Palm trees and West Hall

[omhubbard]

i took this on the Valdosta state University campus. what do yall think, by the way it was january and it was 70 degrees outside its awesome.

[Mad Aussie]

Ok I'll be the first to say something and hope what I say helps.

First of all, good eye. Both photos show subjects that I think can make very nice photos if taken right.

However, I think there's a lot of room for improvement.

It looks as though the wind was blowing a bit which rarely helps you when trees and bushes are around, especially when they dominate the photo.

The 1st image looks like you missed the focus and the composition is a tad off I think. I'd have had less or more of the main palm in view and therefore none or more of the palm to right of shot in the photo. I think this photo would look much better taken at dusk when there was still colour in the sky but dark enough to tell the lights were on the tree.

The 2nd image is not composed well either. It looks like there's some nice colours to be had there (I see some green glow) and the building being cut off doesn't work. I think you should either CUT OFF the building more decisively or make sure it's in there. My choice would definitely have been to zoom well back and get more in for sure. Again a dusk sky might have helped in that case. It would also make the tree movement less obvious.
Because I can see what appears to be a line of palms on the left side, I would step a few paces that way and zoom back to gain some leading elements. The palms would lead the eye into the photo that way I think.

Anyhow, sorry I couldn't be more positive but as I said, your eye has picked out good subjects that you can work with I'm sure.