Some photos

[Hawley2009]

I'm a newcomer to the forum, as well as DLSR cameras. I made the jump from a CoolPix S630 to a Nikon D3200 after spending a summer playing with a friends Canon Rebel T3i. I've always had a passion for taking pictures, and would really like to learn and improve what I can do. I prefer 'action' shots, I'm a horse person and tend to take more pictures of roping/rodeo than anything else. I won't have many of those to share today, I just purchased my D3200 in November and my 55-200mm lens in December. Anything before that I had a lens that wasn't capable of getting across the arena.

Some photos I've taken over the last year, if I could get any tips/suggestions that would be great. I don't have any specifics on the photos, the most I can tell you is what camera and lens I used, and maybe what the weather was like. I can't even remember which ones have been edited.

Taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T3i, kit lens, edited. Summer 2012

Nikon D3200, AF-S Nikkor 55-200mm 1:4-5.6G lens, not edited. November 2012.

Nikon D3200, AF-S Nikkor 55-200mm 1:4-5.6G lens, edited. January 2013.

Nikon D3200, AF-S Nikkor 55-200mm 1:4-5.6G lens, not edited. February 2013.

The edited photos always seem so 'off' to me. The only chance I get to edit is after work, and I think being in a dimly lit building at night under florescent lights for hours is messing with my eyes. What looks good when I do them looks like garbage when I look at it later on. Part of the issue, especially in earlier photos, was the pictures were so dark, I think I over-edited.

Thank you for taking your time to look and read

 

[deeky]

Way too many to comment on specifically, but in general, my biggest comment is watch your background. Nearly every one of them has something(s) that were really distracting from the subject. I understand sometimes it is really difficult to address, like in a rodeo ring. But look around and you probably could have found a better vantage point that at least eliminated the trucks and trailers from the background. Even the one that I would consider easily the best of the bunch - the twelfth from the top - I was distracted by the horse's shape until I realized it was the back of another horse behind the subject.