I love the first image. It captures his mood and joy perfectly and the warmth of the late summer/autumnal sun is just lovely. Allied with the general golden tones and it is a winner. But there is something that just niggles me, not sure how you shot or processed it, but the blur seems a little odd, almost as though a tilt shift lens or effect (sorry not very good at articulating exactly what I mean ...) - even so, it is a lovely shot, thoroughly engaging.
The second image is slightly spoiled for me as it is too soft for my liking but other than that it is a lovely capture.
Excellent pair, he'll like those when he gets older
Thanks for replying Peter, it is always difficult to be sure when viewing images at small size/res.Thanks Paul, no tilt shift lens. Straight shot using a135mm DC at f2. The DC was set to defocus the background at setting f2, maybe this is what you see. But it's very subtle. The other shot is sharp, but maybe at this res it's not obvious.
These give me a very warm feeling - autumn, golden hour, gorgeous kid, teddy bear...what's not to like?! Love the shallow dof too - very dreamy.
I love the composition and lighting of the first one, really nice.
I'll echo what Paul said though, my first thought was that they were very soft, the second looks very dreamy. As a DC user myself it looks like when the DC is set differently to the actual aperture.
Last one is lovely. Soft focus look is down to taste but it works perfectly here.
Another vote for #1, my preference would have been for the boy being a bit less 'soft' but despite that it is a lovely image.