I have no eye for nature photography

[arfeliciano21]

What do I need to look for? When I'm out there I feel like I'm just walking around taking snap shots. Here are some samples c&c. Thanks in advance!
1.

waterfall2 by arfeliciano21, on Flickr
2.

waterfall3 by arfeliciano21, on Flickr
3.

sunrise by arfeliciano21, on Flickr

 

[Tony S]

Don't just shoot pictures from where you are standing. Your two moving water images look to be shot looking down on the water, get down low and shoot across at them. Gives a better sense of falling water, zoom in closer and they will seem like much bigger flows of water. It often helps to get something in the foreground to draw interest and don't be afraid to override your cameras exposure settings to get more dramatic lighting/exposures.

The lake shot is one of those where it's just really tough to get what you were seeing or feeling at the time to show up in an image. While it has something in the foreground, it's not very interesting and has no detail. For silhouettes there needs to be something specific standing out with an interesting form. An empty sky over large expanses of water are tough to get excited over.

 

[pathoulihan1]

I agree with Tony S. When you're out with the camera, try not to get caught up in the "capture everything you see" mode. It used to happen to me a lot; I would just start shooting without intent. Occasionally I'd get lucky, but once I got into the habit and looking at scenes and objects from different angles little by little I got quite a few more "keepers".

For instance, in your last photo, there's an interesting ripple occurring around the rocks in the water, I would have simplified the whole shot by zooming in tighter on the rocks, getting the ripple and using only the water and its great texture as a background with the rocks in silhouette. Maybe a couple of longer exposures to create the "moving water" effect around the rocks.

Hope I was a little helpful

-Pat

 

[arfeliciano21]

Thanks both of you were very helpful. I will keep this in mind next time I go out!

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Have you studied composition?

That's another key to successful images.

 

[arfeliciano21]

yeah I know about composition. I just seem to get overwhelmed when I'm in the woods. It seems like too much to take in at once. I don't know what to shoot most of the time.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Go out and shoot for composition. Pick a compositional element and go look for it. The golden "y", RoT, the elusive golden spiral, the s curve... Pick one element and go look for it. My philosophy is, when I go to a location, my subject has been handed to me. I have to find the compositions. When you start looking for compositions, rather than subjects, you are forcing yourself to see.

 

[AlanKlein]

First off, your pictures are pretty good. Don't be so hard on yourself. The first picture is a nice shot of a little waterfall. You might want to get creative with time exposure to blur the water movement. But you'll need a tripod for that. The second picture would be better if you cropped the rock out on the top. It looks like concrete and not natural anyway. The bottom picture has to much empty space on the left. The picture is right "heavy" creating an imbalance. However, if you converted it to vertical portrait mode, and cropped off most of the left side, there would be more balance.

General suggestion for pictures is to Simplify. Don't try to capture all the beauty you see as soon as you see it. The brain is able to separate it all out but the camera can't. Look for a couple or three elements that work then move around to get a nice view. Don't rush. Start using a tripod. That will force you to slow down and think about what you're shooting. Good luck and have fun. Alan.

 

[bazooka]

Go out and shoot for composition. Pick a compositional element and go look for it. The golden "y", RoT, the elusive golden spiral, the s curve... Pick one element and go look for it. My philosophy is, when I go to a location, my subject has been handed to me. I have to find the compositions. When you start looking for compositions, rather than subjects, you are forcing yourself to see.

I've found that this is also a very effective tool to train my brain to see better. Now instead of looking for subjects, I look for relationships. If you find a subject that interests you, say the waterfalls or the lake you posted above, look for simple relationships between the subject and "things" around it... it could be another subject, a texture, lines, light levels, color(this is a big one if shooting in color!), and incorporate those into the compositions that BJ mentioned. You'll get much stronger images.

 

[StringThing]

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding...9390/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322230107&sr=8-1http://www.amazon.com/Learning-See-...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322230160&sr=1-1

This book might be of interest to you. I'm about to go through it for a second time, but it has helped me look at things differently during those nature walks.

 

[arfeliciano21]

Thanks everyone. I tried making the water look silky with a slower shutter speed. I did use a tripod. Maybe an even slower shutter? Thanks StringThing. I will check that book out it seems helpful! I never thought it as looking for relationships rather than subjects.

 

[bazooka]

Your shutter speed was 1/8. For ripples of a lake on a wide shot like this, you'll probably want closer to half a second or more of you're going for a blurred affect... several seconds if you want silk.

 

[OregonT3i]

I hope you don't mind if I post a pic in your thread. This was my last waterfall shot. It is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I would go out early in the morning, before sun up, and I believe I used a 3 second exposure. That way, your pics don't come out over exposed. You get a nice silky effect that way. I don't do many flowing water pics. Just did a few to try something new. It's pretty fun.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

I like that image t3i. Whereabouts in Oregon you from?

 

[OregonT3i]

I live in Boardman. It's a small town. Moved out here a little over a year ago working a government contract job. Lived in Idaho for 15 years previous to that. The pic I posted above was taken in Idaho.