rub your hand on some chicken.... dogs are mans best friends, but they wouldn't hesitate to sell your soul for chicken... then wave your hand around in front of thier noses.. that ought to perk them up and get them all looking in the same direction....
getting them to sit still? tough... best to get them while asleep an wake them up...

sorta... kind of like Heaven and Hell... but in this universe Hell is a barren, desolate, frozen wasteland..... Nova Scotia is pretty though!

for handholding try this one:
hold camera in right hand to eye level..press camera against your face
raise left arm up to eyelevel, and hold onto your right arm, rest the lens on your left elbow.

I use this for video work and now for telephoto and it is good and stable..

I like the shots...
I'd try burning in the grass by the tree trunk, where the light spill is, it competes with the subject.
these shots, while clearly on the line between fashion and art... would in my opinion make a great backdrop for a photomontage.. just drop three or four images of the clothing onto the open areas to the left, and you got pretty much a two page magazine spread that would work quite well....
and like others have said, the model is a little off her game... she seems self concious and awkward... takes a team to get the most out of this type of project... was she having fun? was there anything you could've done to help her out?

Well I'm a little disapointed... considering I have years of guiding experience in Canada's arctic, that nobody offered me a Job on this project!
lol
but heck yeah!! we could pitch some tents, and roast some marshmallows at my place!! (they get very hot, especially if you are one those people that lights them on fire...) so bring lots of Bailey's or Kahluha to dunk them in.... for safety reasons...ok?

Speaking of safety... I know some people here like thier hard liquors... I do not recommend dunking flaming molten sugar products into shots of single malt scotch...there will be explosions and you'll be turning my yard into some kind of tent hospital triage center... and while you're running around ttrying to put out your eyebrows, I will drink your scotch...

pentax could leapfrog all the competition by recognizing that p-ttl pre-flashes is not the way of the future.
wireless via radio, or bluetooth is.
take the 540 and 360, insert new wireless transcievers (if it'll fit in an sd card, why not have a radio card in the flash unit?) and put the wireless cards into new bodies, put accessory transmitters out for old bodies... have manual, and auto modes with optical slaves....

(be nice if you could control color temp from the flash instead of having to gel them)

software like pentax remote that allows you to program the flash outputs for a number of flashes from your laptop.... or controller flash unit.

and have a wireless flash setup that any strobist would buy... regardless of camera brand, and offer advance p-ttl type metering on pentax bodies....

having a lighting set that gets featured on 'Strobist' available for ANY brand camera should push volume sales up and therefore prices down...
might even help sell a camera or two..

I found this one insightful, thank you Ben

good luck unless you plan on going all Nancy Karrigan on Lilly!!!Ya big Galloolie

nothing wrong with gearing the criticism to reflect the skill level of the poster.
I have high expectations of some people here and would comment on things that would be too trivial or advanced for a novice...
I try to make my suggestions relevant to the person who posted....
helping a noob improve requires a level of sensitivity and honesty that are harder to balance than picking apart a competition worthy pro level image...

with a learner you start by looking for positive things and then try to add advice to help them grow.
with a pro you start with the assumption that the image is good, and look for faults....

a good pro image is one you can't fault.
a good novice image is one you can find something promising in.