Thaddeus

Here you are:

You can certainly learn a lot with a P&S. It is not necessary to have a fancy “professional” camera to learn good composition, and how to recognize good light when you see it!

Getting photography magazines is a good start. Take a class if you can, or join a local group for mentoring and feedback. Visit the library for books on basic technique. Continue to learn and enjoy. Best wishes and happy shooting!

Kylie

Keep your camera with you as often as you can. I just started playing with photography about 6 months ago myself and there have already been a number of times I missed an interesting shot because my camera was at home.

Just last night I missed a shot at sunset where the moon was hovering above some clouds opposite the setting sun. I took a shot with by blackberry, but it doesn’t do justice to what I actually saw.

Abigayle

You have some answers already.

Try to search on “rule of thirds” - which is one element of composition. It may seem unnatural at times, particularly when you are photographing people, but try to work it in with some of your shots. It is a guideline, a good one, but it doesn’t always make an image better. People in particular may look better centered.

Come up with different themes to shoot. When I took photography classes, this was an eye opener because it forced me to shoot things I never would have thought about, and it forced me to try and be original and tell a story. Some themes you would see in an early photography course” Lines, shadows, movement, depth of field. You can interpret those any way you want, but try to stretch yourself and do things you haven’t done.

One of my photography instructors always said her job was to get people to move away from just taking pretty pictures.

Kai

well, never leave home without a camera…

look at as much of other peoples work as you can, such as you find on sites like wunderground and redbucket.. and start asking oyurself how did they do that?

any fool can take pictures,,, happy snappers… for photographers, theres a formula, the rule of thirds… and then theres depth of field… (at any given lens aperture, so much is in focus, and so much isnt.)

learn about the relationship between shutter speeds and aperture (f Stops) and film speed and its characteristics…

and unless youre lucky enough to get taught, the best way to learn is hands on… shoot frames…