I have two:

Get involved in critiquing - let others review your images and you review those of others. It will really help to develop your eye when you are not out with your camera...

And when you do have your camera, run your eye around the image in your viewfinder before taking the shot and ask yourself what is wrong with it. Do it again on the LCD screen after you have taken the shot....

As was stated earlier - Composition - you will not have people studying your images - if your cojmposition is weak. My suggestion - study the Masters - photog or painters - as composition is the same for both. Painting Masters' work has been around for a few hundred years - and still draw crowds to the galleries showing them. They must have had some idea on what makes or does make a Master Image.

looking at other works (especially whose work I like the best) and try to analyses their thought process , thinking hard what all he/she must have done to achieve such effect... then of course "practice and patience" always pays off in long run.

Go back to basics to understand that first magical moment that enticed many of us to pursue a lifetime of photography.
Find a book that was a basic text book when you had to obtain a photographic qualification to have a hope of getting a job in a photographic organization. The Ilford Manual of Photography is a starter. Then buy a cheap 35mm camera and some processing equipment and 'have a go'. In the past I have built a wooden camera as the first photographers did, they were the 'owners' of photography. Now photography is owned by the camera manufacturers and the technology you need to see the image.
So, get back to the basics and understand how photography has been changed into what it is today. This will give you a greater clarity on where you want to go.

My best tip is type photography techniques and tips into Youtube and watch away. Best way to learn short of doing a course. There is nothing you can't learn on there!

I have to agree with our Scottish friend - As with any skill practice is key - probably the most important thing you can do is keep shooting. But utilize the critique forum here and elsewhere because you need feedback to make adjustments as you learn and practice. Outside of that I would say spend as much time looking at "the classics" as possible. Learn the visual vocabularly of photography. Let me start you with the names of some of my favorites: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Edward Weston, and Sally Mann.

Good luck!

Matt
http://www.pittsburghfilmphotographer.com/

Many of the comments here, including mine, have concentrated on the camera whereas the most important part of photography is in fact, the subject.
You firstly have to determine what your preferred subject might be and concentrate on that –
architecture - sport – wildlfe – portraiture? You can then evolve your camera technique to suit
your particular subject. Lighting, exposure, camera angle, composition, are the basics but also consider lateral thinking and welcoming difficult situations because they will give you a greater intensity of thought. It can also be useful to have a second subject interest that involves a different approach in observation, techical requirements and thinking on your feet, both sport and wildlife meet these criteria.
My professional subjects were historic buildings for which I used a large format camera. The satisfaction was in the technical problems I had to overcome to record the very different
subjects. Many of those images were for publication and many thousands of my negatives are
securely held in a national archive.
My secondary subject is street photography, which requires a completely different piece of equipment which is basic and simple to use. The technique is also completely different,
including using observation to predict the right moment to make the exposure. Many of the street photographs have been used for publication, advertising and exhibition. On the website they have been viewed by more than 27,000 people. And so the tip is, initially leave your camera at home and start studying the subject you want to photograph.

Take a class at a local trade school or community college. If you're like a lot of visually inclined people you will learn best by doing. Then as our Scottish friend said, practice your arse off. And then, prepare for a lot more bad work than good, and don't lose hope. It takes a long time to realize the images you want to make, and it has much more to do with your mind than your photo skills. That said, the skills need to be cemented first so you can free your mind to make it do what you want it to. Good luck!

Matt
www.pittsburghfilmphotographer.com

Learn to walk first, before you try to run..until you understand the basics of ISO. Aperture, shutter speed, then you are really working blind. That's the mistake I made..tried too take photos without understanding what the camera settings were for. And aim to use manual settings rather than a pre-set program, as you will learn much more.

i am newbie in this forum, but you guys great work. Thanks for sharing this excellent piece of information.