Final editing of the series

As I get closer to printing my final images, I don't feel totally comfortable with my final 10 but, I don't know why.

This is my 10 images:

I have 10 images because it is a well rounded number. Something inside of me just can't sit comfortable having an odd number of photographs. I'm not usually OCD about things but this I really totally am - so it must be my gut telling me that 10 is the right number.

The image top right - does it work? All the others are school age and in uniform, this is a mother and baby. I really like the image and it holds special memories in my heart, but taking emotion out of the equation .. does it fit. I don't think it does. So.... I need to replace it.

What if I add another image of a child not in uniform?
But then that's 11 images. It really doesn't sit comfortably with me. I can feel myself shifting around in my seat at the prospect of it.

Okay... so what about 12 images. Yep even number, it works i'm not shifting around so much at that thought. But... it still doesn't work for me visually! arghhhh - come on Sarah why doesn't this work.

The boy in the bottom left isn't looking at the camera. He's smiling and looks happy but he is not looking to camera. Which doesn't fit with the rest of the images because they all are looking to camera. So.. I don't want to use that image.

But then, again the issue with the top right image... so maybe I just take that one out of the series too. That also brings us back to 10 images.

However, the top left image - hes not smiling. My whole point is to show happy children and he doesn't look happy. He doesn't look sad or sick either, but hes not smiling.

I found these 2 images (top right, bottom left) which I had discarded previously. I am unsure why. I have cropped them slightly and edited them and I don't think they look out of place within the series. So.. I think I have found a way to make this work. Hurrah!

Although I think I now have 11 images again... okay i'll lay them out and consider for a day or so. Give it time to sink in and see what feels right.

THIS is my final series! Hurrah I got there eventually. I got rid of the photograph of 2 school girls together. It didn't fit quite right because there were 2 in the image and only 1 in each of the others.
All the photographs have 1 school child, all various ages, and they are each looking to camera. There is 1 boy who is not smiling (bottom 2nd from left) but his stare into camera is just so intense and striking that I can't not use it. I have had that image from the very beginning of editing and it is just so powerful to me I can't take it out.

I really wanted to have equal number of boys and girls, but I think that may just be taking OCD matters a little to far because I feel that it works well like this. There are 4 girls and 6 boys.. which is fine with me and I quite like it. The total number of images is an even number so I think that the number of boys to girls is off balance slightly.