WHEN you book into a Digital Camera Class, you do so to learn as much as you can about photography.  There are a few 'tools' or essentials that you should always have as part of your working 'kit'.

One of those items is a tripod. This poor thing is the most hated bit of equipment I have ever come across in photography. People find them to be bulky and hard to use.  So if you are in the market for a new tripod buy one with a 'ball head' of some kind ( trigger grip or other) and you will love your tripod instead of hating it.  The problem has always been that they take a long time to set up and have to many knobs to play with. Well play with them and find out what they do and you will understand the role a tripod plays.  

Make sure to always retighten anything you loosen or the gear could fall off or become unbalanced. 

SO THE TRIPOD IS A TICK, WE NEED ONE OF THESE.

Also a cable release for use with long exposures. Without one of these the largest exposure you can achieve is generally around 30 seconds.

That sounds a long time - until you want to do a three hour exposure- then you are no where near the mark.

Nikon, Canon, Fuji, Pentax DSLR's and Sony and any other DSLR brand I have forgotten to mention will have a compatible cable release.

CABLE RELEASE - TICK.

Apart from those few things, other handy items are a lens cleaning cloth and some UV filters ( one for each lens).