Jase, many thanks for your comments, I am glad you like them.
Steve, Thanks to you too for such in in depth reply and opinion, I appreciate all comments be they good or bad, constructive or otherwise, its always interesting to hear what the image say's to you.
Just a little history on the shots:
The "James" image was taken at a relatives home, Mom asked me to pop round and grab a few for the family before they returned to their own country, I had about ten mins to grab my gear and get to the house, I did manage to use a fold away reflector to get some light on the dark side, and click away, as you can imagine, a child just about to go on a trip is a hyper little bugger, getting a shot in focus was the only real plan. I note what you say about being at eye level, but with this shot, I had to remove family from the background and using a large floor beanbag and a bit of tickle from mom we got one!
"Christian" was indeed a candid while he was playing in a paddling pool at a friends garden party, I too look for eye contact, but with such a wonderful light from the reflected sun on the water I could'nt resist, to me it has a mystery to it, the crop was done afterwards as you so rightly said.
The last three images were taken at a birthday party, the white background comes from a patio door, and flash from a canon 550 with a warm stofen filter. Spencer was sat still for intentional photos allowing composition, but Jack was a unexpected candid, I was sat on the floor getting a different (eye level) photo when this happened behind me, I think I shot 9 images as I stood up, this being the best of the bunch.
Each B/W image was converted using Paint Shop Pro, by splitting the RGB channels, then adjusting the levels accordingly and of course, general levels, sharpening, and smoothing has been applied.
Once again, I thank you for your comments, and I look forward to recieving more points and advice 8)