this is adorable. love the lighting.

Very nice portrait - I think it could stand a bit more contrast - bert otherwise great work.

I love the angle of the head in this one. It seems to add a lot of character to the portrait.

I like it as well. His personality comes thru.

The expression, the position in frame and the crop all work really well.

I like it too. He was really connecting with the camera...and so the viewer feels like they're in on it as well. It has just the right balance between sharpness and softness.

Agreed. This rocks.

Excellent sense of character through his surrounds. Yup, terrific portrait!

I love how you captured the lighting on his face while everything else has darker tones. The colors are great. And of course, just has a lot of character overall.

great light and capture. I want to now see a close up of his hands!

thanks guys. appreciate the feedback. i wish i would've got a close up of his hands! :)

Terriffic! Love the light, the expression and the texture. Nice job.

Very very "intensive" shot.
Wondefrul light and expression.

very warm photo. i wonder what the kid is thinking about. the flower in the background does add some nice texture. i particularly like the flower's shadow on the wall.

The light is beautiful in this picture and the little boy has a very nice expression on his face, like he is lost in some dreamland of his own.

Thanks to all. This one is my own favorite and I am glad you liked it :)

I do not no what he was thinking exactly but I can tell you that he was watching TV....but was also very tired after 2 hours of swimming :)

I'm not sure what is happening here - but it looks painful.

@ArneG: not really, this is an Drum and Bass DJ while his performance.
thanks for you're comment.

When I look at this, all I can think of is the word "freedom." It's kind of ironic that she's holding on to the bars while I'm thinking this.

(Also, she looks a lot like a good friend of mine. Kind of spooky... the resemblance.)

I really like the colors because they aren't overly contrasty (is that even a word, ha) and I like the subtle humor in this photograph.

Great smile, love the body language and the light feeling to her personality. I wish, somehow her eyes were emphasized a little more.

Nice shot! I covered the left part of the picture with paper on my screen to make her in the center, and I like it just a little more. I too agree that more light in her eyes would be nice. Again, nice capture!

So eerie, I can't pull my eyes away! I love how the eyes are so dark that they are probably what is drawing me in. I also like the graininess of the picture and the composition is effective with the child not centered in the frame.

Agreed... dark eyes, wispy hair, and grain make this a bit magical. Nice.

She is a very beautiful person. Because of the background and heavy shadow this photo becomes more of a snapshot than a portrait. On camera flash rarely creates a pleasing light.

This is obviously a candid photo so much of what I'm going to suggest probably won't apply because it would involve some thought that wouldn't be possible with a candid image.

If you must use a flash indoors for lighting have your subject move away from any walls where the harsh shadows will be cast. Putting some depth between the subject and the background will eliminate or at least soften those shadows. If your background is less than ideal, such as here where it shows the kitchen cupboards and other objects, use the smallest aperature setting possible (if your camera has a manual mode).

Another thing you could try is to put a shear white cloth in front of your flash to diffuse it somewhat. This has to be a very light, translucent material though - cheesecloth or fine silks works well.

I completely 2nd what UNCOMMONDEPTH said. Good advice.

You've definitely got a beautiful subject/model... and I agree with Uncommondepth that it's the lighting that turns this photo into a snapshot. (Otherwise, it might be a very artistic image... especially with a shallow DOF... on maybe a 50mm lens.)

I'm not sure what kind of camera you have, but often times, when I'm indoors, I'll aim my flash at the ceiling. This bounces the light back down and creates a more natural-feeling light from above. It makes the flash seem less like a flash. It really is amazing what kind of a difference it can make.

Now, this next part might seem a little strange, but it actually works... If you aren't able to aim the flash on your camera, you can actually get a spoon and use that to reflect the light onto the ceiling. I first heard about this technique in an interview with Eliot from slower.net. I've tried it in the past on my little point-and-shoot camera and it really does provide noticeably better results. (Although, it takes practice to get right... sometimes you get strange spoon-shaped shadows.) ;)

I think it's because our eyes are used to seeing light from above rather than from straight ahead... It just feels more natural that way. Normally there's some kind of fixture on the ceiling and this simulates that.

Anyhow... she's a great subject. If she's good friend of yours, I'd follow her around with a camera a lot and see what happens. :)

I'm going to echo the other two critiques already posted - the setting and technique of this shot really makes what could be a beautiful candid portrait into a snapshot.

Also, the focus seems to be a little soft around her face, with the sharpest point appearing to be the edge of the sash under her armpit and across the front of her body.

a beautiful portrait and the prior reviewers have given a strong critique. In the future if possible one step back would have given you an uniterrupted "V" in her right arm which is clipped in this framing, on the otherhand I really like the closeness of the shot as it gives a sense of intimacy... so perhaps you could crop it even closer. Playing with your crop is one of those things that can always be done after the fact and give a number of different results.