When it comes to cameras, generally speaking, the extent of my knowledge is to point and shoot. All the talk about f-stop this or that makes absolutely no sense to me. I've had so many people try to explain different aspects of photography, but none of it has stuck. All I really want to do is point, shoot and get a good picture in return. So imagine how I felt when I bought my first digital SLR, the Nikon D40.

I loved the way many of my Antarctic photos turned out, but while I was on the...