Great start to the course!
This was a technical assignment which was designed to allow you to showcase your understanding of both shutter speed and aperture control. It seems as though your camera (or lens) doesn’t have the ability create a shallow depth of field so we’ll focus this review on your second image of the kids on the slide.
This image has a lot of design potential. Anytime you see strong naturally occurring lines in an environment you’ll have the opportunity use line as either a creator of shape, symmetry or possibly even us it as a “leading line”.
My only concern with this image is that you haven’t really taken full advantage of any of those things. Most of the action within your photograph is taking place in 1 layer of depth (i.e. your middle-ground). There is no foreground object and no background context which results in a composition that has a ‘flat” and 2 dimensional feel to it. By incorporating strong foreground and background elements you can create the illusion of depth and 3 dimensionality.
Secondly, I would have liked you to play around with your perspective a little more. Although I can’t see the entire environment, it seems as though this shooting location would have allowed you to experiment with your perspective. I would have liked to see more of that (and it would also likely solve the issue of depth discussed above)
Worst case scenario (if you didn’t have control over your perspective, or you felt you couldn’t make it work) you could have experimented with the natural symmetry of the slide by framing it in such a way that balanced the colors and lines on both the right and left walls of the photograph.
These design details will be discussed in upcoming lectures. That being said, I wanted to bring them up now so when you get to those lessons you’ll be able to look back on this photograph and see the potential in your environment.
To see an image of a slide that uses the natural design properties of the environment to its advantage look at the following photograph:
Pay special attention to the sense of depth (foreground, middle-ground, background), color control (blue and pink), the strong use of leading lines and the use of shape (the circle at the top of the composition)
http://comps.fotosearch.com/comp/CRT/CRT563/girl-slide-water_~15630-20dg.jpg
I hope you find these ideas helpful!