If theses shots are representative of what you are capable of, then I think you will be a very good photographer with some study, training and practice. Having said that, there are a few things to think about. Good photographs are all about telling stories. A photo essay may be a novel, but a single shot is a short story. All stories have an intro, a middle, and an ending. The intro, in photographic terms, is something that captures our initial attention in the image, then leads to the main subject (the middle), and allow us to leave the image with a satisfying ending (an insight, or a view or a perspective that we didnt have when we entered the photo). Things that distract from this, weaken the story. Things that decrease the importance of the middle, muddy the story. And sometimes, it is the things that are omitted, that take away from the story.
The other posters have done a good job showing what can be done after the shot is made. But lets look at what can be done at the preparation of the shot.
In the first shot, your daughter is looking downwards, surrounded by a sea of sand. It is just past sunset, and she has a beautiful light shining on her face, with the sand acting as a reflector to fill in the light on the shadow side. Shes obviously absorbed in something at her feet but we cant see it. She is centrally positioned, which usually creates a static image. The horizon line, unfortunately is cutting her head in half. Of course, you probably had only seconds to capture this image, but if you had to do it again, Id suggest raising the camera slightly above her, and pointing downward to include whatever shes interested in, and at the same time raise the horizon line above her head. As well, it you would position her a bit more to the left, youd have some space in front of her to allow her to breathe. Your focus is bang-on, and youve chosen an appropriate depth-of-field, keeping the background mostly out of focus, but enough to allow us to see the context. In terms of story-telling, we focus initially on her eyes, then follow them downwards to see what she is looking at. Because we dont see this, part of the story remains untold.
In the second image, we see your beautiful daughter captured in front of an airplane display. The light again is low (ah, the magic of the golden hour!) and youve got a really nice rim of light on her right side, and still enough light reflected into the shadow area to make out her features. However, you have to decide what is the main subject in the photos the planes or your daughter? Because as shot, both are very detailed, and the eye doesnt know whether to admire the machinery or the human. As a photographer, your job is to reduce these conflicts of attention. So if it was in fact your daughter who was the center of attention, youd want to fill the frame with more of her, and provide enough background to allow us to see context, but not to compete with her. As well, using a shallow depth-of-field, centered on her, would blur out the details of the planes and make it clear to us what we should be looking at.
In the third image, youve captured a beautiful sunset. The clouds above the horizon line echo the mountains. Unfortunately, the foreground is quite under-exposed, and the potential story of the footprints in the sand gets lost. Compositionally, youve placed the horizon almost dead-center. While that can be very effective for some photos, usually is results in a rather static picture, so the guidelines are usually to place the horizon either higher or lower in the photo to emphazise either the sky (if it has interesting cloud formations), or the ground (if thats where we can read the story). The intro to this shot is the actual sunset thats what we see as the eye is usually attracted to the brightest part of the image. Where to go from there? By putting the sunset in the middle, youre not giving us the clues as to where we should look next. Lets say you placed it to the upper left. Then from that initial starting point, your eye will naturally flow to the lower right, to discover the footsteps in the sand. Now, we have the beginnings of a story
The fourth image has promise the shape of the sand-dunes, and since the light is low so you have lots of interesting shadows to work with, but not so low that the shadow detail is blocked out. However, the rough sand in the foreground, and the road at the lower right strongly diminish the impact of the dunes in the middle. The way youve angled the top of the dunes is also good this allow a visual slope that the eye can follow, and compositionally, diagonals are a very strong element. You have to decide whether the mountains in the background (right) contribute to the image or not. So
if you were there again, Id suggest you get on top of those misshapen sandpiles (eliminate distracting and non-contributing foreground), adopt a low view angle (so that the top of the dune is high in the picture), perhaps use a wide angle to create more space between the shadows of the plants in the foreground and the back of the dune, and angle the shot to preserve the diagonal. Also look for something to capture the initial eye gaze, and position it so that the eye is guided in its wanders around the picture.
Fifth shot beautiful, beautiful portrait. Did I say beautiful? So much to work with here! The eyes are sharp and clear, the way the light makes her face glow with a soft and gentle light, the shallow depth-of-field that centers our attention on your daughter
However, the horizon line is again cutting her face and perhaps if you had a slightly lower position (shooting upwards), you would have succeeded in having the sky as the primary background with a nice even gradation of tone and no distracting details.
OK, Ill stop here. The good news is that you seem to have a good approach of using low natural light to create both warmth and shadow detail, you appear to focus well on the main subject and your photos have the basics of good story-telling. Now you have to cultivate your eye to see the images compositionally whats my main subject, whats the story that I want to tell, what helps tell the story and what will diminish it? Pay attention to the symmetry in your photos symmetry is very good in some cases, but its usual effect is to make the image appear static. The rule of thirds (actually, as all rules its a general guideline that works most of the time) is a handy way of positioning your main subject, but follow it with some kind of path that the eye can use to explore your images.
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