I adjusted it some, tried to put some color back into the pix...seems like the sun was in front of you instead of behind you...great car, great location, lighting wasn't the best
Thanks, I'm going to get a decent camera and have a go at it next year too.
Since we're talking about making good images here, and since we might get a bigger audience than in the "How to make good pics" thread
, I'll offer the following. I think that earlier thread may have started off with details when it needed basics.
At the foundation level, I think most successful image have three elements that go into creating them.
1) Technical knowledge - things like "How does aperture work and how does it affect the image?" or "How does the angle of light change the what the subject looks?" This may sound imposing, but anybody who can rebuild an engine can learn this stuff easily.
2) Compositional skill - some people are born with this, but even if you didn't get it from genetics anybody can learn it. However, it takes more practice to get this. This is basically about how to "pose" your subject against the other elements of the shot, and how to determine what to leave out of the frame. Unlike the technical knowledge aspect of photography, composition has far fewer rules and far more guidelines.
3) Luck - 1 and 2 give you what you need to make good shoots, but in my experience, luck, both good and bad, plays a factor. You might have the sun breaking through clouds at the exact moment you're ready to capture your shot. On the other hand, you might have a hazy, indistinct clouds when the weather called for blue skies. You can make a good image with unlucky conditions, and you can take great conditions and turn them into a bad image. The more skills and knowledge you have, however, the more likely it is that you can make something worthwhile in whatever conditions you encounter.
As a final note, equipment is nice, but it's the skill and knowledge that make the image. I've shot award-winning photos with what I call PHD cameras (for "push here, dummy"). I know people who have made award-winning shots with cell phone cameras.
Jump in with comments and questions.