Gentle Breezeby
thommoComment by brianlh: This comment is provided courtesy of the
Critique Club :)
You've been fortunate enough this far to have already received a few insightful comments, so some of this will sound familiar.
First looking at the image, I can't help but think that the composition here is quite solid. The boy's closed eyes convey a relaxed mood, which is appropriate for a playful image like this. I think your choice of a straight-on profile shot probably works much better than if you had approached this at an angle, as it leaves plenty of room for separation and distinction between the boy and the bubbles, and potentially the background.
I do not think the background is too distracting, as it gives the image a schoolyard feel. However, to address some of the comments you have received, it perhaps might have been advisable to try to throw it slightly more out of focus. Since you used an aperture of 4.5 here, I don't see you necessarily being able to lower that without possibly losing some sharpness in the foreground. Moving yourself and the subject further away from the wall may have been an option.
You've nailed the timing, catching the bubbles at just the right moment. The slight blur in the bubbles could (depending on the viewer) be interpreted as a good way to convey motion and action (especially contrasted against the stillness of the boy). Others yet may prefer a stiller image to capture the exact 'moment', although I think that it would give it more of an artificial feel.
The main thing here that I think holds room for improvement is, like others mentioned, the coloring of some areas on the subject's skin and hair, which occasionally appear to have a bluish-green tint. I have an inclination to believe that this probably was not in the original shot (though I may be wrong), and may actually be due to your use of Auto-features that you mention in your description. While these auto features can sometimes make an image better, they can also sometimes interpret things incorrectly and create problems. In the future, you might find it more advantageous to perform all the post-processing 'manually' without the auto feature.
Overall a great shot, and anything seen with room for improvement is nothing that can't be performed/fixed in photoshop - possibly via Layer Masks for the background and some Adjustment Layers for the Color Balance (may want to mask this as well, to avoid affecting the color in the bubbles).
Message edited by author 2004-12-27 15:16:04. 
Photographer found comment helpful.
