hi panzer, welcome ,your going to love your new camera,the folks here have been great at helping me inprove my skills.a couple of tips use manual focus if you have time to use it otherwise the camera pics the focal point...i.e. the cage is sharper than the dog in the above pic.also a smaller aperature like f11 will give you more detail foreground to background than a larger aperature like f5.6 ,if you want a portrait style pic use a low f stop.look up my posts if you like there is wealth of knowledge here on nikonites....also if you can ,spring for the 55-300 vr lens.....(i also use a d3100)(formerly from ohio myself)