Originally Posted by: davem_or

At first look I don't think you should have any problems with your alternate fingering. However, to improve your technique with the original fingering (photo 1) I would suggest rotating your wrist back. It seems to be too far forward forcing you bend your finger weirdly on the high E. Bringing it back a bit means you'll also be bending your first finger more at the first joint because it also looks uncomfortable.

ETA: I was looking at photo 1 again and I think if you take your thumb off the top of the neck and place it more on the back your finger position might improve.

I tried both your suggestions. They do improve the comfort level a bit, but the issue seems to me to be the lack of adequate 'flesh' on the tips of my second finger. So, when I rotate my wrist back a little ( or placing thumb further down the back of the neck) means that my fingers are more on their tips, which is probably what we want, but it reduces my particular finger-tip to fretboard surface area so much that I have very little to press down with especially the #2 finger.

So many beginners complain about having fingers that are too big and I complain that my fingers are not fleshy enough