasp of what's going on everything infront of you becomes a playground.

when you're having problems with the autofocus, what mode are you shooting in (manual, auto, etc.)?

in terms of b&w i use a photoshop action i downloaded off the net. it works great and gives me a large scale of tonal differences. i'll shoot you a pm with it in the near future. nef can become a hassle hsooting as with raw, jpg works fine for me and it's the easiest to work with. usually raw and nef require plug ins and sometimes special nikon software to edit.

ir filters are awesome but they can be a bit of novelty. they produce amazing images that rae unlike any other but it's a bitch to get a proper ir shot. you should grab a uv filter if you haven't; they're great just for protecting the glass on the end of your lens and won't affect the shot itself. japan... lucky bastard.