Fenceline and Aspens - critique and suggestions

[eternalforms]

I am very new to photography.  I bought a D-90 in June and have been trying to learn it the best that I can over the past several months.  I know it's "practice, practice, practice and more practice" and I really enjoy taking photos.  I haven't really opened myself up to any critiquing, besides friends and family who always are gracious, and would like some feedback.  I don't know that there is a market for these types of photos, but I've been doing quite a bit of reading on composing photos and trying to "tell a story" with each one.  I think these are a couple of good representations - all taken during a camping trip in Colorado.  Of course, there's no shortage of beautiful scenery to photograph there ...

Let me know what you think, how I might better compose, if I've overdone any processing, etc.  I use NX2 as well as PhotoScape and Paint.Net for different features.  I can't afford PhotoShop and hope to pick up a copy of Lightroom soon.  I've included a black and white version and a color version of the fenceline.  The color is nice, but the B&W really reminds me of the "old West", and to me, that tells a more interesting story...

[lookit]

Welcome to the hobby! 

I can't tell if these photos individually tell stories but they do present environments in a pleasingly composed way.

I think the color saturation is excessive in that it is unnatural and also does not add pleasing contrast between saturation and lack thereof in that practically everything is saturated.  Apparently one can adjust saturation in a more nuanced way with "curves", but I haven't experimented with that much.

Have you tried the photo editing program GIMP?  It is free, very sophisticated, and there are versions for Windows and Mac as well as Linux.  I don't know that the programs you use or plan to use are insufficient, but this is something you could get immediately and may find frees up a lot of cash currently as well as in the future--it has a well-established community to ensure long-term development, permanently free.

[DaveL]

You've picked a wonderful hobby.

There are so many resources for someone that is new. If you want to learn about  your camera there are books written that are easier to follow than the one Nikon included.  Magic Lantern has a series; Henry's often has them for sale.

Thom Hogan produces e-books for Nikon cameras. I"ve bought these for each of the Nikon dslr's I have. They're helpful. But I'm old enough I like a printed copy, and he has now seen to include an introduction in print. I like that.

Ken Rockwell has many opinions and loves to share them on his site. Some love him; some don't.

One of my earliest memories was the Nikon School.  It was incredible seeing a pro's work so intensively.

Finally consider checking out galleries of photographers: photo-net, flickr, dpreview.

Hope this helps,


DaveL