Style

The more I view the work of other photographers my age (I have some kind of competitive streak in me that has yet to be unleashed) I'm realizing that I don't have a defined style to my photography. And I haven't had nearly enough practice or work on my portfolio. I'm not as good at this as I would like to be. I would like more technically constructive criticism from my professors, rather than "this doesn't really work, Mary, at least not for this project." Why not tell me what I can do better? Why not teach me some kind of tips and tricks? Why not teach me how to properly light a scene? I so strongly dislike that photojournalism has to be this field where they tell you an armful of photographic techniques, beat the rule of thirds and using the full manual setting into your head and expect you to just improve. I've been doing all of these things on my own for over a year now and I've just been stagnating at this point of being a mediocre photographer with an slr.
Every girl with a decent digital camera thinks she's a photographer. I feel that I'm on the border of becoming just another person like that. My work doesn't stand out in my class the way I expected I would. I feel like I'm constantly trying to prove that I'm talented, not to any one person but myself.
I have a flickr pro account. That makes me legit, right?
I just want someone with experience to tell me what exactly I'm doing right and wrong and what it really takes to succeed. I know I picked the wrong field to expect that from. I just have a lot of questions I can't answer for myself. What kind of photography can I do for a living? Photojournalism, portraits, weddings, architecture, landscape/travel, commercial, fashion? Nothing that I've tried has really stood out to me as my favorite of them all. I'm not amazing at any one type and it would certainly be impossible to do them all... so what do I do?
Here are my photos from my 3rd project on Tourism.

Sunset on the river. Meh. Not crazy about this shot because anyone could have done this.

View of the Gervais St. Bridge from the Riverwalk. This was my favorite and my classmates seemed to like it too. Wasn't the best though. And here's the same shot but with a different focus.


And here's Alabama's Million Dollar Band. Thought this could work for tourism... leading lines, contrast, etc. Photographic elements abound!

I really liked this shot, but one of my classmates had some huge beef with people being blurry in the foreground (she also had a huge issue with any shot without people in it and it was a little annoying).
I try really hard. Fo real.

Footwear

Here are a few of my shots from my footwear project.

My favorite shot of the four, but the one that was graded the poorest and got the most critical reviews because the footwear "wasn't dominant enough". I disagree, but I also don't take negative criticism well either.

Another that garnered negative criticism. I thought this worked because of the contrast between the sandal and the blanket, the sharpness of the Rainbow logo (which is also the first thing your eyes are drawn to), and the interesting angle. The concept is boring, I know, but I thought it was a good quality image at best.

Apparently many of my classmates thought the shallow depth of field was ineffective in this shot. Again, I disagree. I think it creates visual interest by putting the peep toe element of the shoe in the forefront. I also feel that you can still see enough of the shoe to keep you curious about what they look like in focus. I also used this angle as a contrast to my other shot with heels in it.

This was (apparently) my best shot, though I didn't think it was. I thought it was simple and very effective because it put the product into the home and the sphere that a potential buyer might view them in. My professor said something about the lighting and the steps and the second shoe but I really can't figure out what he meant.