You'd do better to post yur images in your thread. Not many people can be bothered to go off-site to look at your photos, then come back here to critique them.
Well...I would agree with forkie...although I did go and check out your photos...it is a lot easier for you to post just a couple here that you are most interested in. Here's an example:
If you had posted this photo here:
I would have said that is a lighting issue....you'll need to separate the boy from the black background otherwise it looks odd...don't crop at appendage junctions such as the knee...try (as hard as I know it is) to get the boy to express something different from the tight-lipped look he has in this photo....
Keep shooting and I look forward to seeing some more of your work...
So I actually had the same problem that you did had a friend that colunteered to let me take some photos and ugghhh that blasted "looked focused but wasn't" issue hit me too! I since have gotten my cannon though and am in the process of learning it and playing with the glass that I bought to go with!! GL. They look to me like a great start, but we both have some improvements to make.