Wonderful capture! I think I like the portrait-oriented version just as well.

You are right Al. I had to go back to the raw to get color since I immediately white balanced (his shirt is white, hers is cream) to make sure I would get max contrast and then went to B&W when I saved to jpeg. So I forgot to WB again when I put it into box. You have my permission. Everyone who knows me & my photos knows I am all about the color (see my fall Colorado set on flickr) BUT there are times B&W is stronger in purpose. Since my original intent was to isolate (note that this was shot earlier than contest), I wanted just DOF and movement blur to be the only separators with everything else being equal. I am almost past the stage on the side with a long 280mm equiv zoom. They were almost hard to find among all the kids so this was my original intent from the start ... I am not familiar enough with the camera's own B&W to let it do it ... I know I can vary some filters in lightzone to get a good conversion. I opted with angelic face instead of stronger contrast.

Btw, I love this photo. Well done, John.

That's not a fair comparison between B&W and color. The WB needs to be corrected to even the playing ground, so to speak. I can play with the WB, John, if you give me the permission.

This works excellent for the topic John and I much prefer the B&W. Good looking grandkid who seemed to be having a great time too it is nice to see too.

Color is in the drop box. It is not that Grayson was that still but more that most people move back and forth and if you can nail them right on the edge of a pendulum swing the you essentially have a still shot. What I learned from reading Ken Rockwell is that if you use continuous burst mode when they are going to the edge of the pendulum you have more of a chance at the timing. Like I said before I squeezed and go five pics and was rewarded with 1.5 pics.

John, is there a chance we can see a color version of this photo.

This looks great John, the frozen kid amongst the motion blur. Great work.

This is very ahrty John & works great as a picy. Very well done. How do you like the other picys in the gallery? they look great a.

I shall hold my peace (re: B&W).

Wow, John... this is terrific!! and b/w too. How about it you post the color version in the other drop box so our contensious few can see why it works.

How you managed to get only one person to hold still enough for a 1/4 second shutter is an achievement in itself.

Thanks Daniel and congrats. I do too for these since he is sitting in a sea of color and hard to isolate. It was interesting at the beginning all the kids were moving and the parents (grandparents) were moving and then the show began and it completely swapped with kids 3 - 5 not moving a muscle and everyone else moving.

Thanks Ernest. They were all moving and the shutter speed was slow and the DOF was shallow for max zoom (280 equiv) and reasonably close. I read that you put it in continuous and burst 3 - 5 and cross your fingers (not at the same time). Out of 5, I got one with my wife in focus and Grayson only slightly motion blurred which will work if they don't ask for 8x10 and this one. I put the other one in the DropBox.

Great work John!. The kid seems to be hypnotized. Also, I feel that the B&W conversion was the right choice for avoiding color that could distract.

What a great moment captured perfectly. & the little fellow is the only one in focus, perfect. Great image.