War Hero and his Granddaughter

My mother wanted me to capture a photograph of her father (my grandad) who is 88 and my daughter who is 4. This is the one I like out of the batch I took. I wanted to capture the youth of my daughter in full focus, and the fading grandure of a war hero grandfather. After a long and full life including being shot down while navagating a bomber over Germany in WWII and being the only survivor of his plane, my grandad is only recently out of hospital and is in failing health. I wanted to create a memory with an informal portrait of him and his only grandaughter.

In your opinion does this photograph work?

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Yes, it does work according to your rationale. I hope your Grandfather records his wartime experiences for posterity. I read Stephen E. Ambrose's, Wild Blue recently about the daring of the US bomber crews over Germany in WWII: they sure were heroes like their Allies. Per Ardua ad Astra.

I like the pic, and the story behind it adds alot to it. However, I would like to see if cropped differently, specifically crop the pic above his hands holding your daughter, so you just get her head and shoulders and your grandad looking over her.

See what you think?

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yeah that's what I was talking about . I like the cropped pic better.... looks more natural

I think the composition is great, given the goal you had. It seems to convey what you wanted very well.

The crop makes more of an impression.

I wonder if your grandad knew my dad who was a navigator for many missions over Germany. My dad's name was Bill Barry and he was in the Airforce flying on the Liberator, 1943-1946. I wonder if he'd remember.
My dad passed away 2 1/2 years ago. He'd be almost 84 yrs. now.

Great photo, BTW.