Hi Charles,
Thanks for sending in your assignment. A few things stood out for me immediately. For one your background in graphic design will be very handy for you in your photography. For one thing understanding what works in graphic design is very applicable in photography.
Also the phrase “easy access to beautiful postcard landscapes” 😮 That’s absolutely fantastic. You should take advantage of that and shoot as much of that as you can! There can never be enough of those kinds of images as far as I’m concerned.
I’m glad you don’t kno many famous photographers actually. That means you can go out and do your own thing untainted by the knowledge of others. That said it does help to stay inspired so I would highly recommend you look at photographs and magazines etc. In fact pinterest is a great way to look at images, so is Flickr explore.
Don’t worry about anyone else or cliche’s or anything like that. Just practice all the time and shoot as much as you can. Thanks for sending this in! Try to keep looking at other photographers work and find your inspiration in all forms of art. But the main thing is to work and practice.
See you on the next assignment. 😉