My absolute first set of pics, with my absolute first SLR

So here they are, and here I am, open to criticism, suggestions, comments, etc.

The pictures are of a couple main fountains and our tower here at the University of Texas in Austin. The sun finally came out today (or more importantly - it finally stopped raining!) so I was able to take my camera out for its first spin today. For the most part the sun was out, but in a few photos you might be able to tell that the sun hid back behind the clouds, leaving the colors less bright and saturated, and instead kind of dull. Also at the end I was just playing with the shutter speed

The biggest problem I had, given the shots I was taking and the time of day was the sky. More often than not, I had to compromise between either having a blown out sky or a dark background. You can see in some of the pics where I took different exposures to either get the sky or the foreground exposed properly (this was also a test shoot, I was playing with all my settings).

Aside from the rule of thirds, I can't say I know much about composition. So please let me know how I can improve the composition in these pictures, because I need to learn somehow!

Let me know if this link doesn't work right...

http://www.flickr.com …2/sets/72157600​279256359/

Oh and is there a better place to host pictures than flickr? Preferrably free, because right now I don't need to be spending anymore money!

there is too many image there to effectively CC it would take hours.
post them here 2 at a time max and I think you will get some good suggestions.

oh okay sorry I didn't know.

Here are a couple pictures to start off with. This is probably my favorite of them all, I'm glad the sky didn't get too blown out here. Our enormous stadium is in the background, and while I think it's cool, it probably distracts from the focal point in the image, so I should have probably taken a different angle (and the trees at the top too).
http://farm1.static.fl​ickr.com …18960848_74e08e​330d_o.jpg

Here's a picture of our main tower, it's a big part of who we are here at UT! For graduation, it was lit completely orange (our school color is burnt orange) with '07 being lit in the windows straight down the tower. It's quite a site.
http://farm1.static.fl​ickr.com …18945640_71c50a​164b_o.jpg

fountain one: either a faster shutter speed to stop the water better or a slower one to make it look like its flowing more would help.
it needs some usm and some contrast PP,
The highest water spout is blending in with the sky, shooting it with a low numbered f-stop and a fast shutter speed from another angle would work to blur the background while giving it something to contrast against.

the building: needs sharpening and straitening with some good post precessing it would be a very good image.
It is a bit underexposed.
If I was shoting it id go for a higher numbered f-top and a slower shutter speed on a tripod or mono-pod.

You are off too a good start with those images.
Working on your post processing would help you a lot right now.

Yeah I didn't do any post processing because I wanted to first improve my picture-taking before I get to post processing. You're right about the top spout of the fountain, I didn't catch that at first. What does 'usm' stand for? Can't be ultrasonic motor, right? Next time I take a pic of the tower I'll try the smaller aperture with a slower shutter speed to see if I can get a better exposure, thanks.

Thanks for your suggestions

#1 (fountains): Composition not bad - it's an interesting angle. As strmrdr pointed out, the main jet is a litle lost against the white cloudy sky; shooting it against a darker background would have helped. Personally I would have tried to avoid those bits of foliage at the top, or else cropped or cloned them out - they're very distracting. I think the shutter speed is OK, though of course a (much) slower shutter would have produced an interesting effect. Finally, a polariser would have helped darken the sky and saturate the colour of the water in the fountain, but that can be approximated using Photoshop - see this thread.

#2 (tower): Obviously needs straightening. And it is a bit under-exposed: the metering may have been fooled by the bright sky. If you're not familiar with exposure compensation, now would be a good time to read up about it. But anyway a bit of PP could do a lot for this one.

For a new photographer with a new camera, these are pretty decent. You seem to have a good eye. And being willing to invite, and learn from, criticism is good. Now it's just practice, practice, practice!

CaseLogic wrote in post #3284896
I didn't do any post processing because I wanted to first improve my picture-taking before I get to post processing.

Opinions vary, but I think these days PP is an inherent part of picture-taking. Partly because DSLRs are designed to need it. And partly because it's always been part of picture-taking - it's just that in the old film days, it used to happen out of sight in the lab before we got our pictures back. These days we have to do it ourselves! I think it's very sensible to concentrate on mastering composition, exposure etc., but picking up a few simple PP tricks like sharpening and saturation should not be neglected.

PS USM? FOV? OOF? GND? HDR? All here.

Thanks for the comments, StewartR, and the link