You just need to "Export" your photo when you are happy with it. Lightroom never alters the original (of course, RAW files can't be changed anyway, but JPGs can). The exported file will be a separate file and LR will remember the changes you made to the original as well. It stores those changes in its catalog (database) but never makes those changes to the original. My advice is to spend $10 on Tony Northrup's Kindle book on Lightroom. It has over 20 hours of video instruction in addition to being a very good step by step book to get you up and running in a logical order. A little study on your part is what's called for. Many here will be happy to help you once you put the time in to get a basic understanding of LR. Good luck!

Glad you're here. You'll get lots of help and as you know more, please pay it forward. That's one of the great things about the Hog. Merry Christmas!

I leave my D7200 on S or A so it's ready to be picked up on the spur of the moment. If you have some idea of what you're trying to accomplish, A can help you control depth of field, S can help you stop or blur motion to your liking. You only need to set one part of the exposure triangle, the camera does the rest. One step more control than fully auto, one step less than manual. One good way to cheat is to use the built-in scene modes. Say you are shooting a sunset, put the camera into the Scene mode and select sunset. Take a picture and when you review it, hit the down arrow on the command dial a couple of times until you get to the EXIF info. You'll see what aperture, shutter speed and ISO the camera chose. Then you can work from there with your own settings. Let the computer built into every modern camera teach you, at least you can get to a starting point and experiment from there. Also, if you have some settings you use a lot, like for HDR photography or for higher shutter speeds for action, you can program U1 and U2 with those settings, so they're right there on the dial and you can then adjust from there. The next time you turn the camera on and off, it reverts to the settings you saved before. Good luck, you're going to love that camera.

I personally keep my files organized outside of Lightroom by Year, then by the name of the shoot and date in the folder name and I export to an Edited folder under that. So on a Windows machine it would look like 2015\MillsPond Sunrise12-1-2015\EditedMillsPondSunrise12-1-2015 and so on for each shoot during the year. I keyword as I import into Lightroom and use the location and the dominant subjects in the shoot, as well as any thing else memorable. Even if I totally blow up my catalog and lose all of my keywords, at least my organization on the hard drive gives me a chance of finding things. And yes, I do backup the catalog every time I exit Lightroom, but as a computer guy I am paranoid with good reason. Hope this helps some, Jerry. You're a good guy, but I've never confused you with Jesus.

I appreciate the idea of a more general Wildlife section, even though my main interest is BIF/BOW. In pursuing that passion, I also take advantage of opportunities for HDR landscapes, sunrises, sunsets, fauna and other natural subjects that don't fit a narrow specialty interest. I also really appreciate the expertise and help that is shared at the BIF forum here, it really is a specialty for those that take it seriously. I hope a group of interested parties with the time and energy to moderate a more general forum step up to the plate. Good idea Chaman and good points by all in this thread. There's plenty of room to coexist here.

I had a friend hand his Nikon DSLR to me once and he wondered why it wasn't taking the types of pictures he thought it should. He had it in Aperture priority mode set wide open and thought the A meant "auto". I gave him a quick education and turned the dial back to the real "auto" and he was very happy with his expensive point and shoot after that... It's not worth explaining to someone who has no interest in learning.

A wildlife photographer friend of mine accepted a 365 day photo a day challenge from another friend of hers a couple of years ago. When I got interested in wildlife and birding, she paid it forward. I am nearing the end of that year of posting a minimum of a picture a day on my Facebook page. Getting out nearly EVERY day and looking for something beautiful and unique has made me a much better artist and photographer. I'm a computer geek by trade, so I've got the technical chops. I could read all I wanted about composition. Getting out and making a daily discipline of doing it has been a very rewarding experience. I'd highly recommend it to any of you techies out there with the best toys and the worst images to show for it. Good luck!

I'm left-handed and my Nikons seem just fine. Wait a minute, maybe it's ME that's backwards. Oh no!!!

Glad you're here. Make use of the Search function at the top of the page, a wealth of information is here. Also, make sure to browse all of the sub-forums that exist here for every major photographic topic or specialty such as macro, post-processing, HDR and on and on it goes. Also, the Links and Resources section has tons of good info. Enjoy your time here. Nice images, you have a good eye!

Glad to welcome another Texan to the mix. Quite a few of us here already. Don't be shy about asking for help and for giving help to others when you can. This place has that kind of vibe. Good luck!

Welcome, I share a love of your subjects too. Much easier to deal with than people! Enjoy your stay!

Glad you're here to share your journey with us. It's a good place to ask questions, use the Search function for answers, have a few laughs and pay it forward. Good luck!

Glad you're here, lots of new members from Texas lately. Jump right in, get some help and then pay it forward. Lots of great encouraging and helpful folks here...

Welcome aboard from a fellow Central Texan. Lots of great things to shoot (with or without a camera) in our big state!
Enjoy your time here...

I use a Sigma 150-600 Contemporary on my D7200 for wildlife and it's superb. I don't see an extra $900 for the Sport. They claim better weather sealing, etc and 24 elements instead of 20. I can shoot tack sharp at 600mm and get an effective 900mm on the DX sensor. As pointed out above, the D7200 has good low light performance, good continuous shooting. You could get a D7200 and this lens for around $2100. Or, you could try the lens on your D7100 and see if that takes you to the next level. I also have a Sigma 18-300 for my walking around lens, both do a nice job. Good luck, that's my 2 cents.