Great assignment.
For this assignment you’ve chosen to narrow down your subject of interest and simplify both the composition and the colors. This is great because these are two of the main concepts we teach in the upcoming lessons. Simplicity and organization are the key to great photographs.
Your composition in your first image is cluttered and distracting. From the audience’s standpoint, there is no identifiable object that acts as the primary focus and therefore the eye simply enters the photograph becomes restless due to the distracting background elements and lack of focus and leaves the photograph. The second image however, uses shapes, color simplicity and good composition to hold the interest of the viewer for longer.
All though it’s not necessary, it would be nice to see you start to experiment with the idea of visual story telling. In order to do this you need to include a storyline, a main subject, an idea of a feeling into a photograph. You can still do this with still life photographs and basic object, but you need to arrange your objects in such a way that say something.
However, while you’re still getting used to the camera you can continue to focus on your composition and the technical components of your images. Soon however, you’ll want to start playing with visual story telling.
I look forward to seeing your next assignment.