"My Dad was a professional photographer before I was born and inspired me with a love of photography throughout my life. After my fifth child was born several months ago I decided to develop my interest in photography and learn how to take better pictures of my kids before they got too old. This portfolio shows the developments I've made in learning studio skills to take photographs. I've experimented with natural and artificial lighting, props, backdrops, aperture and shutter speed in capturing the essence of each of my children. While I still have a long way to go, I believe that these photographs best demonstrate the progress I've made in working with these skills."
Last night my portfolio was shown as a slide show to the Northern Virginia Photography society and critiqued by one of their top judges. The critique was based on my skills and interests as stated in my artistic statement. Below are the photos I submitted and the comments given by the judge, as I remember them.
I like this photo. It looks like a professional children's photographer print. I am little distracted by the white bow (groans from the audience, who don't agree), but overall, it's a great photo.
Even though this photo isn't as interesting of a pose as the previous one, I like the contrast of the black background with the white fabric. It brings out the skin tones well. 
I like the crop line at the bottom. The collar has a good shadow under it, and the crop ends neatly below the collar line. I'm a little distracted by the head being cut off. I think that you either need to see the entire head, or have more of the head cropped off so the viewer knows it's intentional. I'm also concerned about the two catch lights in the eyes of this photo and the subsequent ones. 
I like this photo of the hands. It's a photo we've all seen before, so you could tilt the camera to take the picture at an angle and get a little more impact. Still, it's a good photo. 
I like the expressions of both children and the fact that they're looking at the camera. I think that if you got the aperture at an f4 or f5 you could blur the background a bit more and give the subject more attention. 
It's amazing you could get all of the kids looking at the camera with a relatively good expression on their face (yeah Nathan for his help!).
I like the expression of this one. I like how her hair frames the picture on the right. Having a little of her hair cut off doesn't bother me, because it's not the main focus of the picture, as the face is. 
This is a good picture. The bottom is cropped well, so it gives a sense of finish to the picture. The background works well with the subject. Her pink bow matches the pink in her shirt. 
I don't like his unnatural expression. To me it says, "Look up and smile." 
Who can say anything bad about this picture?
I like how her hat frames her face and matches her dress. I also like how the basket frames the picture without taking anything away from it. 
I like this picture. I'm not quite sure what her expression means, but I like this picture.
