There have been a couple of comments suggesting that I seem to know what I'm talking about, so here's a bit of background.

I went to see the photos at Smethick Photographic Society's international exhibition one christmas because it had been raining for 3 days solid and I wanted to get out. I was amazed at the standard and was hooked. I went to the weekly meetings and was hooked. I had chanced upon the best photographic club in the country (arguably). It had 200+ active members, ie. people going out taking photos every week. It had several Fellows of the Royal Photographic Society and a lot of professional photographers as members. Not just wedding photographers either, there was a wildlife photographer who had several books published and runs trips to the Gallapogos Islands, a top motorsports photographer who was sponsored by Cannon, a spelunker who was the first non chinese to be allowed into some of Chinas big caverns, the list goes on..

I began developing and printing, first in black and white, then colour print from negatives. I normally printed at 16x12 inches and entered international competitions with reasonable success, getting many acceptances plus some highly commendeds. I also obtained my LRPS and was ready to go for my ARPS when I changed jobs and moved away from the area. Since then I've been to a couple of other clubs but they were frankly crap and not worth the effort.

I've become a good photographer (no false modesty here!) thanks to Smethwick PS and along the way learned to look at things properly, to appreciate the small details that pass others by. I've also learned the 'rules' of photography and by sitting at countless club competitions started to understand the elements that make a good photograph and how to look at picture properly and understand what makes them good.

I hope people took my comments on their photos in the right way, which was to make a good picture better. You don't have to agree with what I have said, they are just my opinion and if you don't agree that's fine, it would be nice if you had already thought along the same lines and decided to stick with what you had.