Portrait of Dad as a young man

As many of you who follow this blog know, I'm new to portrait painting and trying to figure things out as I go. This old photo of my Dad pulls me for several reasons and I'm finding that painting someone you know and care about is a much more complicated process because you trip over your emotions in between brush strokes and can't be as objective about breaking the image down to it's elements to capture the light and shadows to build the basic shapes and make it stand out on it's own.
At this point I also need to remind you that I'm basically untrained and self taught which of course adds to the challenge.
The reason that I selected this photo to work with was because of his smile and the fact that he's a very religious man and the way that he's framed in the window here looks like he's surrounded by three crosses.
I'm not quite sure what section to work on next so I'm taking a little lunch break while I think it over. It hasn't been that cold this winter but potato leek soup sounded like a good idea which I suppose brings us back to the garden and planning for next year.
Meanwhile back at the painting...