peace

This goes against a lot of my normal preferences in good portraiture: Eyes are closed, it's cropped very tight, lighting is a bit on the cold side - and yet: It's a picture that appealed to me the second I saw it...

The hat is a perfect frame for the beautiful face of the model, and the slightly cold lighting in combination with the closed eyes and the relaxed pose, gives me, as the viewer, a feeling of peacefulness.

The only thing I'm not too crazy about is the very tight crop. I believe the picture would be a lot better in a horisontal crop with a fair amount of empty space on the left side of the picture - and a little more space on the right and in the top as well. The tight crop works agaionst, at least to me, the very relaxed and peaceful feeling I get from the pose and colors.

But a wonderful portrait indeed <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title=" (Smile)" />