Looking for C&C or tips on landscape photos

[AXIS]

First off, everything is shot without a tripod and using a tripod isn't really an option as I'm shooting from a boat.
Im shooting with a Nikon D3200 with the 18-55mm kit lens for now.
I took a good bit of photos the other day but a good 80-90% were either way overexposed or a good bit under (they looked OK on the LCD but when I got home it was pretty obvious.)
Everything was also shot full manual and kinda on the fly. Would using a priority mode be a better choice?

Anyways, here are a couple of the pics I took that turned out ok. A little bit of post processing on them and the first one is probably oversharpened. The last pic is just a shot or a duck that I thought turned out cool. There was an awesome Hawk/Osprey up in a tree that would have made for some great pictures but my 55mm wasnt nearly enough.

 

[hirejn]

They look OK and No. 1 has some potential. The others are well exposed snap shots. I don't see an advantage to manual mode unless you have an incident meter or are otherwise taking precise readings and locking them in. For example, you could take an incident reading and lock it in and your exposure would be perfect every time. You could easily use a priority mode, usually A, and bracket, or use exposure compensation. There are multiple ways to get the same exposure. It doesn't matter so much how you get there so long as you get there and you like the results.

You noted a problem with poor exposures. Why then use manual? You might get a good result faster by using a programmed mode and estimating exposure compensation or bracketing. There's nothing wrong with bracketing. It's not a lack of skill and some of the best photographers on the planet do it (Jay Maisel). But you should bracket for quality and variation, not because you don't understand exposure. Shooting in RAW also gives you some exposure leeway, about a half stop or more without introducing noticeable noise.

Overexposure simply means the camera metered a dark scene and exposed to make it a medium tone as opposed to the darker tone it should have been. Underexposure means the opposite: The scene was bright and the camera reduced the exposure to make the bright scene a medium tone. The camera exposes to make everything a medium tone. For certain scenes you need little to no exposure compensation, but for many you need at least 2/3 stop. If you have more questions, message me.

 

[AXIS]

The exposures didn't look bad on the on board LCD, it was after I got home I realized how off some where. There were plenty of shots that were fine but it was definitely a trending issue.

Most of the pictures where overexposure was an issue it was due to the sky blowing out. I was shooting from out pontoon while we were riding around so bracketing isnt really feasible (to my knowledge). Everything ive shot so far Ive got as jpegs + RAW so I may be able to go back once I figure out how to work with RAWs in photoshop.

So if I shoot in Aperture priority what would be an "ideal" setting for scenes like these? I think both of these pics where at f/10. Should I try going higher for a sharper image?

 

[Trblmkr]

I would try shooting the highest aperture you can as long as you're maintaining a relatively fast shutter speed, maybe f/16-f/22. At those aperture settings you should be able to have 1/250sec-1/125sec (based on ISO100). or higher to ensure you don't get any blur from birds wings.. And if you have to crank up the ISO (so you don't mention what you shot at) to 400 the help with the shutter speed.