Beginner from Racine, WI checking in

[chuckorc]

Hi everyone,

I've been interested in photography of and on for a few years now. I had even toyed with the idea of taking the NYIP photography class, but never really had the extra money. To make a long story short, my printer died at home and I saw an ad for a Canon Pixma MP470 printer that came with the PowerShot A630 . I couldn't pass up the sweet deal and decided that I would learn how to take better photos.

I stumbled across this website while looking for photography forums and decided to take the course. My main motivation is to learn to take better pictures because I am going to a wedding in Jamaica at the end of May. Seeing that my new camera allows me to go to full manual mode I figured I better learn how to use it.

I'll add the pictures that I sent for lesson one. I can already see some of the things I could have done better. I'll add my comments in another post.

Here is a picture of my wife with here nieces during Christmas.
http://www.proudphotography.com/forum/gallery/files/1/3/1/6/photo2.jpg

[chuckorc]

The main reason I like the picture above was the niece's big smile in the upper left, and the coy smile on the niece on the lower left. We should have picked a better location to take the picture and it definitely came out underexposed probably because of the window in the background. Photo was taken with my wife's Canon PowerShot A460.

The landscape photo with the ships was taken with my first digital camera, a Kodak DC3400. All I ever did with that camera was P&S. Never really took the time to try to learn how to adjust the settings. It's a typical beginner photo with the main subject (ship) right in the middle of the photo. It could have been a lot better had I zoomed in on the ship and placed it in the bottom third.

The last picture was just a candid spur of the moment shot. I saw my wife's youngest niece making a new friend and she was so occupied with the dog she forgot all about her new doll she got for Christmas. Again, the picture looks underexposed and I think it might have been better if it was taken from a lower vantage point, ie get on the floor with them, ha ha.

Anyway here's to better and brighter pictures in my future.

[dkippen]

Chuck -

If I haven't said it already, welcome to the group from another mid-westerner. You're going to learn a lot from this course.

[LensBaby]

Yes Check welcome. The little girl on your wifes lap has the absolute cutest grin! They are all very beautiful girls.