Waiting for Santa - b&w Portrait

[mattp]

Portraits really aren't my thing, but my sister has trouble getting shots of her eldest daughter (5 in a few days) when she is not really self conscious or mugging for the camera, so I borrowed her little digital camera (Nikon Coolpix 3100) to see if I could get something for her while we are all together for the Christmas weekend. This was the result, which I converted into b&w because that's how I tend to picture shots. Although I think it looks like she is waiting for santa, I actually got her to sit still and ignore me for a bit by telling her to watch for fire fairies in the open fire!

I did quite a lot of work on the computer to fake a shallower depth of field, and I'm afraid this may be a little obvious on the edges, but I hope it doesn't detract too much. My sister seemed pleased with the result, and I thought I'd post it here too.

Thanks for looking.

matt

[edit: I've changed the original b&w to a toned version which I think lightens it up a little]