I think this picture is adorable. The first thing I noticed, which is something that I always have to remind myself about, is that this adorable girl’s arms and legs are cut off. It would have been nice to see this image framed to include her hands and maybe her legs/feet too. But I know that sometimes these shots have to be taken quickly.

I think Kate did a fantastic job considering the bright bright sun shiny day she was working with! The DOF is beautiful.

This is adorable! Her smile is priceless! I notice the speckled lighting on her face. I would have rotated her so her face was either all in the shade, or all in the sun. Also the cutting of the limbs off… I am SOOO always guilty of this too! I would have either moved closer, to just get a shoulders and above shot or backed off to get her little hands and tootsies in the shot. I love the DOF! And her swimsuit is adorable. :)

I love the colors in this shot. So soft and smooth. Very nice. The arms and legs aren’t that big of a deal to me because I’m too busy looking at her sweet smile. You could do a quick crop just to keep from cutting her off at the knee. The only thing that I would change is the sun spot on her nose is distracting to me. I would have have tried to turn her face just a bit. Great job.

Such an adorable picture! I would do a crop in closer to focus on her cute face and eliminate some of the blank at the top (the yellow spot keeps drawing my eye) as well as the cut off knee. I know speckled light isn’t technically desirable but her cute face and expression overcome that for me in this shot. :)

This is such an adorable shot. The soft warm colours are just beautiful. I know what it’s like trying to take shots of your kids and sometimes you just have to snap to get the expression without being able to get it technically right. If you were taking this as a professional portrait or if you had the time you could have shaded her face with a sheet or reflector held up above her, out of sight. Courtney had a post about shooting in full light using a reflector as shade.

I love the colors.
I too would have cropped more or zoomed out and turned her so the lighting would have fallen more even or shown more light in her eyes.
Nice DOF.

That is the sweetest face. Love, love, love. And the colors of her hair, bathing suit and background are beautiful. Very sweet shot. That yellow thing in the background on the top left is really distracting me. I think I would try to crop it out and really focus on her beautiful smile and face. I would probably crop at her mid-upper arm on the bottom so you can still see that sweet ruffle on her bathing suit. The full sun doesn’t really bother me. It is what it is….a beach day! When I shoot at the beach I close down my f/stop to prevent too much blow out. I’ve started shooting atleast a f/4 or higher on full-sun beach days. In most cases, I still get a nice blurred background and have found that my subjects are more often in sharp focus.

What a cutie pie! The color of her hair and swimsuit really pop. Her smile is adorable. I notice the shadow on her face and the squinty eyes both due to the harsh mid day sun light. Waiting until evening would alleviate those but you would miss any candid shots if you waited. Being on the beach there is not much shade but maybe holding a white or light colored umbrella above her would diffuse the light. A reflector held to the front right(pbotographers right) would help with the shadow on her face. A fill flash would also help. The yellow object in the background catches my eye and draws it away from the subject. I would try cropping the photo a bit tighter or cloning it out. You really nailed the focus and the exposure is lovely. Overall I think it is a great capture.

I love the light, playful feel of the photo. You def. captured her having fun in her natural setting. The dappled sunlight falling on her face is a little distracting and takes away from her “I’m having a blast facial expression.” You could have possibly scooted her about 5-10 inches to camera left for a more even light.

Like I said, I love the playfulness of the shot, but your crop makes me wonder what she is doing with her hands. I think cropping the photo above the elbows and with less negative space above the head (also cutting out the distracting yellow object) would draw my eye more to her eyes. Otherwise, I would have liked to see her whole body in the picture, so there was more storytelling. Was she playing in the sand? Or sitting at the shoreline? Etc.

I like the Depth of Field and think your settings look great with a nice focus. I also love that the I know there was a nice breeze by looking at her lovely locks.

This a gorgeous moment captured! I love the colors and how they play off of each other. The sand, her skin tone, red hair and bathing suit are close to each other and I think that adds to the overall effect of the photo. The extra background at the top is a little distracting to my eye. I think cropping it so you lose the top and gain more arms and legs would add a great deal. I really love the lighting, especially on her face, as I think it highlights her squinted eyes and beautiful smile. And really that is what this moment is all about for me. Her sweet face draws you in! Thank you for sharing!

Her smile racks me up. I like the sort of blown out lighting. It fits the brightness of the location. I would definitely have cropped in tight. The yellow object in the upper left in very distracting. I would also have sttod to the child’s side (camera left) to that she turned her head more so that they sun wasn’t so in her eyes.
The coloring is very nice. Soft and dreamy.

This photo is beautiful! The tones all work together really well, and it is so cute!

I would love to see it cropped in some. I think you are close to the rule of thirds in the horizontal compositon, but I would crop out the top to bring the focus to her cute little face. I know it is hard on a sunny day to find a position that gives you soft light, and in this case it might have ruined the moment to move her. What I would do is go in and just lighten up the shadows under her eyes a bit.

It is just such a very sweet moment captured, and the photo screams summer to me! I can’t get over the lovely soft colors! I love it!

Kate, (love your name by the way :O) This is such an adorable image! You did a great job of getting as much of her face in the shade as possible shooting in full sun like that. Of course, if it were a perfect situation, I would suggest getting her in the shade of an umbrella but my guess is she was playing there and there was no moving her :O) I would use a square crop on this image. The reason for that is it would help avoid the awkward limb chops and eliminate that bright yellow (shovel?) in the top of the image. I would also clone out the black thing in the middle on the right hand side. If you have an editing program, I would suggest using a little bit of recovery to help pull back some of those blown out spots on her shoulder and face. Just a little…if you add too much it will cast a gray look on her skin. You were able to capture such a carefree expression and this image screams summer time to me. I can hear the waves crashing on the sand. Keep in mind that this image should stay true to your vision so take the critiques with that in mind. Thanks for sharing this picture with us!