Beginner, I would love some direction or suggestions

[MuseRider]

because I do not know what I am doing. I do have a good eye for composition. None of these were composed well, I was on a boat floating around in the wind but got these photos and am pretty pleased with them.

New camera, just learning how to point and click with it. Nothing much else so far. It is a Canon SX50 HS. The telephoto is amazing, it is how I was able to get these photos. Been trying to get this Green Heron for a while now

This would be a wonderful hobby for me, I love taking photographs so I would like to get better at it.

Northern Painted Turtle

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Green Heron

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[durbin]

1. Don't be impatient with yourself, you have great skills already

The technical stuff you will learn in the next year or two.

Your eye is the most important part of great photography, and don't be afraid to make 60 bad photo's for 1 good one, digital cameras are made for that sort of stuff.

Those 3 you posted, GREAT, but not what you want, keep taking photo's, you will get there, with your eye and a bit of tech learning you will get.

For an "amateur" you do great already.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. Nice! I use the SX30 IS (looking forward to upgrading to the one you have)....

I take mine kayaking and actually got some this morning much like yours (turtles, herons). Just keep snapping and look at your results critically - I am working on ensuring backgrounds are appropriate and things are more centered (if that is what I am going for).

Well done!

[CurtEastPoint]

3. Something I didn't realize I'd been doing (something right!) is the rule of thirds...

Helps in composing a shot in an interesting way.
Read this and compare to your 3 shots.
I think you're pretty close!

http://digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds

[rdking647]

4. damn good work

i know how hard birds are.
if you havent already you may want ot pick up a book on begining photography. it can explain hoe aperture,iso and shutter speed are all related.
1 more piece of advice.
just keep shooting. if you take a shot and it isnt what you want look at it and try and figure out what you did wrong. its better to learn from your mistakes

[Major Nikon]

5. I have a few suggestions

The first suggestion I have is to absorb as much knowledge as you can about photography. A good photographer with a cheap camera will take far better pictures than a bad photographer with an expensive camera. Knowledge and experience are what makes the biggest difference.

I'm not familiar with your exact camera, but the first thing I would recommend is to put your camera in manual exposure mode and take lots of pictures that way in various environments. By manual exposure mode I mean you will be controlling the ISO, shutter speed, and aperture settings. Knowing how to set these things manually, will help you much better understand what to expect when the camera does it for you and you will know better about when it's best to override those automatic features.

Study pictures that you like carefully and try to figure out how they were done. Many photographs you find on the web will have embedded data that can tell you the camera settings and other info. This web site can give you whatever data is available:
http://regex.info/exif.cgi

[Solly Mack]

6. Hi Muse! Welcome!

I think those are nice shots!

Lots of tutorials on the web. Read, experiment, give yourself time, and do not beat yourself up. Just have fun and shoot!

[Sherman A1]

7. Great Pics

If you are happy with them, they are good, if not, then others probably are.

I think they are great!

The only advice I can offer, is what is listed above and what I learned at numerous classes and seminars..... "Take Lots of Pictures"

[handmade34]

8. what everyone else said

...take pictures, take pictures, take pictures

[MuseRider]

9. Everyone thank you so much!

I love the suggestions and the links. Going back out on the boat for a while (my exercise) and taking the camera. We have lots of snapping turtles this year for some reason and they surface with their big heads sticking out of the water. At times I can float really close and see them suspended in the water, they look so prehistoric and very cool. Maybe.....

Anyway, I got hooked into this when I decided I wanted to classify all the wildflowers on my farm. I got a little better and a little better but then it kind of stopped getting better. I suspect the advice to go off point and click and learn how to manually take the photos is really excellent advice. I did at one time learn those things briefly when I took a very basic underwater photography class to get my Master Divers license. Learned very little actually but I bet some of the basics are right there in the book and I can use that then move on for land based.

Really, thank you so much. So far most of my good shots are happy accidents. Digital cameras are so wonderful for just working on it and working on it. Will post more good and bad and if you are willing to critique I am always willing to listen. Otherwise enjoy the good ones and cringe at the bad.