Where Do You Need to Improve?

For me, it's in the area of night photography.  I love looking at relatively crisp night shots, with every detail visible.  My favorite night photographer is Marius Vieth.  I think his photos are absolutely amazing.  My night photos could definitely use some work.  I usually take photos in the day time.  When the sun goes down, my day is pretty much finished.  Recently, I've been having the desire to shoot new things, and since there is always something new to learn, I decided to try night photography again.

These pictures were taken with my Canon S110 point and shoot when I stepped out to go to the grocery store tonight.  Unless I'm taking photos of my family or friends, I always shoot in manual.  I used to shoot in aperture priority, but I just got into shooting in manual mode after a while.  I'm also challenging myself to not edit my photos in any way.  No dodge, no burn, no cropping, etc.  Not even straightening a crooked picture.  None of the little things that a lot of us don't really consider to be altering a photo, so these pictures are straight out of the camera, unedited.

1/40, f4, 5mm, ISO 1600

1/25, f4, 12mm, ISO 1600

I think the first picture isn't that bad.  It's relatively sharp, at least to my eye.  I like how the street lamps have that pointed star pattern.  I'd love to take my T4i out with a tripod and see what kind of shots I can really get, but in my neighborhood, when the sun goes down, best not carry anything that will trip you up or weigh you down, or to put it more plainly, don't carry anything around your neck that's worth more than your head.

The second picture is blurry, but not so blurry that the details of the picture are lost.  For night shots, I like them to either be complete devoid of people, or without only one or two people at the most.  I like to capture things the way that I see them.  Even though New York is referred to as "the city that never sleeps", unless you go to someplace like Times Square, you don't really see that many people at night.  The night time is usually a very isolated time, and I like to take pictures that capture the mood of darkness.  The loneliness, the isolation, and how even with all of that, the night can still be beautiful in it's own way.

What area of photography do you feel that you need to improve?  What methods do you use to better your photography?