Well Dennis, it's fine to shoot typical bicycle pictures as you were trying out yr brother's digital camera. But it would be good to express what you want say to the viewers with yr pictures.
I'm not an arty-farty guy but here are my honest point of views on yr pictures (
for yr reference only). Hope you have an opened mind to accept it.
On 'Lonely Bike Series', including the tall building on the background may seem fine but it kinda made the whole image appearance too complicated or messy. You could make things alot simple but taking the lamp post & the bicycle becuz that was what you wanna catch the viewers's attention and not let their eyes wandering elsewhere. At this point you did quite a good job in burning the 4 edges, but the lights from the tall building just spoilt the whole mood of the picture. As for the best angle and composition, that's up to your personal "art of seeing" view/taste. Most importantly you MUST know what you want to say to the viewers abt yr pictures. Photography is all abt self expression and visual communication. As the saying goes
'A picture speaks a thousand words.' Therefore you MUST express it clearly. You gotta feel it from the bottom of yr heart to create yr own pictures with yr own unique style. That's what I called
originality.
'Alien' & 'Night Owl' do not work for me. They are just merely patterns & snap shots even though it shows yr good imagination on the way u see them.
'Relativity' is out for me too. As you deliberately composed and shot in that manner, you missed out the main subject focus which is too obscured in the dark with merely the highlight showing on the sculpture head and shoulder. I dun see or feel any tension at all. Too cluttered & messy with all those background lights from the surrounding buildings and the symetrical lilnes on the floor. Personally I think, to take sculpture pictures, always keep it simple or abstract and of cuz to choose the best angle and make possible good composition to convey what you wanna express. Same goes to 'The Magician'. Overall, these pictures are just point-n-shoot snap shots. :what:
There's the problem on shooting night pictures with a digital camera, especially a compact one. With ISO set at 400, the camera induced lotsa of noise even you used f/2.8 aperture. Maybe it's due to the camera brand & model. In the early replied thread, I mentioned abt camera shakes and it's no wonder you set yr shutter speed at 1/30sec. The best safe thing to minimize camera shakes, is to mount yr camera on a sturdy tripod and use a cable release.
As you know, nothing beats the film images over digital ones. Will love to see some of yr night photographs using films, if you have to the time to post new thread here. Cheers mate!
