For seeing what you are doing during set-up, I prefer a small head lamp or one of those ball caps with the built in lights. For light painting and focus help: I've got one of those small "tactical" lights like you see on tv . . . They are very bright led and adjustable . . .

Learn how to operate the various modes and how to change exposure settings, then experiment with them all . . .

The Busch book is about $25 digital, so probably about $35 in paper. Also the "Snapshots to Great Shots" and the "D75 Experience" books are pretty good also and run about the same as the Busch books price wise . . .
I have all three for my D3300 and D5500 . . . I personally like the "___ Experience" books a little better, . . . But they are all much easier to understand than the Nikon manual . . .

Unfortunately, most of the salmon runs have peter'd out by late August, and that is what attracts the bears and eagles . . . So finding them is a little tougher. The moose are starting the rut, so they may be a little easier to spot. The scenery is spectacular because fall colors will be starting. I've never failed to spot bears, cariboo, wolves, moose, fox, and other animals when doing a Denali bus tour. Sometimes they are right on the road, and other times at a distance. IMHO, mid to late July is better for animals and late August is better for scenery. Having said all that, I've learned that you get what you pay for, so finding a guided photo trip is probably your best bet for animals at that time of year. The boat cruises, train trips and fly in trips are pretty good also. I live here in Anchorage and am too cheap to pay the big bucks so most of my experience is from fishing, hunting, and self guided road trips. . .

The D3400 is a good starter camera. The cheapest deal is to buy it with the 2 lens package . . . However, if you have a little more to spend, I would buy just the body and get a 18-300 lense from tamron or sigma to go with it . . . These are great lenses and cover all your needs from wide angle to telephoto. I have a 18-270mm tamron lense and it is a great walk around, do anything lens. I had it on my D3300 and now it's on a D5500. All the camera bodies are good, some just have more features than others. . . All of the nikon beginner and mid level cameras share the same sensor and take excellent pictures. It's the lenses that really make the difference in picture quality. . .

The D3400 is a good starter camera. The cheapest deal is to buy it with the 2 lens package . . . However, if you have a little more to spend, I would buy just the body and get a 18-300 lense from tamron or sigma to go with it . . . These are great lenses and cover all your needs from wide angle to telephoto. I have a 18-270mm tamron lense and it is a great walk around, do anything lens. I had it on my D3300 and now it's on a D5500. All the camera bodies are good, some just have more features than others. . . All of the nikon beginner and mid level cameras share the same sensor and take excellent pictures. It's the lenses that really make the difference in picture quality. . .

I recently upgraded from the D3300 to a D5500 . . . I really like the D5500 . . . The thing I like best is the articulating and touch screen. It's so easy to quickly review your shot and zoom in and out with the touch screen to check sharpness. I think it's an excellent choice . . .

I'd get the same camera as the granddaughter except perhaps see if you can get a different lens with the bundle . . . That way you two can share lenses, share knowledge, learn together . . .

Other than cost, size & weight . . . is there any downside to buying FX lenses for my Nikon DX camera?

I was thinking that maybe I should buy an FX lens for my next lens purchase in case I ever decide to get a FX body.

I was looking at the Tamron 150-600 and I see that there is one listed for about $899 and another for about $1399 . . . I guess the pricer one may be FX and the less expensive one DX . . . is that correct? or is there another reason for the price difference?

I recently upgraded from my D3300 to D5500 which I really like a lot more due to the built-in wifi and vari-angle touch screen display.

Thanks for your help . . .

I would take my Nikon D5500 along with Tamron 18-270, 1.4 extender, and Tokina 11-16 . . . That way, I've pretty much got everything covered. . .

I have a d3300 and it works just fine with the remote . . . You are aware that you have to set the camera's release mode in the menu to be wireless remote? . . . And that it needs to be in "line of sight" with the sensor on the front or back of the camera? . . .

If I put my 1.4 tele-extender on my Nikon DX 40 mm / 2.8 micro (macro), does that then make it a now a 56 mm macro (effectively 79mm) ?

I understand that I'll loose an f-stop . . .

Are there any advantages to doing this?

Is there somewhere in the menu, where you can find the camera's total shutter count? I often see it listed when people are trying to sell their dslr . . .