A try on a baby

[nonggame]

I am very new to photography. These are photos of my niece. I don't usually have much time with her. I had about 3 or 4 minutes or so in this occasion and I managed to get this photo. Please guide me what I have done wrong or what I've done OK. I really want to take better photos.

[hminx]

In the second she is too obscured by the blanket, You may have been just a little too low for this shot.
The first has her eye shut, a blink, I think, and you seemed to have focused just behind her head, Try to get the eyes open and sharp. Also you may have been a bit low as well as there is a lot of out of focus stuff in the foreground. She is a little cutie and warrants being a future subject .....

[nonggame]

Thank you hmnix. It was so hard to take a photo of her because she would either tried to cover her face with the blanket or would close her eyes and I was using manual focus on 55-200. So whenever I set her up and walk back to take the picture, she would move and I had to just refocus and hit the shutter. Do you have any suggestions or tips for me? I don't know much about photographing but I really want to learn.

[GB1]

Welcome to the site. It's a good place to learn!

I agree with Pete's comments. I do however think that there's some possible interesting crops with the second. Try showing only her and the blanket.

I am not sure of the type of camera you have. But if you have a DSLR where you can control the aperture, you would need to set a higher f-stop number - which equates to a smaller opening in the lens - to add more depth of field. Right now it is either too wide open resulting in the foreground being way too blurred, or you are actually using a deep enough aperture but simply focusing on the wrong place (the second shot shows this is a possibility because the background letters are sharp).

Anyway - keep shooting and keep checking back.

G