Photographs taken by my 11-year old son who has asked me to post on his behalf for for critiques. I try to be tough but fair with him, but after all I am only just "Dad" so what the heck do I know anyhow.

He is using my old Canon 300D "Rebel" with 18-55 kit lens + 75-300 zoom IS + Photoshop Elements 7.0

Andrew

Algonquin and area - Sept 25-27
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France - late summer 2009

Juno Beach - Normandy
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Sunset - South Coast Brittany
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Vimy Ridge
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Paris (I think)
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There appears to be a general tendency to underexpose the photos. Almost all of them can be brightened up a bit. Except the tower, which appears to be overexposed. Some are a little soft, perhaps because your son was not using a tripod? On the whole, they are well composed and he does show a sense of visual design which is a good start.

JMR

What John said, me too. For someone who's 11, he's showing a lot of potential.

Mike.

Not bad for an 11 year old. I particularly like number 3 (the duck on the misty water). The exposure could be better, but the composition is spot on. Well done.

Ed

He is lucky!
Take care of him, i am sure he can do a lot in photography later, i started photography at 25 and still struggling to be good, i am sure he will be a talented amazing photographer by that age.

Andrew, This kid could be another Jacques-Henri Lartigue. If he composed these shots on his own he's got a really good eye. The duck on the water is more than just a good shot. The way he caught the sun just brushing the background with its fall leaves, and the mist on the water, are elements a lot of photographers just wouldn't have been able to grab. The composition of that shot is excellent -- with a heavy anchor on the left and another on the right, with the main thrust between. As everyone noted, some of the shots are a bit underexposed (not the duck), but that's easy to fix. I don't agree with John that the tower's overexposed, but it's hard to judge on a computer monitor. In any case, he's done very, very good work with his camera.

I'll join the consensus. They're all very respectable, but the duck on the misty water is really good: the only thing I don't like are the tiny little bits of sky peeping through the trees at the very top, but that's easily solved with a small crop.

He should be encouraged!

Jeremy

Come on now Jeremy, let's not corrupt the morals of a minor.

I saw that one coming Russ...

I wish I had the eye your son does when I was 11. Congratulate your son, Andrew. He's off to a great start!

I'll agree with the other "crop" (ouch) of comments: He has a great eye. My favorite is also the waterfowl on the misty water, but I am quite sure it is not a duck. That profile looks like a loon to me. I'm surprised Mike didn't notice that.

Eric

I'll happily toss in my encouragement. Keep that boy shooting, because he's clearly got an eye. And he's only 11? Wow...

John

It is a Common Loon. My comment came before Ed's/ Russ' comments, though.

Mike.

I'm embarrassed. I should have caught it too. I grew up around loons. Some of them were birds... like that one.

John - I mentioned the darkness of the shots to him - I have been telling him about ETTR - may partly be his monitor on the family PC - I will plan on calibrating it using my eye-one, see if that may help. And he does have a tripod, uses it religiously, but it is a somewhat thin Velbon that my wife got me as a gift years ago that has been passed down. Perhaps a new carbon-fibre unit is due, so that he upgrades to a slightly worn, Manfrotto 055 .



Russ - he composed these shots all by himself, maybe just a little help on the island which has the loon in the picture. I try to help him with the technical aspects/composition but mostly offline (e.g., back at home, or in between shots while we talk) but pretty much leave him to his own devices when the shutters fly.

Thanks for the comments - he's beaming.

Andrew

You know Andrew, it just occurred to me that your son might be doing what I was doing at one time, and that is pressing the shutter with my finger while the camera is on the tripod. I was getting very soft images and couldn't figure out that the whole camera and lens was vibrating when I pressed the shutter. One day I noticed the camera move after pressing the shutter. So I bought a cable release. You can get away with it if you cradle the camera the way you would hold it free-hand. The second reason was that I inadvertently left on the shake reduction feature when using the tripod and that actually made my images softer. I still forget once in a while.

BTW, the 055 is still my tripod of about 20 years. I put locktite on all the tighteners and I wrapped plumbers foam padding on the legs and sealed it with electrical tape long before all the new tripods came out with the padding feature. It really helps the shoulders.

Your son deserves the praise for such good work at 11 years old!

JMR

He should! I hope he keeps at it.