Listen, everyone is giving you bits and pieces. If you really want to excel in photography, take a PHOTOGRAPHY CLASS!! There you will learn about light, camera and composition. If you think you're going to get a secret tip with all the short cuts to good photography in this forum, think again. Pulling off the extraordinary from the ordinary is a discipline. It requires work, commitment, motivation and time. You have to like it to become proficient at it. I sense, you just have a job to do and want a quick tip on how to do it. Photography is much more than that. You have to have heart, and passion, understand emotion and build that into your images. If you don't want that, don't have that, you're in the wrong place.

Here are my tips
1. Find better light. Get more shadows into the images.
2. These images deal primarily with shapes so get close and consider black and white
3. The first image, shoot vertical with a wide angle get close to the fence, shoot wide open and have the fence, a perfect leading line disappear into a blur. At mid-day with strong contrast - shoot black and white as an output.
4. The second image, the very top of the fence are repeating bars, shoot 9 of them and paint,cover one of them white for a break in pattern
5. The third image, I am having issues with - may give up on that one. But with such a shape, get in close and work the camera from low to high, up and down to try to see the shot before you take it - work the area from a perspective we can't see.
6. The fourth image, move the SUV to be right up to the opening in the fence, turn on the high beams, get in front of the fence really low and shoot a bit wide open and up with a wide angle use a fast shutter speed, car vs fence for a mean back and white and a nice story.
7. If you want to get really creative with the mundane, get a fish-eye lens, work close with the shapes. Your shots will be freaking amazing.

All of the shots provided are at waist level, shots we always see. You have to provide a perspective that we normally do not see for it to be interesting.

I think you are on to something. Yes, do capture leading lines and repeating patterns, shapes or textures. Do use DOF to create a vanishing point. Yes, do try the abstract and non-conventional approaches. I teach photography at a local college for nearly 15 years, there is alot to like here. I find interest in a part of the image to be infocus and parts not. Good work.

I love the design of Acratech but that locking mechanism is not reliable. I had my D800 and Nikon 24-70 take a swim in the pacific. That hurt, I have since relied on the RRS BH 40 with quick release, and never had a messup or even a close call.

It's not the camera, its the photographer. You can get award winning shots from an iPhone. Knowledge of composition and light will get you extraordinary images with ordinary equipment. But it is nice to have the breath of features that the D850 has and there are too many to list here. You also have a great selection of lenses from Nikon and 3rd party providers. You also have support other major manufacturers such as Profoto with their strobes that work with Nikon's TTL system. Again I could go on. When it comes to resale, there are so many Nikon shooter's out there, that you will certainly find a buyer.

BH will not answer the question. I tried. I ordered my D850 at 8:30 AM EST on 8/24. I just got my camera. After the 24th a lot of articles appeared on the net, indicating this was a major change in technology and everybody seems to have placed an order. I don't expect that if your ordered in October that you will get it before the end of the year. This is like the best camera Nikon ever made. And after my short experience, I would agree.

The label "professional" does not mean quality imaging. We have to change and understand that. I know of a professional business portraiture photographer. He makes a living at this. He has a set. studio and people come in, he snaps a picture and he is done. I don't think he has changed a setting in years. Outside of this, he can't take a good composition. He shoots during business hours and tries to capture so called "professional" images during those hours and it really is not happening. Does he have to meet certain criteria in order to be considered professional? No it does not.

No one is going to make sense of this. We need to get away from term professional and begin using master. I am not a professional. I am a master photographer who has mastered the camera from capture to print and I have a body of work that can support that.

I really don't think this can be salvaged. The compositional elements do not work together. There are too many objects, it looks quite busy. It's not tied together. The curve take you no where. There are some reeds and a castle and a bridge far away, but there is no focus. There is no intimacy. Clipping or cropping isn't going to save it either. There is a strange mixture of colors, tones, shapes and textures. The sky is very nice. Good clouds. That's the draw. Had you simplified the image and emphasized the clouds, I think there could have been a greater chance of success. Even if you found something, it would require such a heavy crop that you would have to deal with other issues including noise, artifacts, and posterization. Sometimes is better just to abandon the effort and use your time on more productive outcomes. Just my two bits.

You can complain all you want. Nothing is going to happen nor should it. This an OPEN public forum. I have read so much worse. And BTW, I have seen a member kick out for complaining. It goes both ways.

There is no weight savings with mirrorless. What weight they removed from the camera body was added back to the lens. Mirrorless lenses, weigh more than their counter parts. I am 66. I have a full frame set up and large primes, 500 and 400-200. They are heavy but not so much that I can't handle it.

I good method to find out where to go or to that which helps you measure yourself among others is either https://500px.com/ or https://1x.com/. These are two fine inspirational sites.

Great landscape photography always seems to have clouds. They add drama to the image, create a uniqueness that can not be matched. What I am missing in the image is a true focus point, no leading line, some harsh shadows and a fence that does nothing more than to say keep out. It is messy, lots of distractions, weeds and wire in the fence, bushes everywhere but no distinctive focus point or story. The light is lacking, a little harsh, it appears to be behind you leading to a pretty flat image. The sky is a bit over saturated. The other tonal qualities are fine but does not direct you to a focus point. You need to simplify, get closer to the fence and find a way to use it to lead the viewer. Less is more. Or abandon the fence and focus on the geology, the red rock and find formations with leading lines, distinctive groupings that balance each other. Soft light that comes early in the morning or late after noon would help. But the lack of compositional and transitional elements hurts the image even though the tones and colors are fine, it is focused properly but it really doesn't tell me anything or give me goosebumps.

The light is fine, the composition is not so much. In the image, her legs are cut off and the sign above the entrance is cut as well. It is not quite a people shot as there is no face. I would have filled the frame with just her, and got closer to her and got a better angle as to her face and expression, I am not sure what the story is, or the focus. There are distractions throughout. But the light is nice, it is not harsh or overly bright. What was it that fascinated you to take the picture? Was it her, what she was handling, her hands, objects? Don't be afraid to go right up to her and ask for permission to take a shot.

Lovely image, youthful embodiment of a mature lady. The best of juxtaposition.

I would consider black and white to best show shapes and patterns. I would leave the chains. But they would not be difficult to remove at all considering the basic background of the chains using the clone healing tool or clone stamp tool in PS.
Have fun.