January 2009 - Marko's choice

[Marko]

Hi members,

This is a new suggestion from a thread by Mad Aussie (Thanks!)
where the Admin (me) chooses one good photo each month from this Show forum to talk about and suggest why it is good as a learning tool. Feel free to add comments about this suggestion in the link above.

Okay here goes with the following caveat since this is the first month: Since I am choosing from many excellent choices, I am kind of going for which photo I think is the 'best'. Usually I am looking for technical quality plus that 'it' factor. January was a hard month as there were quite a few with the 'it' factor but no technically perfect photos in my opinion and I teetered hard between 3 photos which I don't want to mention. Since we all have opinions, some members may disagree with my choice. That's cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my pick, NOR is it the place to further critique the image. The purpose here is to suggest strong elements in the photo that we may learn from.

In the end the photo I have chosen is this photo below by Kat .I really like the following photograph because it has so many good things going for it. First off the eyes are wicked good and the eye closest to the camera is nice and sharp and it draws the viewer's eye right in. The selective focus is excellent here! The child's gaze is extremely captivating, inquisitive and suggests daydreaming (a story, sort of). The lighting is soft and interesting and the soft tones in this shot mesh beautifully with the child's soft gaze. The exposure is excellent. Although I don't want to spend much time at all on them, my nits are the hand crop, the messyish hair on the right side and the child's right cheek edge that could be slightly stronger. Despite that, this image spoke to me in some way and I love to look at this beautiful portrait. So for January 2009 - this is my pick:
Many thanks - Marko