Comparison: Clean vs. Cluttered Backgrounds

Currently, my biggest goal is to improve how I compose my shots. One aspect of this is to unclutter the background. Inspired by Joel Sartore's excellent book Photographing Your Family, I'm paying a lot more attention to what is going on behind my subject. On the left is an example of how I recomposed my shot to reduce the impact of the kitchen items behind Melia. While still a little cluttered, I think it's significantly better than the photo on the right. By the way, neither Melia nor Kasey, nor any other kid in my blog belongs to me! :-)