First photo in the hobby C&C please

[3Days]

I found this forum last night and you all inspired to to take a try at photography. I took this with a Cannon Power Shot A720 IS, not sure if thats important or not. Anyway this is the first picture i took today, I really liked going out and looking for something cool to photograph, how did I do for my first try?

-John

 

[white]

The fun part is making things look cool.

Your photo doesn't have a clear subject, so my eye wanders through the mess of trees and rocks for something interesting. Contrast is interesting, and what little of it you have in this photograph is where I finally look, which is about dead center, on the branches.

 

[3Days]

Thanks a lot White!
I didn't really notice that, I just really liked the color in it. But you are 100% right when you said that the eye wanders in around. Inside the trees someone had started building some sort of shelter it was all open and really "cozy" inside, I took a picture inside as well.

 

[Geaux]

Beware of harsh shadowing like your 2nd picture. I like the idea (The tree branch is kinda cool), but the shadow .. well, it overshadows the rocks, which is a large part of the photo.

 

[Inst!nct]

Not bad for your first pictures, but you want to watch it because they look soft, at least to me, and a bit overexposed, easily fixed (the latter) on a computer.

As for actual photo composition, make sure you have a subject, or a reason for taking a photo, or it will seem random, as the top one does IMO, the 2nd one is more interesting because you were shooting it for a reason.