Amanda

[Marta Prime]

I've been a member of this Forum for a long time but never posted anything. I have been increasingly anxious to do so however, so here goes. How can anyone take you seriously if they have never seen your work? I struggled between posting it here or in critiques, so if someone has a burning desire to do a critique on it, it can be moved with no heartburn.

This is my niece, Amanda. She had hinted from time to time about my doing a painting of her, so I told her to bring whatever she wanted to wear over, and we'd do a photo shoot. She came over with a brown paper bag with two dresses in it. One was clearly her favorite, and as she put it on we realized it would no longer zip up in the back because she had outgrown it. I assured her it wouldn't matter in the finished photo or painting. She turned out to be one of the best models I ever had. She just turned 11, and this captured her just before she started leaving girlhood. She posed live for finishing touches.

I played around with my camera settings until I got some shots I could at least live with. I have no idea what reducing the pixels to fit in here will do the the image, so I'm crossing my fingers.