I found ths forum about a week ago and signed up a few days ago. Last night I e-mailed Mr Smith and today went to the show he was the photographer for. He was so nice and helpful, let me watch and answered many questions for me.

About me, I got my first digital p & s camera about 4 years ago and last year bought a DSLR. I am still a beginner, but want to learn all I can. I have been reading the older posts
and people have shared so much information which is very nice of them

I have a 16 yr old cat, a 5 yr old mutt dog and 2 quarter horses age 27 & 10

Hi Laura,

Welcome to the forum. It was nice meeting you on Saturday. Let's see some photos of your cat/dog/horse. We are all here to learn

Thanks
I will post a few tomorrow night

We look forward to it.

James

Any advice, suggestions and/or critiques are always welcome

The first 3 were taken with only natural light

My old horse & the youth who has been showing him the last 6 years. This was from last summer. For some reason the everything looks a lot bluer and brighter here than in my computer files


Pete on the back patio with an open door as the background. Taken about a month ago


Petey in the front yard with an evergreen in the background. From about a month ago


About 3 weeks ago I bought the beginner bee package, one light, stand and umbrella. That is all the lighting equipment I have. I know basically nothing about flash lighting, this was from my 3rd night of playing with it. She was laying on the couch

Laura,

In #1 the horse's (camera)left ear is bothering me, I would have shot some more trying to get that ear up. In #2 and 4, I would have tried to get a little bit more of the second eye toward the camera. #3 looks to be a good pose but with a white balance problem (compared to his color in #2). Seriously, though, these are just nit picks because they are all nice shots. I like the composition, and especially the uncluttered backgrounds. Beautiful cat!

Lovely photos Laura!
I love the Torti!

Penny

Welcome Laura, love the horse photo.
Diana

Thanks everyone.
I will start showing more of the second eye and pay more attention to the white balance. I appreciate your advice

If you shoot in RAW, you will have more control over your white balance. You don't need a fancy post processing program in order to work with RAW, Canon supplies a nice progrm with their DSLR cameras and I assume that Nikon and other manufacturers also do.

http://www.camerahobby.com/Digital_WhiteBalance.htm

BTW: I also like your images...