The second is beautifully lit, naturally almost
Entirely natural lighting used in all of these shots. The only artifical light was in the first, natural window light from the left, but with the addition of a single tungsten lamp on top of the bookcase, you can see the colour cast on the top of her hair.
The first photo is shot at ISO3200, SOC noise is not too bad all things considered, but this has been cleaned up in LR3.
interesting title - I almost thought I was reading some 1st testament story
In hind sight that is so true......I must be more creative with my titles!
Keep taking photos of them while they still allow you to
Strange that you say that, not so long ago they were always more than happy to oblige with the posing for photo's, in recent months its has become increasingly difficult to get them to cooperate and I have on occasions needed to resort to bribary!