Response to my portfolio?

In retrospect, I have a few observations:

1. My number one error in this whole exercise was to underestimate what a College-level Photo I class would be-- I was expecting a "this is what a shutter speed is; this is what an f-stop is; this is how we use contrast filters, etc" kind of affair. I thought that my technical knowledge and years of experience would place me out of any "introductory" photo class. It turned out, of course, to be something quite different-- a serious art class (he said that it was more of an art criticism class than a photography class) and one where everyone's work would be held to a very high standard (making good photographs, not simply technically good negatives and prints).
2. The portraits worked in the original context(s) in which they were presented-- a school art show, where the faces are familiar but shown in a new light, and here on the PP Forum, where I provided the all- important title to my "Martha" image. He didn't have any of that information. It turns out that while the images may have been successful in their original contexts, without additional information they were all but meaningless. I don't know if this is a failiure on my part as much as it is a lack of foresightedness; when I made the pictures I never expected the images to be viewed without their original context. In this regard the landscapes worked much better; they contain much of their context in the images themselves.
3. I don't think the professor was unduly harsh, given his expectations-- I just happened to have misunderstood the object of the course I was trying to bypass.

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