Looking for advice!

[CraigHarris]

Your biggest issue is learning composition – you’re trying to squeeze whole subjects into the frame and it just doesn’t produce immersive results.
Your architectural photos could noticeably be improved by correcting the lens distortion and perspective (these are easy in packages such as Lightroom)

You should read http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/jp-composition-intro.shtml and  http://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/10-top-photography-composition-rules

[Mrs Woo]

Katie, after ditching the instamatics (yes, I know that dates me) my first “real” camera to learn anything about photography on was a Pentax K1000.  Fully manual camera that was really impressed with itself for having TTL (through the lens) light metering.  I had to manually focus and manually expose all of my images myself.  Also didn’t have the convenience of being able to switch ISO between images like we do now.  Or, for that matter, to take hundreds at a time.

I learned a lot about how ISO, shutter speed and aperture interact with each other when creating images, and it was a great thing to learn.  When playing with that you also learn how aperture affects depth of field and get a “feel” for about how much background blur you get between going wide open and stopping down and when you prefer one “look” to another.

I kinda go back and forth on the digital learning stuff, though there is plenty of good information out there on the internet that won’t cost you anything.  You can also go looking for some photography books.  Depending on what you want to work depends on which ones are better.  I like Bryan Peterson and Michael Freeman quite a bit, though they won’t teach you too much about off camera lighting.

I like the books better because I can go back to them more conveniently and/or tab the pages with stickies, etc.  It might just be that I’m still a bit of a luddite – which strikes me as funny in a way – I love my Kindle until it comes to looking for something I remembered… it’s much more cumbersome to page around in and the one I have is also not color, so it’s not really impressive to use for photography books.

You’re doing great for just learning, and you want to improve.   Wanting to improve is one thing that offers hope you’ll never fall into “fauxtographer.”

A friend of mine just started photography class (she returned to college to major in graphic design).  To take it she bought herself a Canon Rebel.  She’s had two weeks of photography class and is shooting a wedding this weekend.  What I do know about her financial situation, previous photography experience, etc., suggests this is NOT a good thing (i.e., she has only ever shot point and shoot, automated cameras, and probably didn’t buy additional lenses yet, never shot a wedding before, etc.).  When I volunteered to be second shooter, she never responded.  I can hope it means she’s actually being a second shooter instead and just didn’t want to tell me, but I suspect she is worried I might know more than she does and that it would make her feel awkward.  I’m cringing about all of this and just hoping the bride and groom don’t have any kind of high hopes…  🙁

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