Wow! What wonderful photographs.
I’m particularly drawn towards the image entitled “hard”. I love the composition of this image. You’ve done a great job with balancing, depth, color, texture, light, mood and object simplicity.
That being said, I don’t think it’s a good example of hard lighting. In fact the light looks very gentle and diffused to me. Hard lighting creates sharp shadows. There is nothing sharp about the lighting in this picture. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but if the sun was out it must have been diffused by other atmospheric element. It does look hazy and haze can also act as a light diffuser.
Let’s look at this image in a little more details. For starters, your use of the wood as a leading line is fantastic. Not only is your foreground in perfect focus, helping to draw out the rich textures of the wood, but this object also helps guide your audience into the photograph. Having such a strong foreground object also helps your audience feel as through they are there. It exaggerates the feeling of three dimensionality. Great work!
Your first image is also very nice. It also uses lines as one of its main design element. However, the barb wire fencing is much less textured than the wood, so it’s a little less interesting in my opinion. From a composition standpoint it’s great though. The second photograph just has a lot more texture and depth to it, which I think helps make it a more dramatic and interesting photograph.
I look forward to seeing your next assignment!