The best and most cogent answer is by Steve Stoneblossom, to which I agree completely. How important are the memories that are preserved in those invaluable and priceless pictures?
The pictures are great, but what's important to me is how you got them, what camera, lens, aperture, shutter, ISO, filter etc and where/ what they were taken from. Smilin' Geo.
Too bad, you're out of focus. You need smaller apertures; that combined with a slower shutter and maybe a higher ISO might do the trick.
Too bad, not enough depth of field, but the composition is unusual and interesting. Go to much smaller apertures, like f:16. Of course you need slower shutter speeds, higher ISO's and a sturdy tripod. Otherwise all's OK.
Superb composition, exposure and depth of field. The white water and brooding sky are great for lots of drama. Yes, a flashing light would have helped. Geo.K.
Most of the advice is beneficial, but the first thing you need is to get the speed light off the camera, and then to add a diffuser - ie "Stofen" and tilt the flash head up 30 to 45 degrees. There are many inexpensive off camera brackets available, and of course you need a connector cord. This helps by softening the shadow and driving it down behind the subject - moved 5'-6' from the wall, eliminates that infamous red eye and can help to eliminate those bothersome eye glass reflections. Also, the light coming from a higer point can be more flattering than being blasted straight on. Absolutely essential for the varied situations at a party. It works! Geo.K.
One good all around lens that takes me from wide angle to moderate tele is the 15 - 85mm Canon that is excellent for both nature and indoor parties. For more extreme WA, I'm pleased with the performance of my 10 - 24mm Tamron. Both are what I call moderately priced. Geo.K.
I have only one comment on "Mike's Photos" - SUPERB! It's all there, great eye-catching subject matter, augmenting composition, impacting color and excellent depth of field. So what if there was some post processing done; it served to enhance the scenes. Geo.K.
Terrific stuff, lots of impact and interest; great composition and color rendition. Geo.K.
Lots of good stuff. Lots to scrutinize and think about. I like the general composition and mood of "Journey's beginning" except that the boat is headed out of the picture. I think it should have less space behind than in front.Geo.K.
With all the comments made, I've seen nothing about what a UV/haze filter is designed for and that is to cut down on ultra violet light penetration, which biases color toward the blue end of the spectrum, occurring mostly when the sky is overcast, but to a lesser degree with a clear sky. Geo.K.
I recently photographed the holiday lighting of my house and shrubs. The main problem in making proper settings is not to overexpose the point sources of lights and not to underexpose the house and shrubs. I took my picturea on Dec 1st between 4:15 and 4:45 when there was just enough ambient light for the house and shrubs. The final setup was as follows:
camera, tripod mounted with remote shutter release, was set on manual aperture - f5.6 - to get sufficient depth of field with a lens focal length of 15 mm; a shutter set on 1/15th and manual focus; ISO at 400 completed the input setups. White balance was left on automatic, because neither the tungsten nor overcast settings would cover the range of color temperatures. Picture style and lighting optimizer were left on "standard."(Canon 60D) The results were near satisfactory, requiring only a slight amount of post processing to achieve what I thought closely matched what I had observed. I hope this helps. Geo.K.
Hear,hear on all the complements. I've had the i9900, which has produced PSA and PFLI competition prints up to 13x19 on several types of paper for me for several years and I wouldn't consider upgrading! Geo.K.