Thank you for your comments. The shot was taken completely without preparation--it was one of those moments just barely captured (though admittedly it would have been nice if the shutter had fired a second or two earlier). I had also considered cloning out the insect bites on his skin, but I didn't find them to be particularly objectionable.
John, you've got a very interesting image here. You have a great eye to have captured the child at that moment... assuming this was not a planned shot :-) The only two things I can see to improve this are: For me personally (and this is only a personal observation) I would crop the image just to the right of the edge of the open door frame. By doing this, at least in my mind... it allows the eye to focus more acutely on your subject and the shadow affect. It also takes away what I observe as the only distracting element in the image. If the image was a planned shot (I have no way of knowing) then, plan to have the child stand in the same spot when the sun is at a more adventagous position, so that the childs head appears as part of the shadow effect. I hope this helps and, don't forget, it's just my personal observation... others may differ completely in how I see this. Mark J
