Village Ladies

I was actually navigating back to this image to leave a comment when I saw the thread you'd posted on critiquing, so I got diverted to answering that. Anyway, I love this photo--the image has stuck in my mind since the first time I saw it posted here a couple of days ago. The tenderness of the gesture and the beautifully serene and inquisitive facial expressions are what really grabbed me here. The only distracting note is the partially cropped eye on the right. Cropping slightly to the left of the corner of the eye would solve the problem, but you'd lose that nice line of the shoulder--overall, though, I think the image is strong enough that it would gain more from losing the discomforting half-eye than from keeping the shoulder line in. The cropping on the other side works beautifully. What a beautifully sensitive portrait--really nice!

Jim: Nice composition with a tenderness gesture. Nice colors and brightness. I agree with Leslie's comment about the half-eye on the right. Congratulations. Roldao