Beginning photography questions!?

It really depends on how comfortable you are with camera settings. If you are comfortable with camera setting such as ISO, aperture, shutter speed, DOF, etc. then I would actually suggest a nice used film camera. Don't believe that you need to buy new, because a new DSLR (even the entry models are very expensive) as lenses will set you back between 200-6,000 dollars. So if you are comfortable I'd go film due to the fact that you don't get a crop factor as you do with a DSLR image sensor like Nikon's DX CMOS image sensor. If you are going to primarily be doing nature photography and portraits on a budget you will most likely be looking for one or two good lenses. And you can make the most of wide angle lenses with a film camera (look at an old Minolta X700 they are great and almost indestructible they were also voted the best camera of its time) because with a DX sensor you get a 1.5x crop factor of every image regardless of the lens this means you'll get the same view with a 50mm on a DSLR DX sensor camera as you would with a 75mm lens on a film camera. You can get "full frame" cameras such as the Nikon D3 which has an FX sensor but the body alone will cost you $5,500 or more. If you are interested in getting better check out Scott Kelby's digital photography books. And for camera comparisons and everything you could ever want to know about equipment go to www.kenrockwell.com hope this helps.