Tips and pointers are greatly appreciated!

Very new to the photography scene, so I am really just looking to improve. Any comments or tips are really appreciated. None of the pictures have any editing done, so any help on how I should edit them would also be great. I have not taken the time to learn photoshop yet, as I want to get through my camera manual and "Understanding Exposures" before I move on to editing.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/bryn_wlch/49334​08198/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/bryn_wlch/49363​47610/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/bryn_wlch/49352​34609/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/bryn_wlch/49419​90304/

If you post fewer pictures, you are more likely to get a detailed analysis.

#1. Strange angle, judging from the hang of the droplets.

#2 Bright sky fooled your camera's light meter into underexposing everything else. Compose the shot with the front of the boat having more room. Center compositions are weak when there is a favored side in the subject. Lastly, a tighter crop.

#3 Dragonfly's front left wing and the tip of the bud are the only things in focus. Rule for eyes in human portraits applies to bugs too. It's the most important part to get in focus.

#4 It looks like you were going for an abstract. But the tilted water -- as indicated by the shoreline at the rocks -- makes it look like you accidentally pressed the shutter release as you slipped and fell over.

#5 best shot in my opinion. But too centered.

thanks for the pointers

I like the last image and do not consider it being centered a problem. In fact because of the spiral nature of the subject (like a vortex) centered works for me and it has been noted publicly that circles are one of the few elements that can hold value being centered.

The image before the last will always generate a sense of vertigo in the viewer. If you hung this on the wall nearly every observer would be seen adjusting their head to view this. I've done it.

#1 will likely fare better by cropping to a square. #2 may be salvageable and #3 has some serious focus issues.

Yeah, I can see the focal issue with #3 now that its in a larger version and #4 I'm not entirely sure why I chose that angle, just playing around with different things, but thanks!

the horizon on #2 is off by a few degress. the mast on the boat may have thrown you off i'm guessing.

the horizon on #4 is off by a lot and i'm sure its intentional but i've never been a fan of that type of composition.

Bwelch wrote in post #10816508
Yeah, I can see the focal issue with #3 now that its in a larger version and #4 I'm not entirely sure why I chose that angle, just playing around with different things, but thanks!

#4 graphically the image is excellent. If in fact this was not a sight familiar to us as human beings there would be less trouble with interpretation. Because we as humans have such enormous experience in an upright gravity sponsored position it becomes challenging to the mind. A bird would not likely have the same experience!

As far as exposure how do these look? I've been playing around with that stuff a lot in different lighting conditions to try and learn how to manage the different settings for exposure.

Bwelch wrote in post #10818680
As far as exposure how do these look? I've been playing around with that stuff a lot in different lighting conditions to try and learn how to manage the different settings for exposure.

The only image I see here with serious exposure problems is #2, which is substantially underexposed in the foreground. #4 could probably be brightened a bit. The others are all pretty good.

The first works very well. Good shots for an alleged beginner.