In the new design for About.com, the photo is a little better. Now my eyes are looking more forward, and there is a slight hint that I'm looking to my left - where the text is.
An even better photo for that position would be one where my shoulders were also angled towards the text. But this is a much better solution than the first photo. And, for situations where the image will be on the right of content as well as the left, this could be a good compromise.
Remember, too, that while images of people's faces draw the most attention, the same is true of animal photos. For example, in this sample layout, I have my dogs looking left, but the image is flush right. So they are looking off the page. This layout would be improved if I changed the dogs' orientation so that they were looking into the center of the screen.
