First off, a very well done to everyone who participated; there were some excellent entries, although I would have liked to see even more. I wish I'd included one myself.
When I judged this thread, I considered how good the images were technically, but also how I just "felt" about them overall.
I couldn't help but give some short comments on everyone's images; so here are my thoughts in a nutshell.

ovim: nicely composed candid shot with good use of the shallow DoF.
Rense: Great lighting here, almost Rembrandt-like. Good expression. But I agree that the framing is not so good - and I'm not keen on the food inclusion.
bbluesman: love the scene, excellent generally. Your street photography is some of the best I've seen. If only it was taken from the POV of the mirror... but I like what you're doing there.
DanLoc78: I liked the expression and cheeky eyes very much, but wasn't so keen on the framing.
woof: Like you say, a family snap, but an excellent example nonetheless! It is very telling of the point in the boys' lives - not long before their teeth assume similar configurations!
icywarm: Almost made it into the final few! Very sultry - superb expression and eyes. However, I don't like the shadow by the head, and the pose seems to suggest she's about to sink into the table.
sureshgvv: I like her cheeky face! I would suggest that having some light behind the hair would have improved the shot.
Tamia: An unique model! Commended for originality.
Bramela: Was this a detail of a wider shot? I quite like it, but it seems a bit flat.
Iris: Good focus that the FA 50, I know how difficult it is to get it spot on. Good subtle tones.
jheu02: Very thoughtful shot. Good light on the profile.


And so here are the winners.

3rd place: robjmitchell

True that it's "businesslike," but in that way it provides exactly what you'd want from such a portrait. I'm sure your friend is very pleased with it. The bookshelf background seems a bit busy against the face, but the natural lighting and pose do very well. The face and hand both in focus is good. A general technical win.

2nd place: Ash

I kept going back to this lovely one. I just love the deep, clear eyes and gentle, inquisitive expression. It might have been better if rotated less, but I also keep turning my head to the child's face in a way that seems natural - and strangely endearing!

1st place: jmschrei

Well, this image really struck me as the finest of the bunch. Great DoF, the framing is spot-on, and the girl's eyes and pose are very graceful. I can't help wondering if it would have been better kept in colour, but I still like it very much the way you have presented it.
Congratulations!


How's my judging? Thoughts and opinions welcome.

[DanLoc78]

Thanks for the comments. I think you did a fine job judging.

Congrats to the winners!

[jheu02]

Congrats all, especially Joe for first. After seeing Joe's shot earlier, I almost didn't even enter as I felt that was going to be the winner.

[robjmitchell]

Congratulations to the winner, I think we all enjoyed that shot!

[bbluesman]

Thanks SpongeF for judging and comments-congrats to Joe and others

[jmschrei]

Congrats to robjmitchell and Ash and thank you to spongefingers for the first place finish. My daughter has this picture as her Facebook photo and was especially flattered to have her portrait chosen.

So I look forward to judging the next round. Get out onto the streets, folks!

-Joe

PS. oops, how embarrassing, I screwed up the link to my image and had to reload it to flickr...

[ovim]

Congrats to winner and runner-ups! Good judging Spongefingers! and thanks for taking the time to comment each shot.

[Iris]

Congratulations Joe, it is an excellent shot!
Congrats to robjmitchell and Ash too.
Thanks Spongefingers for commenting and judging.

[woof]

Congrats to the winners, well deserved!

Spongefingers, thanks for judging, you did a great job. I appreciate your kind comments and in particular the fact that you took the time to comment on each of the entries.

Kind regards,

Seaain

[Luc More]

All three presented here are excellent. I had a comment (or kind of like a question) about the framing for #1 and #2, both pictures have a small part of the model's head slightly cropped (for instance the top of the head for #1). I always considered this as less than optimal framing but that's just me. What do other photographers think? This is not a critique against the winners or the judge, just a question for my own learning curve (I'm very bad at portraits really).

[Rense]

Well Luc, for a formal portrait, it's probably not desired. For a more informal portrait shot I like it....

[Rense]

And congrats to the winners of course. Somehow this one slipped my mind and attention.... (is that proper English?)

[Ash]

Well done judge! The comments are succinct and valuable.
And congrats Joe and Rob.
Good images.

[jmschrei]

All three presented here are excellent. I had a comment (or kind of like a question) about the framing for #1 and #2, both pictures have a small part of the model's head slightly cropped (for instance the top of the head for #1). I always considered this as less than optimal framing but that's just me. What do other photographers think? This is not a critique against the winners or the judge, just a question for my own learning curve (I'm very bad at portraits really).

I chose the image I entered because of the naturalness of the expression and I think the intimacy of the crop (which is more or less how I shot it) contributed to the effect. I shot lots of variations. Not being a portrait shooter myself I relied heavily on the articles Rense supplied with the original thread https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/mini-challenges-games-photo-stories/115656-project-52-p52-3-9-people-portrait.html.
You can find some really creative "rule breaking" images for inspiration there.
-Joe

[Spongefingers]

All three presented here are excellent. I had a comment (or kind of like a question) about the framing for #1 and #2, both pictures have a small part of the model's head slightly cropped (for instance the top of the head for #1). I always considered this as less than optimal framing but that's just me. What do other photographers think? This is not a critique against the winners or the judge, just a question for my own learning curve (I'm very bad at portraits really).

Well Luc, for a formal portrait, it's probably not desired. For a more informal portrait shot I like it....

A fair question - I concur with Rense's remark on this. I personally find that close, intimate portraits lose little to no impact from judicious cropping, and can often be improved. jmschrei's portrait of his daughter is quite auspicious in its use of rule-of-thirds composition - notice the fringe/eyes and chin/shoulder lines, as well as the right-hand eye. Not to say that it's staid in that respect (I use RoT a lot,) it just works nicely when used in the right images.
Following other rules of composition can also require seemingly uncomfortable cropping of bodily extremities; but the end result is generally more pleasing to most peoples' eyes when done right.