Then and now

I submitted this photo to the instructor of my photography class for its framing. I should note that we aren't allowed to crop in this class. So this is how it came off of the SD card. I didn't like this shot at first, but the more I looked at it the more I liked it: the movement of the marines in the background jumping off the helicopter and the parallel movement of the marine in the foreground reaching for the baby; the juxtaposition of marines in combat vs. marines with a baby; the rhythmic spacing of the marine on the left, the man on the right, the father in the middle.