New To Photography: My First Few Pictures

[AlanA4]

Hey guys,

I just recently bought a Canon G10 since I wanted to get into taking good nature pictures. I liked the G10 cause it took high quality pics but was still compact which is important to me since I spend alot of time backpacking and doing other outdoors stuff where every ounce counts.

Anyways I'm hoping to take a class soon bus so far I have just been messing around taking a few pictures around my town, Boone NC.

Please let me know what you guys think and definatley pass along some suggestions so I can get better. I just started this whole picture taking thing but I can tell I'm going to be an addict.

Thanks again

Alan-

 

[rdzmzda]

on the first photo what was the subject? im guessing the bridge but the branch really takes away from it for me.
second one i would like better if you cropped off a bit of the bottom and top especially the roof of the house
the third one i like the depth but it is way underexposed...was this the effect you were going for?
as far as the camera you have not saying its bad or good dont know but its a point and shoot no less....you may want to eventually look into an slr of some sort will give you a lot more options

 

[Torus34]

Let's start with the good points. Your shots are well-focused and the camera has been held steady. The images are sharp, horizons are level. [It's amazing how many first shots fail in one or more of these areas! Some of mine still do, and I've been clicking away for 60 years now. Thank goodness for film enlarging and The Gimp for correcting shots which stray from the horizontal and vertical.]

The rest of the comments concern exposure [3rd shot] and composition in general. For #1, the use of a branch for a frame is a standard, but the trick is to have it 'anchor' the shot and help to lead you into the scene. Here, the branch is too much in evidence - it intrudes. The bridge is too bland - no central point of interest except for the two central light pilings.

#2. Sunsets! Ah, sunsets. Where would we be without them? Exposure is good, with the trees simply black silhouettes. The central cloud anchors the shot. But you can select a far more interesting arrangement of foreground silhouettes than this rather everyday line of trees. Consider the difference if you had moved forward so that the first tall tree to the right of center formed a side and botton frame, with the sunset 'bleeding' top and left. It would have added unbalance [and interest] to the composition.

#3 holds promise. There's something ghostly about the light in the house on the left. But it's lost in the overall compositional clutter and darkness. You might wish to re-visit the place and try again. The trick is to get a wider range of light values into the shot.

And a big 'Welcome to TPF!'

 

[AlanA4]

thanks for all the feedback guys.

I agree 100% about the branch in the first one. It didnt work exactly like I hoped but I loved the way the light came off the water so I was pretty happy even though there wasnt a whole lot happening in there.

The second one is my favorite. I really like tree's in the winter because I think branches really give us a lot of options since every one is unique. So I definitely tried to include alot of the tree line but still able to grab the contrasting colors in the sky. The sky this day was nuts.

The third one was actually taken the same day as the second but later in the night. I guess the corny thing I was trying to do was get the complete darkness where I was and follow the power lines to where the light is. It definatley came out too dark though.

As for the camera, since I am literally within my first month of photography I got this one as a transition camera to learn how to use all the manual features but still compact enough to carry around. I will definitely want to get an SLR at some point when I have more time but more importantly money.

There was a huge snow/ice storm here today so I'm going out here in a little while to try and get some more. I'll post them on here to get some more tips.

Thanks again,

Alan-