Nikon recently released a new digital SLR, the D5000, and I just got my hands on one. It's an entry/mid-level DSLR (12MP) with a twist. Literally. It's the first Nikon DSLR with an articulated display. That means the LCD pulls out from the body so you can see what you're framing without having the viewfinder at your eye. Cool.

This past weekend I taught a workshop outside Boston and took the D5000 in the hopes I'd have a chance to do some shooting. When I'm in the Boston area I'm usually working with Bob Watts, an account rep for Nikon who's been working in that part of the country for 25 years. Bob's always up for a little shooting, so we exchanged emails and he had some ideas.

Over the course of Friday and Saturday evenings we hit a number of beautiful and sometimes historic sites. New England's great like that. At one point we were at a small spillway with a beautiful sky and blossoms on the trees. Unfortunately, I couldn't get close enough to the blossoms without getting wet. Then I remembered that the D5000 has a screen that can flip out from the body. With one foot on a rock out in the water and the other on land, I pushed into the branches and reached out to frame the blossoms in the foreground. I've done shots like this before, holding the camera out and hoping, but this way I could actually see my framing and even activate the autofocus to be sure it was where I wanted it. Nice.

Sunday night Jimmy Swanton took us out shooting. Jimmy's born and raised in the Boston area and a dispatcher for one of the local fire departments. He knows the area! He's also an excellent photographer, and has been on a couple of shooting workshops with me to Vermont and Montana. He knew we were coming to town and offered to take us out for some night shots. We headed to the suspension bridge over the Charles River, which is a beautiful structure. My favorite shot of that was a low one, and again the D5000's movable LCD made it easy. I wanted to put the camera on the ground for a low angle and to steady the camera (it was a one-second exposure). Dropping the display down let me see the framing, making the shot easy to capture.

I've always loved point-and-shoots that had displays that pull out from the body, and now I've got a DLSR that gives me that option as well. Excellent.