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The sister to the little boy featured below, she was so cute in her worn blue pyjamas. I gave her some tissues so she could wipe her nose, but she seemed puzzled by what they were used for, and then her cheeky brother ran off with them and she burst into tears. A few minutes later all was forgot and they were playing and posing together for photos.

This little boy was up to no good, and was giving his gorgeous little sister a hard time when we visited their Island south of Aswan. When I gave his sister a pack of tissues he snatched them and rang off leaving her crying her eyes out. He did however turn on the charm when I got my camera out, and the result was this delightfully cheeky grin, he also helped us relaunch our boat pushing with all his might.

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Awesome portraits, Craig. Very judicious use of DOF to provide separation plus context. Nice stories, too.

I find myself drawn into the reflections in the eyes.

Very nice pics

Both great shots Craig...I know it was a photo of the moment and it is what it is but I am really distracted by the snot in the first image..I know you offered her a tissue and I see loads of merit in it but I just want to wipe it/pp it away

Geoff I can understand how you feel, but I feel like I probably interfered too much even offering the tissues (I caused a crying fit, and felt terrible). I think you have to push past the grossness and see it as just capturing the living conditions of the children out there. I saw children as young as 2-3 years old, begging for money or selling cheap bookmarks or bracelets etc it's just another world over there. The image might look ascetically nicer without the snot, but I think the integrity of the shot, and there for the photography are in question if I was to clean her up. (It's a tough grey area for me).

Nice images Craig. And I agree, to make them look better in our eyes would take away an important part of the image. I was interested to see you use landscape orientation for these portraits. I've been playing around with landscape orientration for portraits to include other body parts (shoulders, arms, and especially hands) and I like the added interest it gives. Actually the most difficult part of this for me is to remember to not automatically rotate the camera into portrait mode when photographing a person.

You chopped off part of the head above the hairline, which is probably caused by the landscape orientation. While this seems in vogue in fashion photography at the moment, I don't like it myself for these real world shots. I think stepping back (or zooming out ) a bit to include part of the background these kids are in would give the images more context and would enable you to get more of the person in as well. There is no rule that says that a portrait has to be head and shoulders. I know the definitition of a portrait will go on about head and shoulders but....

Well done with these images.

Cheers
John

John - The composition probably shows me being lazy more then giving any thought to orientation or framing of heads etc in the shot. I had the 50 1.4 with this one, and had only a brief few seconds to snap a few shots and get the reactions I wanted out of the kids so I was flying on a wing and a pray. I do have some shots which are framed wider but they didn't product the same reaction (no direct eye contact in a few more more distractions). Looking at a lot of my 50mm portraits of locals and others on the tour, I've managed to cut of most of their heads a little, without even thinking about it. It might just be me trying to fill the frame (again, probably lazy of me not to move into portrait orientation..?)