amateur photography.

[DoctorButt]

I'm going into photography and just wanted to share some of my work. I'm using a Nikon D40 currently. Any suggestions or tips would be great.

http://i39.tinypic.com/18c2o6.jpg
This was a bush near my house during the winter.

http://i40.tinypic.com/9knl2t.jpg
My dog, Maisy was looking down on my cat.

http://i42.tinypic.com/2ilj9sj.jpg
This was during midday in the winter,they're frozen tree branches.

http://i40.tinypic.com/73hxq8.jpg
Some old toy truck in my basement.

http://i39.tinypic.com/3462vds.jpg
Again, just some clear day in the winter.

http://i43.tinypic.com/2dmcvna.jpg
A pretty white flower in some leaves during autumn.

http://i39.tinypic.com/2uyhw00.jpg
Classic Nintendo controller.

http://i40.tinypic.com/2q2l4pe.jpg
Origami.

[bizzle]

Can I get the 3rd one in hi-res for my desktop background?

[SizzlingNickel]

I thought it said amateur pornography! Silly me, no but really those pictures look great, i really like the flower one.

[Spastic]

The first, third, and seventh were my favorite. That's not to say that any of the others were bad, I like pretty much all of them except for the dog and cat one. I am not a major photography buff though, so my opinion pretty much means nothing haha.

[woodentoast]

Yeah that 3rd one actually looks really good. Lots of amateur photographers just seem to go for random shots, afew of my friends are into it and the better ones are the ones who capture something with meaning, whether it's a personal one or a general statement. A couple of yours look like they do have personal meaning, I like that. Editing can play a big part in photography as well, i'm sure it wouldn't be too hard for you to get a copy of Photoshop and just play around, it's the best way to learn. And your dog looks awesome.

[DoctorButt]

Here are a few more.
http://i44.tinypic.com/15hg2e1.jpg
Random light rays in my room.

http://i40.tinypic.com/23igghd.jpg
I don't even remember how I took this, but I love it.

http://i43.tinypic.com/e5fc6a.jpg
Just watching some kids play in the park.

http://i40.tinypic.com/24dinhw.jpg
My ankle.

http://i42.tinypic.com/35kvo12.jpg
Flower pots.

http://i42.tinypic.com/xprpd4.jpg
My sisters hand.

http://i42.tinypic.com/6i5m38.jpg
Cute cups.

http://i41.tinypic.com/20f5dzo.jpg
My sister holding an apple. I dislike this one a bit because of the distracting finger shadows.

[SizzlingNickel]

The random kid in the play ground is... well Random.The second one is best though.

[Casalen]

Most of it's fairly pointless, but it's good to mess around a bit and learn. I recommend reading as much as you can about lighting and composition in your spare time, there are a lot of decent articles out there. Since you're not presenting your work as something we should all be awed by I won't bother with specific critique. And, if you really want to get into non-journalistic stuff, save up for a portable flash lighting kit. I love those.

The one you can't remember how you took involved a slowish shutter and something moving around. There are all sorts of fun things you can do with that. I recommend zooming while the shutter is open, taking a picture of something in the dark and using a flashlight to paint it, blurred moving objects, things like that. You can also use a flashlight to draw onto the frame by pointing it at the camera. Minimalistic dark things are my area, though, so it might not appeal to you as much as it does me.

[InTransit]

They're all pretty good. You'd need a bit more practice, and some work on editing photos before you could start doing it professionally, but overall you've got a good grip on finding subject matter etc. Some constructive criticism for you:

Red berries: You should work on where you want the centre of attention to be in your photo. They're slightly off centre, but not in a good way. If you're not going to have the centre of attention straight into the middle, have it obviously off to the side, especially if it's leading to something i.e. the end of the branch.

Dog & cat: Dont' do this.

Frozen tree branches: You picked up a great opportunity for a photo but you could stand to get some decent image-editing software (i.e. photoshop) and bring the contrast out a little bit. It'd be a fantastic piece of art if you could get the tree branches to look painted on because the purple is so vivid.

Flower in the leaves: It looks really flat. That kind of photo you should take from a few different angles to see which one'll really bring out the flower more. If you took it from a bottom view with a slightly wider aperture it'd make the flower look like it's blooming from the ground, rather than just sitting there.

Random rays: You can see the boxes in the back too clearly so again that's another one that could do with a wider aperture to blur out the background, or even that's something you could darken a bit with photoshop.

Kid at the playground: I actually really really like that one. It's the kind of photo any parent would love of their kid and the framing with the playground beams is the perfect composition.

Flower pots: Your aperture is too wide here. It's not really focusing on anything in particular, and you've blurred it out to much. You should've kept taking photos, changing the aperture until the whole front pot was in focus.

Sister (and a few others): You should try taking photos inside not using a flash. You can set the shutter speed as low as 1/60 inside with a fairly still model (including people) without getting a movement blur. That way you won't need artificial lighting and you won't get the glare at the front.

[Crabstick]

The frozen branches is a sweet picture, but could use a little tweaking with some good editing software. I'm with Tranny on this one, play with the contrast a little, as well as bring the sharpness up a bit too.

I think I can see what you were going for with the Tonka truck, but I think you've just missed it. A good photo nonetheless, but nothing special.

The origami pic is great for its semi-riot of colours, but if you're going for that, you need to have the focal subject isolated; the red and blue paper beside it, given that they're still in focus, draw attention away from it.

The hand, the flowers, the ankle, the kids and your sister and her apple seem to be just photos of things you pointed a camera at, no real artistic merit.

The tea cups shot could work, possibly from a lower angle. If those are in your house, I'd say getting a bunch of shots of them from different heights and arrangements, they're good subject matter.

[Casalen]

Worth mentioning: if you're going to use flash, diffuse it. Or don't use it when avoidable by any means.

[javaD]

I came to this topic because I thought it said Ameteur Pornography...but the photographs are beautiful, I love the one of your dog watching over your cat and the one of the light rays in your room was spectacular, beautiful.

[BKS]

I like 2 or 3 of your photos. The rest just scream "Am I artsy yet?"

Although I can't proclaim myself a profesional photographer, I can say that I know what I enjoy with pictures. I like the 3rd 9th and 10th, but the rest seem too "indie." For example, my first impression of the truck picture is "Woah! A truck! Let me take a picture of it but only it will be off to the side slightly and really close."

My only experiences with decent photos comes from a pretty good friend of mine, and the only ones of his I can stand are the action ones. I find that taking pictures of a flower amidst leaves or a potted plant just makes the photographer seem sort of pretentious.

Then again, these are better than I could do, and I give you props. I'm merely stating my opinion when it comes to photographs. Try to stand out, don't be like every other kid who goes to school for photography, ya know?

[Sherbetcat]

I wouldn't particularly call them good photos or you a good photographer, but rather that you have a decent camera.

I'd reccomend studying the effects of composition, lighting, colour, texture and making sure you've got a good gradient of tone instead of just snapping away at 'edgey' angles.

[Assassin]

I don't like them. The way you use depth of field is very cheap looking, and there isn't a lot of thought put into composition. I also don't like the random content of the photographs, and some seem too forced.

Keep trying though

[lolguy]

Some of those are really good, like the branches, and the random light rays. But it is good to fuck around with photoshop and see how this comes out.
Oh, and don't take random pictures of kids too often, or you might come out as a creepy stalker.

[WoeStorm]

I'm not an expert on photographs like everyone else here but they all look really good to me.

[KatieDickson]

I think that quite a few of them are alright, actually, but if you Want to take a few photos of random junk that, to be honest, probably don't look too good, don't put them with your better photos, they make them seem crappy, too.
Also, focus on improving the background, as well. The photo of the light rays in your room porbably would have looks good but there was a load of messy junk in the background so it looked kinda odd
But keep doing what you do, you'll learn from your mistakes

[Derelict]

I really like the flower pot one. It's like something you'd see in a magazine.

[ZonariAn]

From the looks of it, if that is your nikon, your camera isn't so bad. What are the specs on it?? How many megapixels? As for the people who are ragging on you for depth of field usage or your lack thereof seems to stray a little bit from the point that this is amatuer photography. Are you using your camera on the automatic setting? If so you should read up a little bit on exposure, shutter speed, etc. and doing so will dramatically improve your images.

[Assassin]

From the looks of it, if that is your nikon, your camera isn't so bad. What are the specs on it?? How many megapixels? As for the people who are ragging on you for depth of field usage or your lack thereof seems to stray a little bit from the point that this is amatuer photography. Are you using your camera on the automatic setting? If so you should read up a little bit on exposure, shutter speed, etc. and doing so will dramatically improve your images.
You know what else will dramatically improve her images? Ragging on her depth of field usage or lack thereof.

[CnGy]

The three gumballs are by FAR the best. There's a novel in that picture.'

It's also the picture where this depth of field doesn't matter. I think this is the result of indeed having the camera on macro or on auto. But in this picture it works.

[CKY_BamFan]

The light rays were sweet. If you want to get more serious pictures, I suggest you take the pictures like half of it or not position it in the middle. Also, forelighting and backlighting are needed to take better pictures, too. :gj:

[CnGy]

Also please ignore the post-editing suggestions, that's not real photography. I know that's harsh, but you need to get it all from the picture or really what's the point?

[DoctorButt]

Thank you guys for your critique, I appreciate it alot. I'm going to take it all to heart and make it to good use.