thanks very much for the encouraging words.

Asking for the nose to be in focus is a bit too demanding. But, as someone said, what do I know...

seems gorin-images said it would be better with a wider DOF (rather than asking for the nose to be in focus), which I agree with. to me, if the whole head were in focus the shot would be even that much better :-) the idea of doing the shot over again is a separate thought, and on the point of "whether or not a wider DOF would improve the shot" has no relevance. yes, it may be next to impossible to re-shoot something like this, but the next time you happen to have such an opportunity, a wider DOF will, to my eye, only improve the shot. to me that kind of feedback is important, and if you don't take yourself too seriously is just the kind of thing that will help you improve much faster. just one person's opinion :-)

yeah, i hear you george. i thought that as well. as i've sat here and just looked at my image, i feel the tip is not the main focus. i feel having it out of focus brings more attention to the eye. which is what i really wanted the focus to be on. maybe what i should have done is croped in closer to the eye then and ignored the nose all together. i just thought having the nose in there would allow people to understand what it was i was photographing. thanks for the comments.

Stephen, Maybe we're on the same page, but I fear I might not have made myself clear, and I'd like to:

I agree with gorin-images: the image to me would be stronger if the whole nose was in focus.

I'm going to make one of those all encompassing-sounding statements that invariably someone will (rightly) take umbrage to. (And I parenthetically add the "rightly" because it's always the exception that proves the rule, eh?)

Even if the whole head was in focus with this particular composition, there is no way that the tip of the nose would become the main focus with that eyeball staring you down! No. Way. Period. And when I say No. Way. Period. I mean when asked what the main focus of the shot is, 99 out of 100 people would say, "THAT EYE!" An in-focus nose would simply add that much more oomph to what is already a damn oomph filled shot. Let's not get too quibbly here: this is an awesome shot. I like it a lot, and said so with my first comment.

Your idea of a tighter crop might work. I'm not sure. You'd have to give it a try and see.

Congratulations, Stephen, on a fine featured image.

@groen65...I'm pretty sure that it's the mouth that does the grabbing.

@George...at the Art Institute and Brooks depth of field (DOF) is shallow or deep (i.e., "depth" of field), not wide or narrow. Otherwise we would use WOF or NOF rather than DOF. LOL.

@George again,

I mean the venerable and esteemed Art Center School of Photography, not the grand and wonderful Art Institute of Chicago. "Brooks" refers to the lofty and revered Brooks Institute of Photography.

DOF! WOF! NOF! WhatEVER!!!!

And by the way, Stephen, congrats on the featured image! I ain't gonna say I told you so :-)