1st newborn shoot, critique please.

Hello,

A friend of mine and his wife had their 3rd child recently and asked me to take some pictures for them. No pressure, very laid back people and understood I am a total rookie at this. Also, their new daughter is about the most easy going baby I have ever seen, so that made things much easier on me.

I pretty much have no idea what I am doing, ha ha. I just went in there, had a great time talking with them and shot a bunch of pictures when I saw the opportunity. I frequent these forums a lot searching for inspiration and ideas. I hope in the future I can build on my experiences, get better and maybe bring a little more creativity in the future.

Here are a few of my favorites. All shot on a 40D with the 17-55 and a few with the 70-200, at times with macro tubes.

Enjoy and comments are welcome!

Critique?
The model did all the great work.

shot 1: Gorgeous, gorgeous. Convert to B&W and see what it looks like. The tungsten lighting gives it a golden glow which is quite unnatural for a newborn shot, or what is obviously an indoor shot. Really great shot though. Love the elegant finger curve on the baby and the light in her eyes. awesome.
shot 2: love the idea of the name on the blanket and the feet in the same shot, but find the blanket distracting. Typically, the feet should be closer together, but in this case, with one being unfocussed, you can get away with it here. Not sure if a different angle would have been better, or a different crop??? cute idea though.
3. Adorable. Would crop much closer though, to get the head and shoulders only? love the little grin.
4. I'm sure you had to snap quickly to get the smile, so there was no time to gently push the shirt collar down below the chin, but if you HAVE time, be aware of those little details.
5. This is one of those feet shots that would have benefited from having the heels touching, and not so wide apart. Have the mom hold the heels together with a strategically placed hand under the blanket.
6. Cute shot as well, but the total flat on the back thing is visually?? bothersome maybe? Easy to fix though. Crop and "straighten" until the baby's face is actually at an incline. When you "straighten" a shot in photoshop, you do lose some of the pic, but you can afford to lose the lower arms and get head and shoulders on this one. You may want to lighten the shadows a bit on the face too. especially get a bit more light in the eyes. Very cute shot.

Those are really great shots, never mind that they are your first! The parents should be thrilled with those. Keep up the great work.