I Heart Faces Week 9- Creative Cropping

This is my third week participating in I Heart Faces. I have really enjoyed seeing everyone's portraits so far, and trying to learn more about photography myself. If you haven't checked out their website yet, you really should. It's fabulous.


You can participate in, or see other entries, at the I Heart Faces website. Just click my little link on the site name. :)

This week's theme was Creative Cropping. To be truthful, I was a little puzzled by this category. I'm hoping I got it done, but we shall see... I just wasn't sure exactly what would be considered "creative" for this purpose. I suppose I should just let you see what I've done, and then you can tell ME if you think it's creative, or maybe what you would have done differently?

This week, they are letting us post the "before" and "after" cropping photos, so you can get a better idea of why we chose to do what we did, and also how a small thing like cropping can change the whole feel of a picture.

Here are my entries for the I HEART FACES "Creative cropping" category:

Here is the "before" picture:

And here is the "after", my entry for adults this week:

For kids, here is my "before" photo:

She has a great expression going, but my zitty face in the background and the railing are both a little bit distracting.

Here's my "after":


What do you think? I liked it, but I am a total newb, so I'm sure it's still not the best it could be. What would you have done with it to make it better?