My Best - Photography

Hey everyone!

This is a compilation of what I feel are some of my best photographs taken over the years. I'm considering auditioning for the photography class at my high school, but it's tough to get in because a) I'm already taking Creative Writing as my core Arts class, and b) because it's, simply put, a tough class from what I hear. Any feedback would be amazingly helpful (especially constructive criticism!) so if you've got a minute or two to spare, I'd love to hear what you think!

Caught in the Act


Admitting Defeat


Beams


In Shambles


Foal


Wild and Free


Going Exploring


Washed Up


Devil's Bay


Caribbean Sunset


Hospital Clean


Whew. Sorry for the rather large amount of pictures. I didn't realize there were so many. Anyway, your comments and opinions and critiques and suggestions and questions are all welcome! Hope you like them!

-May

I feel... lame. These are incredible. Please tell me you've been seriously taking photos for years.

My favorites are Caught in the Act and Hospital Clean. I've never seen photos of their kind before. Excuse the bluntness, but how in the heck did you take Hospital Clean? And the lighting is wonderful in Caught in the Act! What camera do you use? Mine always turns pictures orange in low light levels.

I'm going to reuse this post and give you some constructive criticism tomorrow. I just need time to analyze everything, and I'm mentally exhausted right now.

Repeat, I'm not done with this post. I will finish tomorrow.



EDIT: I promised you a critique, though this may be the shortest I’ve given in a long, long time.

Caught in the Act – Nothing to say that I haven’t already except love the mask.

Admitting Defeat – I’m agreeing whole heartedly with Rosey Unicorn. It’s too warm. The blurry part is fine, but the colors are too warm to be “admitting defeat”. Surrendering is a very sad thing (at least for me). This little boy’s eyes don’t shout disappointment; more, they look bored. This one is just not as good as the first.

Beams – The colors, angle, setting and emotion are good. But I don’t like this one. _____

In Shambles – Love the building, but I positively can’t stand head-on shots like this. Maybe because at one point that was all I could do, but still. I don’t like the angle. Colors and feel are nice.

Foal – I can’t decide if I like the fact that the tip of his nose is blocked by the grass or not. It’s the only thing about this photo that’s bugging me. I’m leaning towards not.

Wild and Free – Nothing to say that would be constructive.

Going Exploring – Nothing to say.

Washed Up – Looks very professional, and I love how I can see the sunset colors on it.

Devil’s Bay - I've just seen too many like this one. Most of these photos are so creative, this one really stands out as being familiar.

Caribbean Sunset – All your lines are good and I think that’s a fabulous sunset, but I’ve seen dozens just like this picture. It doesn’t spark my interest, it just seems like another ocean sunset photo to me.

Hospital Clean – I’m changing my mind. Now, this is my absolute favorite. I love it.

I'm pretty new to photography, but I do understand some of it so I'll try to give you a good review. So first of all, my favorite picture is "Washed Up." I'm not sure if that's because I love macro photography or because I love everything to do with the beach, but either way, it's still a great picture. I also liked "Caribbean Sunset." The clouds look amazing and the reflection on the water looks good, too. "Beams" was another one that caught my eye. The variation of the color in the wood makes it interesting, and technically it's very correct. I'm not going to say much about your people pictures because I don't like photographing people and I don't know much about it, but in general they look pretty good. Okay, so there were none that I really didn't like, but I was just wondering, in "Wild and Free," was everything really that color, or did you do something with the shutter speed to make it look like that? Because I don't know if that's actually something you're supposed to do or not, but I really like it. Other than that, awesome pictures! You should definitely try out for that photography class.

~Amylith

Oh my gosh!!! These are really AMAZING!
I love them all!!
Did you really take all of them?
These belong on like a calender! I can't get over how wonderful they are!
I have no idea how to help you.
Ill will defiantly keep an eye open for more of you work!

TexanWriter: Thanks! And in regards to your comments and questions - I've been seriously pursuing photography for about two years now, and right now I'm working with a Nikon D40 and Adobe Lightroom as my editing program. Hospital Clean was my personal favorite out of a photo shoot I did with two friends of mine. It took a lot of balance and patience, and a lot of messing with editing. Most of what you see is actually edited in later with Lightroom using Exposure, Black Balance, Brightness, and Contrast.

Amylith: Thanks for the review! As for your question about Wild and Free, there is editing done to the photo in Adobe Lightroom, but it's not that far from the original.

Junglelover: Haha, thank you! Yes, these are all mine, and I'm glad you liked them!

They all are pretty...very, very, very(goes on till three lines) pretty. You should quite your writing class and joint he photography one(so cruel I'm). My favourites were: Caribbena Sunset and Devil's Bay.

Keep clicking.

Definitely *likes*

~Shubhi

Holy smokes. May, you have outdone yourself.

Favourites are Caught in the Act, Going Exploring and Washed up. The best technically I find are Caught in the Act and Going exploring, as they have their focuses in the best location and your eye sticks to a point in the photo very easily. I rank Washed Up lower because the starfish is in the centre, and it's a bit hard for the eye to rest anywhere because of that. However, the colours are so stunning that I consider it a beautiful picture and very good. It's more a picture to not focus on and get lost in rather than just focus.

The rest of these photos are just fantastic in their composition/subject, so no real complaints there.

And I have a mild criticism about Admitting Defeat: it looks very pink and mildly blurry. Something about the warm tones feel too much (either the yellow or red is too saturated). I like the topic/pose, though, especially after Caught in the Act (actually, that's another reason I find it too pink. Caught in the Act is more green/blue tinged, so together they're a bit hard to match up).

So nice to see more of your photography!

~Rosey

My, oh, my, these are simply wonderful. Such a refreshment to see great pictures, honestly, it is.
I am really impressed. Like, drop-your-jaw-impressed. You have real talent in photography, and if you would like to go for the photography course at your school, I would definitely tell you to go for it. Just make sure you study up and practice constantly before you ask to join. Knowing aperture, shutter, and DOF (depth of focus) is a very good start. The camera is your wand, and you are the wizard; your pictures are the spells.
Now, on to the review!
Caught in the Act: This is by far my favorite. It is quite simply magical! I love it. Really, I do. The only thing I might have changed is to frame out his lips, if you know what I mean--like, not have the lips in the picture. It was just a tad distracting for me. It didn't seem right; I'd have gone with either the full face, or cut right before the lips. Nice job, though.
Admitting Defeat: I love this. I have no critiques, as it is perfect, in my mind. A job well done!
Beams: Very nice! It reminds me of a type of photography called HDR photography. Wonderful.
In Shambles: This is lovely. Really, it brings me so many stories...amazing what one picture can do.
Foal: This is good. Not great, but very good. I love the foal's obvious innocence though, and the way the forest seems so dark behind him!
Wild and Free: Nice, nice, nice--I adore this! Those are beautiful horses.
Going Exploring: This is nice. It doesn't really stun me as the others did though.
Washed Up: Amazing! Was this at a beach?
Devil's Bay: Very tropical, love it.
Caribbean Sunset: Wonderful. Beautiful. Breathtaking.
Hospital Clean: This is decent, I like the feel of it. The only thing I would mention is the hot spot. There is a strong glare coming off her skin by her shoulder, and a little on her forehead. Simple editing can fix this.
All in all, great work. You have obvious talent, and don't let a single soul tell you otherwise.
-Mizzle

*Likes*

WOW!!! I don't have much to really say, but...wow!!! These are amazing, really. The angles, focal point, colors, contrast and overall interest of the photos are just spot-on. Gotta say I love "Wild and Free" and "Going Exploring" the most just because they relate most to me, but seriously I have no complaints about any. Just...awesome.

I really like the balance in a lot of these, especially the lines in the architectural pictures. The first complaint that I found was in 'Wild and Free' -- it seemed really washed out and I think you might want to consider redoing the editing on that one.

The only other thing I would have liked would be that you would have kept the lips in the picture in the first photograph. It seems cut off. I don't even want the whole chin, but at least the lips to get a little more expression.

Anyways, you have a great piece of equipment, so keep using it! ^_^

Oh, and I also don't like the boat's placement in Caribbean Sunset, but there's not much you can do about that, eh? ^__^

Thanks for the eye candy!

-Hannah-

Wow, I really like these. I don't know if it's just the repetition of the same face, but I don't like the second one at all though. The coloring's a little awkward and the pose is off. The third one made me blink and go "wow" and "ow", but I still liked it. "In Shambles" is a very boring shot of a very interesting looking building. The pictures of the horses I will say are amazing, and I am jealous. "Going Exploring" looks more like a snapshot, usually when you've got a human in a picture you want to see their face, and their eyes. (Random Fact, did you know if you see anything that looks like it's got eyes it looks like a face? Eyes are amazing artistic features.) The last one would be a really good magazine model shot, but whether or not it is for that purpose, I think it would be a lot better if there was more or less contrast. The two different skin tones on her head and arm make it seem like she's ill, which may be what you're going for. But, if not, there's enough just black and white to put it into a black and white form, which would get rid of that and not really mess with the rest of the colors in it.

Just some comments and suggestions, hope I explained them all well enough!
Love,
Alice

These are all really good. But the only one I wasn't a fan of was "Devil's Bay." On that one it seems like a strange place to take the picture from and the rocks sort of took the attention away from the picture behind them. I don't know, that may be just me.

I didn't like the last one; I've seen pictures like it and I'm not a fan. But some of the others are really wonderful. The ones with the horses were beautiful. My favorites, though, were the "Carribean Sunset" and the two archane structures tattered against the greenery (where did you take those two?).

As for the two with the kid wearing the mask; there great.

Incredible.

Hi! These are amazing pictures! Really i loved them-just the first two didn't catch me. But overall amazing photos! Keep on taking pictures-you are really good at it!
Nike

Wow! All the pictures you took were wonderful!

I love all they types of picture, but FREEDOM really stood out. I could never get so close to a horse like that without them running away. All of them were amazing, with different angles and different objects. All I have to say is well done and hope you take more pictures!

Ciao!