I just bought my first camera!
I'll try to post my photos here to keep track of my progress and so people could give me comments and critics!

it looks great

bienvenue

DoF and composition is good
shooting cats is bad

j ^^

Why is it no one says anything when it's a picture of a dog, but they do when it's a cat? If anything, cats are far more interesting to photograph.. Not to mention that most dogs are just ugly, so it's hard to think anyone's photograph of such is any good.. =-\

To the OP: I would've focused more on the eyes than the nose, but as Jayandnix said, DoF and composition are very good. =-]

Thanks! I think that my camera has a sort of autofocus right now, I'll try to change this so it focus on what I have on the center ^^

Here is a self portrait. Way too hard to shoot while having my eyes in focus. Any tip?

well i rly think it doesnt matter is it dog, cat or pile of crap on photo, he is just looking CC for techniques and way to improve,

i find this a bit too dark, dof not bad, also true about focused eye

NO WAY
dogs are far better and more interresting, besides any1 can shoot cats as they sit around and are easy to shoot
cats should only be shot with a 9mm

Psh. I don't just shoot my cats when they're lying down. My cats chase eachother and play fetch. We find them doing photograph worthy stuff all the time.

Dogs should only be shot with a crappy camera phone. =-P

Anyways! Lol.

OP: Try not using the flash. Adjust your ISO and Aperture and use more natural lighting, especially if shooting that close. I take self portraits a lot and natural light makes a HUGE difference. If using a tripod, manual focus helps a lot.

Usually the switch is on the lens to switch from autofocus to manual focus.