What can I do to improve?

redtippmann · Nov 5, 2009

Well I have been taking pictures for around 2 years now. I was just wondering what you guys recommend I do to improve as a photographer. I want to go into the direction of a sports photographer or photojournalism when I am older.

Here is what I have done this year (from most recent to oldest)
1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

All the info on the pictures can be found here: James Conkle Photography - Photographs

KmH · Nov 5, 2009

In the sports images the horizons are not straight and a vertical crop on #5 would eliminate a lot of clutter from the image and better define your subject, the ball carrier. Compositional considerations and portaiture guidelines still apply to sports images. Also important for sports images are in focus faces and expressions.

The first two here look to have been made on overcast days making them fairly flat. You did great with the water.
Some flash and or post processing (dodge and burn) would add some dimensionality as well as adding some detail to the sky in #2.

The gun image is overexposed (blown out actually) in the upper right corner and underexposed in the lower left corner. A kiss of flash at very low power would have been nice.

#6 you have some nice diagonal lines.....to nowhere. They don't lead our eye to anything in the image.

So, what to do to improve.

What I see is that you're on the right track. You just need to be aware of more details in each shot. Don't forget you can turn your camera 90 degrees and make images in a vertical format.

I shoot 90% of my sports images as verticals. I use a 2 camera setup for sports, one body with the long lens (150 - 500 mm) mounted on a monopod, the second body on a Black Rapid strap with the short range lens for close in action.

I shoot sports for sales not editorial, so I'm basically trying to shoot action portraits of individuals. IIRC a lot of the time you're shooting for your school paper?

WimFoto · Nov 5, 2009

one way to get better is to just keep taking and looking at pictures.

robertwsimpson · Nov 5, 2009

1 is the only properly exposed picture. your dark pictures are too dark, and your bright pics are over-exposed. Also, the football ones would benefit from a wider aperture and faster shutter in my opinion.

Inst!nct · Nov 5, 2009

@robert comments and OP pics

that's exactly what i was going to type, the sport pics are all a bit fuzzy due to slow shutter speed from the occasion, and it looks light there was enough light to take pics at faster shutter speed so i dont see why you did that. Photo 2 was my favorite IMO, because i felt like all your other pictures are way too cropped.

@ OP

I think you are improving because your photos seem better exposed as the time goes on, i think it would do you some good to get into the city more, since you said you wanted to get into photojournalism, i think some creative angles would also GREATLY help your photos.

maoparungao · Nov 22, 2009

I like photo no. 1 and no. 5 although I think you should crop some more on photo no. 5 to emphasize the two ball players. The gun in my opinion has dramatic lighting but lacks a story. Suggestion: An Iraq veteran in uniform cleaning his gun in the same lighting condition. Or maybe he's looking into the horizon, longing for home or waiting for an assignment. something like that. You have to put a story in your pictures if you want to be a photojournalist. Learn to wait for the right moment.