I recently bought a Nikon D7000. I am a novice who loves to take photos of my daughter's dance team and my garden, etc. I now want to really learn more than just to use my camera as a point and shoot (which I had been doing the last couple years.)

I upgraded cameras to hopefully get some great shots of my daughter's last year on her high school dance team, and use my Tamron 70-200 lens and it's working out great. I'm still learning about ISO, shutter speeds, and aperture, and want to learn more.

We are going to the Mall of America soon and I am thinking about bringing a smaller lens than the Tamron because I don't want to lug it around all weekend, and will hopefully be able to get closer to the action, so I won't need it.

Do you have any recommendations for me? Of course there will not be much light in the middle of the mall. What about the 50mm F1.8? or 1.4?

Any other ideas for a lens that would be great to take on trips and travel?