My VERY first photo shoot!

[NaturalPhotog]

This is from my VERY first portrait shoot. They were simply of someone's grandchild for Easter.

Camera: Nikon D3100
F-stop: f/8
Esposure time: 1/250 sec
ISO: 100
Focal length 44mm
Max aperture 4.8

[SusanH1970]

Aww, he's cute. The light in this is quite harsh, though - he's squinting and you've got some harsh shadows. Shooting when the sun is much lower in the sky (an hour before sunset, a.k.a. "the golden hour") would have been better. If you have to shoot when the sun is high and bright, you're better off finding open shade. Also, the background is quite distracting. Why did you shoot at f/8? Opening up would have given you a shallower depth of field, thus blurring the background more. Looking at your backgrounds before you press the shutter helps, too - make sure there's nothing distracting.

Good for you for getting down to his level, rather than shooting down on him.

[MrJones]

Susan pretty much said what I was thinking except for the lightning.
while it is harsh and gives you strong highlights and shadows, I think that if you just turned him 90 degrees to put him between the sun and your camera - you would have gotten rid of those shadows and you might just get a bit of backlit there.
naturally putting him in the shade or taking the photo 2 hours later would have worked much better