Some Nature Photos I took recently...advice?

Jacki · Nov 20, 2009

Hello, this is my first time posting pictures here, and I was hoping to get some constructive criticism. I love taking pictures; I have a really cheap digital camera, but I feel like that shouldn't stop me from being able to take decent photos.

maoparungao · Nov 20, 2009

try shooting nature photos between 5 am till 9 am and resume shooting at about 4 pm to 6pm. don't forget to bring your tripod. and plan your shoots. try to get the best angle and remember the rule of the thirds for lyour composition

T-town photographer · Nov 20, 2009

I am a noob on here also but here is my take.

1: Great idea for a shot. Increase the shutter speed and freeze the water in motion. The reason for this is that with the flowing of the waterfall over the leaves is you lose the leaves. Great eye on seeing the shot though. I just would of frozen the water instead.

2: Crop the upper half of the picture out and it is a great shot to start from in my humble opinion. The upper half is not necessary.

3:It apears that you are trying to use the diagonal rule of thirds. I love this rule. The way that you could make this shot better in my humble opinion would be to raise your point of aim to where the top of the water fall fills the top of the image. You will lose a little bit of the bottom but I think you will be suprised at the effect.

Keep shooting and keep posting. I am new here and I am loving this

Michael

mrdean2 · Nov 20, 2009

I like the water shots, but I would have gone with a slightly faster shutter speed on the first image.

Jacki · Nov 20, 2009

Thank you for all of the advice! I do have other shots of the third picture, which have more of the top of the waterfall in the pictures, but none that have the top completely filling the upper portion of the picture.

I am not completely sure how to increase the shutter speed on this camera...it doesn't have a lot of options on it, it is a cheap GE A735 7mpg that I bought on sale at Kmart last year. I really want to get a new one soon, I am just not sure exactly what I want yet, because I know with my budget, whatever I get, I will be stuck with for at least a couple of years. In the meantime, I will take a closer look at the manual for the one I have, and see if I can make some adjustments.
Thanks again, I will definitely be posting more pictures, I have hundreds that I've been waiting to share and get advice on!!!

maoparungao · Nov 21, 2009

if you're going to get a new camera soon, may I suggest that you choose one with a manual overide and a hot shoe. You could experiment on a lot of shots in the manual mode. Just try it!

Jacki · Nov 22, 2009

maoparungao said:
if you're going to get a new camera soon, may I suggest that you choose one with a manual overide and a hot shoe. You could experiment on a lot of shots in the manual mode. Just try it!

Thank you for the suggestion! I am obsessing over what camera to get. I am a very poor person, so I have a low budget. I was thinking about getting a DSLR, but, I would want to get one that is worth my time, and isn't going to break and/or disappoint me, and I can't spend more than $350, $400 max, so I am leaning towards a point and shoot. I really like the Canon S3 IS, my husband had one a couple of years ago, and it was a pretty impressive camera; definitely an upgrade from what we have right now.