I was losing light fast! It got darker than I wanted it to be before I got this shot. I need to reprogram the dog for his walks so that I get home when it's still daylight - rather than dusk. Well, speaking of the dog - this is Louie, my walking coach. He has me walking 2.2 miles a day now. I may have shared him before - but here he is!

Wow! 28 views and not ONE comment? How will I learn and improve if you don't comment???

Once again, views are not any indication of anything. The majority of the people here just view, and lots of traffic comes form guests, who do not have posting privileges.

I think on the first shot the flash blew out the colors, too saturated and devoid of detail. I think the flowers are nicely composed, don't be afraid of cropping in tighter, I find the green leafy thing on the right to not add anything to the frame.

The second shot, what is the purpose of the selective color on the dog tag? What is it meant to symbolize or draw our attention to? Effects like that are rarely effective, and I wonder why it was done here since I don't see the shot benefiting from it at all. If anything, it distracts from the puppy's cute eyes, which I really don't think should be happening here. A tighter crop on the expression would help as well.

I think one major flaw of both shots is the lighting. The flash creates distracting shadows ad washes out detail. If it's a shoe-mounted flash, does it have swiveling capabilities? If so, bounce it off a wall or the ceiling. If it's a built-in flash, then try to shoot without it, open the lens to its largest aperture (smallest f/number) and turn up the ISO as high as you are willing to go. Practice holding the camera still and shooting at the peak of the action to minimize shake. Natural light can do much more for the textures and shapes we encounter as well as being an important part of the context of the subject. Don't be afraid to experiment, digital is not film, you don't pay per frame. :)

Keep at it.

THAT is the kind of feedback I'm looking for! Thanks, Seb! I was afraid that the flash had blown out the glads since it was getting so dark. I reshot them today - but I don't remember if the flash was on or not. Believe it or not, today is the first time I got brave enough to shoot without the flash option - and using the manual focus! (Neither of these were shot today.) The flash I have on the camera is built in. I'll get the book out and see if I can figure out how to manually set the settings. Thank you so much for your feedback!

Sorry I didn't get back with you. I had my head stuck up e-bay trying to win something.....
Seb is right on. Try shooting the flowers in the shade. If not on a cloudy day. As for the flash if you can bounce flash it off of the ceiling and back of from the flowers and zoom in on them. This gives the flash room to work...
The dog picture is ok but the tag is distracting. Try a different back ground and a low f/stop to blur some background out. Your flash is also a little harsh. Is your flash built into the camera?

I hope you won your auction on ebay. Yes, the flash is built in - and as I was saying yesterday I've ventured into the land of natural light. Now to get the light to cooperate with me!

You're welcome. :)

One of the best ways to begin and grow with natural light is to work with a subject at different times of day, and angles. Take note as to your exposure # and where the sun is located, and time of day. Eventually this will help you to see the direction of light, and how that light may effect the subject, and ultimately how to use the light that is available. Contrary to the old thought that only certain hours are good for photography, there's ways to get the shot.

Certainly people will argue this point.

I agree that the flower is too washed out . I think flash and flowers "probably" don't mix very well. Flowers are best natural looking (with exceptions) and flash is inherently unnatural.

Glad to hear your puppy has got ya walking. Pretty straightforward shot however. You can probably find a better angle of him - hat's why he's looking at you like that, wondering why you're taking a photograph of him with a distracting background and before he combed his hair. He's also wondering what happened with the lighting here, it has that big time "flash" look to it. This is because the front of him is so much closer than the back that the flash has the "drop-off" effect, which is unflattering in this particular shot...

Anyways, watch that lighting and the shots will be much better!
GB