One year of photography-> portfolio question/critique?

I'm 17 as well.

Killer stuff Jimmy. I may have to borrow the headlights silhouette one sometime--it's just awesome.

great stuff , keep it up , wish i started when i was younger

Dude, trust me - DO NOT take photography in college. Focus on marketing/sales/busine​ss studies and keep practicing photography. That's the ticket to a successful career; and you can thank me in 20 years.

Jimmy! Good stuff, and nice Smugmug. As far as colleges are going - WWU is just now starting their "visual journalism" sequence of the journalism major. It focuses on multimedia like slideshows, audio, a bit of video, and of course - photojournalism. It's the first year it's being offered, so it's only getting better - might be worth a look into!

All in all, no matter what you take in college (photography, business, basket weaving) if you have the passion and skill for photos that you do, you'll have no problem doing whatever you want. Just make sure it's what you really want to do!!

you show more promise than most of my current and former students. your work exhibits energy and excitement. there are many elements that go together to make a good image but the greatest is impact. without it, a print could be technically perfect but clinically dead. much of what i looked at had that quality.
good luck.

btw:
i have taught photography classes for
University of Cincinnati
Ohio Insitute of Photography
Antonelli College
Winona International School of Photography (PPA)

First, I would like to apologize for upping a 2 month old thread, I know it's not a good thing to do. I was looking through my old favorites and came across this thread and realized I got a lot of responses that I did not even realize I received.

So first, let me thank everyone for taking the time to look through my portfolio and give me advice, criticism and suggestions, I reallyappreciate it.

As far as college goes, I want to go get a somewhat rounded education, while gaining a deeper understanding in regard to the more technical aspects of photography. I've heard the business and advertising route with photography on the side would be a wise choice considering commercial advertising is what interests me the most. One other question I have is, is there any type of formal training for a sports photographer other then personal experience?

I'm currently in the process of planning a meet up with two Seattle Based photographers who are both making their living as commercial and sport photographers, so I am anxious to meet them and talk with them.

Anyways, I've already mooched enough information from you guys, I'm not expecting, nor do I deserve any more responses. I plan to continue to give photography everything I've got, shooting everything I can.

I see a lot of emotion in your photography....keep at it Jimmy!
Nancy <;0)