Reddit mentions of The Art of Photography: A Personal Approach to Artistic Expression

Wow, this response saddens me. I’m sorry you took my critique so personally but I suggest you grow some thicker skin if you wish to continue this endeavor. Don’t ask for a critique if you aren’t prepared to receive one. Don’t be so defensive and read what I have to say with an open mind.

Photography is art and art is subjective. My opinion is just that. It confuses me that you ask for an opinion, receive it, then demean the person for doing what you requested.

Asking for feedback is never a waste of time. Especially if you don’t like what you hear. I recommend you put yourself out there more not hole up in solitude. Maybe try some local photography clubs. You can bring and discuss your photos as well as others. It is a fantastic way to learn! It is humbling! And maybe since you will be getting feedback in person you won’t be so butt hurt about it.

Edit: Also, I recommend The Art of Photography. It might change your mind on the bit about art not being about portraying a message but simply being aesthetically pleasing. PM me and I’ll buy you a copy.

There are a lot of good books out there. One of my favorites is The Art of Photography by Bruce Barnbaum. You can get used copies pretty cheap and it contains a wealth of knowledge.

Here are some of the things I've learned about photography that helped me, in no particular order.

• Pay attention to the background and how it will appear relative to the subject. Is a tree sticking out of someone's head, for example? Moving yourself even a little bit can really change the background. This applies to any type of photography, but probably the most to portraits.
  
• Landscape photography, or any wide-angle photography, is all about layers. Try to compose the image to have interesting content in the foreground, midground, and background. Try to also have layers of meaning by juxtaposing different themes/concepts/content etc.
  
• Get closer, especially if you find yourself cropping your images a lot. Use a telephoto lens, or just walk closer to your subject, fill the frame.
  
• Try different angles, high and low, climb up on stuff, move around the scene, try to find the best way to see the subject. Don't just snap a photo and move on, take your time. If you shoot a bunch of photos of a subject, often the last one is the best because you've taken the time to explore the subject.
  
• Regarding portraits, if you don't have the eyes you don't have anything. Not universally true, but try to get the eyes in the frame and in the depth of field. That's where people will look first.
  
• When composing an image, think about how the viewer's gaze is going to move around the image from point to point. How does your gaze move now? Does it stay within the frame? Are there places for the gaze to pause? Where does it start? Where does it rest? The viewer's gaze is typically drawn to high contrast areas, brightly lit areas, bright colors, and human/animal faces/eyes first. So if you've got a portrait of a person in shadow, not showing their eyes, surrounded by a bright colorful high-contrast background, people are just going to look at the background.
  
• Really understand how to use your camera, how to get good focus, and the tradeoffs between shutter/aperture/ISO. With manual cameras and film, I tend to err on the side of higher ISO (underexposing and sometimes pushing film) so I can get more depth of field (to accommodate focusing errors) and faster shutter speeds (to limit motion blur). Everyone is different in terms of their preferences, but without mastery of shutter/aperture/ISO and focusing, you will miss a lot of opportunities and have fewer keepers in the roll. All it takes is practice on digital, but for film there's no EXIF data so you may want to keep a notebook and write down your settings for each frame so you can review them later (was the shutter too slow, the aperture too wide, the focus off, etc.)
  
• Take a camera with you everywhere; you never know when you'll have an amazing opportunity or a few minutes to kill to take some photos. If you take a camera with interchangeable lenses, bring then lenses (otherwise, why bother, just bring a smaller point and shoot). If you shoot with interchangeable lens cameras, own at a minimum a wide angle and a telephoto -- these will open up a lot of possibilities for your photography that point and shoot cameras lack.
  
• Work on social skills and talking to people. You can learn a lot about new places to take photographs, capture portraits, whatever. There are so many antisocial photographers out there and they just want to take pictures of trees. Fine, but it's self-limiting.

On the other hand, millions of unenhanced humans somehow managed to learn how to use film cameras with, at most, a light meter. I suspect you'll do fine. A good photography book wouldn't hurt.

Of what I've read, The Art of Photography by Barnbaum is my favorite.

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Photography-Personal-Approach-Expression/dp/1681982102/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+Art+of+Photography+by+Barnbaum&qid=1567488100&s=gateway&sr=8-1