TOUGH LOVE FOLLOWS

This is the last time you will ever show up a picture you "messed up" even "a little." Your job is not to take pictures, it is to make images and with cards as big and cheap as they are you have zero excuses to ever not capture exactly what you're after.

Never take "a photo." Take 20 at least. Literally. Hold down the damn shutter and get five minutely identical shots each time. Set it to bracket. Shoot up or down 1EV in half-stop increments always. ALWAYS have what you intended to be in focus, in focus.

Picture 3 looks like ass because it's in shade. Your psychovisual complex has better gamut than your camera. You will never make a shade photo look as good as a "in light" photo. That said, post-processing is essential with digital photography. Behold. Instagram filters for Lightroom.

WORKFLOW

1) take a shitload of pictures

2) Ingest a shitload of pictures

3) go through and rate good stuff 3, 4, or 5

4) Filter off everything unrated

5) Tag everything that's left

6) Auto-adjust everything that's left

7) Tweak the shit that's good

8) rate everything that isn't good 2

9) Winnow it down to one or two good shots of every subject

10) SHOW THAT.

Shot #2 shows promise. When you shot that, did you blow out the highlights? Because if not, bring the sky back in with a grad filter. And if you did, get good at fixing it.