I spend my summers working as a commercial fisherman in Alaska, which has given me some great opportunities to increase my photography skills. My first summer in Alaska, I was overwhelmed with the beauty that is there and was very trigger happy. I got some good photographs, but none of them really gave justice to Alaska. I was also so busy last summer I didn't really get to look at any of the photographs I took until it was to late to learn from them. When I went back this summer there were several factors that really allowed me to increase my skills.

The first was that I had already been there so the shock was not as bad as it was last year; I was able to slow down and think about my photographs. I took less photos, but better ones.

The fishing wasn't very good this summer so I had a lot of time off, so I had time to look at photographs and figure out how to take better photographs.

I finally learned how to enhance my photographs. Up until this point I didn't edit my photographs. The editing I do now, I limit to what a competent photographer could do in a darkroom.

All this said, when I look at my photographs from this summer, they are considerably better than my previous photographs. I have only uploaded two of my photographs from this summer so far, but I plan on uploading more soon. I could really use advise on what the photographs could use; I know that I am not a great photographer yet, so I want to continue to get better and this is the place to learn.

Here are the two I have uploaded so far: