Critique (Yes I know there is a section on the gallery)

Hey! So I would love to hear everyones opinions on my shots. I know that there is a critique section in the gallery for subscribers like myself but I don't get good advice on there (plus non subscribing members can't give me advice). My first critique I posted received like 8 pages of advice (I don't expect that much but I hope for a page or two of good advice). Please be brutally honest and as harsh as you see fit. If you hate my photos and think that I am a waste of film and a camera please tell me so and what I'm doing wrong. I just started taking photos in January when my high school class started so I do need advice. I'm looking forward to receiving great advice from the awesome APUG community.

Here are the groups:

Beach: Images 1-6

Culture (Cant find the right word, unique things that are different from somewhere else): 6-11


I will have to think you all in advance so I don't have to write thank you in every reply (Just know that I am grateful for your advice).

Also, I know that there are some things wrong with developing. I am not in school right now so I don't have access to a place where I can develop my own images. So, I had to have somewhere else to get them developed and they truly aren't the best.

Only one negative remark from me.

The marks on the prints are distracting.

Avoid contact with the surface of your negatives, especially when they are wet. Use a minute drop of wetting agent in the very final tank of rinse water. Let the film sit there a couple of minutes. Don't agitate in any way that may cause bubbles with the wetting agent. Take the film out of the spool only holding the waste end of the film. NO SURFACE CONTACT remember. Hang up the film in as dust free an environment as you can find (in the absence of a drying cabinet inside the shower is good) and leave it alone for at least a couple of hours, resisting the temptation to touch it. When it is dry, without touching the surfaces cut it carefully into the strips to suit your storage system and make your prints. Blow the dust of the negatives as they sit in holder before making your prints.

As for the artistic side of your images...

Ignore everyone else's opinion except your own!

Only you know what you were setting out to make in your photographs. If you got what you wanted that's a success. If you didn't then consider why. If the process hasn't pleased you then that might be the time to ask others what you might have done differently. If you are giving thought to your creative process then there is no such thing as a waste of film because you will make decisions during future sessions that will be influenced by your previous experiences (even if you thought they were mistakes and a waste of film at the time...). You are the boss so you must act like one.

RR

I like them as far as composition, and most have nice tonality. My only complaints are minor technical issues that are easy to solve (poor artistic vision is much harder to solve). As Rod said, the negs were dirty when you printed or scanned them. The grain is weird looking. I've seen some low-quality scanners introduce artifacts into the image that look like that, so it may just be crappy scanning (I'm assuming you're printing in your school's darkroom, so the scans were just to show us your work). A couple seem out of focus; be careful of that.

I'm a high school Literature teacher, despite having been a professional photographer for 20 yrs. I love art and literature, so I got my BFA in photo and my MA in literature and I teach lit. A lot of my students, knowing my background, ask for help on their photo-class work. You're doing pretty well, your work is better than most I see from kids your age. Keep practicing! I still feel after all this time that my work keeps improving; that's true for the best of us.

The grain is a little weird but that may be your scanning process. It doesn't look like film grain, it looks like scanning artifacts. I like the dogs playing on the beach (#1), the deer (#10), and the rocks (#11). Not sure if you intended for the branches in front of the deer to be in focus or if you wanted the deer in focus. I think having the branches be out of focus and the deer in focus would've been more distracting than the way you did it. At least for me, #10 works the way you did it. I have a hard time making B&W landscapes work for me, but #11 works really well. Probably because it reminds me a little of Ansel Adams' work, which I've had the privilege to see some of in person. He could make B&W landscapes sing.

To me, since you asked about brutality and honestly. I liked photos number 2 and 6. Technicalities aside, this 2 photos have some kind of story behind them. The rest I just found boring. Sorry (not that my photos are any better , but that was my first impression.

First of all photo needs to tell a story. I guess that's why I find most landscapes pretty boring.