Critique my photography?

I am impressed by your desire to learn and improve and your willingness to be critiqued. I have seen you critique others work enough to know that you understand good exposure when you see it, even if you are not yet able to obtain it. My advice for you is the following... 1) Cull your images, eliminate the ones that you are aware are not technically good from a stream that you you wish to present for critique (Good memories can always be saved for personal viewing in another place.) 2) Work on composition, you can do that with any camera...I'm sure you've heard "Rule of Thirds" over and over, but I would suggest trying to purposely put it into practice on some shots. and 3) Try working with a reflector..your in camera flash is just too harsh and a reflector, even a piece of white poster board, will fill in some light more pleasantly.

Keep up this great, curious attitude and I am willing to bet you will progress rapidly.

The carpenter bee shots look a tad under exposed to me and the quality is not brilliant - lot of noise going on there.

Flash is fine to use with animals - but on camera flash can be a little harsh & frontal - you may want to consider getting a camera that has a hotshoe capability (not sure the SX30 does) if macro is your 'thing'. Or get your animals into better light.

Read up on the rule of thirds in composition - try not to place your subjects dead centre.

Watch out for cluttered backgrounds & either move yourself or the subject.

Your outdoor shots are a bit overexposed & lacking contrast.

Getting a manual control camera will help, but if you seriously wish to take up photography, do consider a DSLR.

It looks like you are doing the best you can with your camera. Macro really requires complete control of camera functions and lighting. Your new camera will allow you to do a much better job, good choice for macro in a bridge camera. Learn to use your new camera in manual mode. You also need a sturdy tripod and off camera lighting and reflectors. The SX30 will be able to get so close the lens will block the direct flash.

Read everything you can on macro photography and join photo.net and the flickr group for your SX30. You will have the camera you need to learn with, now it's all about you learning photography.

There were quite a few repeats... Um, don't use flash on animals unless you're at least 10 feet away from them. There weren't any pictures that really stood out to me. Keep shooting and practicing!

kool