Concentration...

I love the expression on her face...and the fact that she's beginning to hold her crayons correctly. She LOVES to color and sticks with it for quite a while! In fact, her only tears at church on Christmas Eve were when they put her crayons away at the end of the service. ;) She cried when we put them away on this day too. Also..funny story: She thinks all pencils, pens, etc. are for coloring so today, when she saw me putting on eyeliner (with an eyeliner pencil) she immediately said "Grammy coloring". I hope she didn't get any crazy ideas. I definitely explained that it was a special crayon and that her crayons are for paper and not for her eyes. ;)

Priceless...

Shot for the challenge "money can't buy..." The best things in life are free and this is surely one of them!

Furrowed brow...

What are you thinking???

Caroling, caroling through the snow...

I think I painted these characters in 1972. Still remember sitting at my sister's kitchen table to do it. Only a few more days to enjoy the Christmas lights. I plan to take advantage of them as long as they're up. And yes...the snow is fake....it's pretty much the only kind we get here in Texas!

Cooling bread...

Baking day....house smelled great!

Tinkerbell in Training...

Shot for the challenge of "transportation". It was Grammy Day so I had to use Hannah, of course. Besides, wings, pixie dust, and happy thoughts are the best transportation around! :) I was surprised she let us put these on her. She had a great time running around with them, waving her little butterfly wand. And stay tuned....I bought a tiny lavender pair of wings like this for baby girl. I hope to use them for her newborn pics. Only about 10 more days!

Merry Christmas from Bob and Barb...

Wishing you a joyful Christmas and a year full of blessings!

Family Christmas, pt. 2

Love my girls!

Family Christmas, pt. 1

I nearly forgot to post the family pics I took for our cards this year. We never did get any good ones with all of us together, so we just did small groups. Hannah looks so grown up here. And she's wearing my favorite shirt...the one that says 'Grammy makes me happy"! :) I took these the end of Oct.....Jenny's belly was a lot smaller then. lol

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum...

I really love long exposures and night photography. I should do it more often. Decided to get out of my close up, wide aperture box for a change and shoot wide angle, closed down. Magical...

Peace on Earth...

I bought this little ornament last year and I love it. It makes me think of Narnia. Speaking of which, I think we need to watch those movies while we're on vacation. :) It's a little cheesy, but I'm diggin' the fake snow.

Christmas welcome...

Still playing with doorways and windows for the previous day's challenge. I love how my entry hall color works so well for the Christmas season!

Of warmth and romance...

Shot for the challenge of "through the looking glass", which was meant to capture windows, doorways, or mirrors. This topic was inspired by an exhibition at the Portland Art Museum. "Like the viewfinder of a camera, windows, doorways, and mirrors shape our views of the world around us. As frames appearing within photographs, they can add to an image’s spatial cohesion and composition, and often serve to suggest mood and psychological depth." (Quote from the curator of the museum).

I thought this was an interesting challenge and I enjoyed it. And Bob helped by bringing me beautiful roses for my birthday!

Birthday cake...

Hannah enjoyed her barnyard birthday cake and Kara and I had fun making it. Used a Snickerdoodle recipe from the Cake Doctor book, or "Stickernoonle" as Hannah called it. :) She certainly has grown up since last year. She enjoyed blowing out her candles so much that we lit them 3 times! And after her first bite of cake, she said "That's good!" She was able to help open her presents and give hugs and thank you's. Hard to believe 2 years have gone by already, but we're loving every minute!

Belly shots...

Putting together some shots to kick off baby girl's photo book. These were couple of my faves. I have a couple of different poses still to edit, so you may see those later. Thanks to Jenny for being a good sport and posing. I missed these shots with Hannah because I didn't buy my camera till the day before she was born and had no idea how to use it anyway. :)

Which do you like better?

Hello, my name is Barb and I'm a bokeholic...

I know... more Christmas tree lights. I think I have a problem. Perhaps I need a 12 step program.

Shot for the challenge of "red, white, and blue". We were asked to find something other than a flag. I was happy Kara had left some of the cute ornaments she bought for her friends over here. This little guy was perfect! And I'm loving the beautiful reflections on my piano. My new fave place to shoot, at least during the Christmas season.

Smile (even if your bum is cold)...

A gift from a former student...handmade. I think he's so cute! And, as you can see, I'm still infatuated with the Christmas tree lights. lol (BTW...I think that title was influenced by my British friends on flickr). :)

The wonder years...

One day our challenge was "a memory from your childhood". I didn't have a specific memory I wanted to portray, so I chose instead a more generalized memory. Remember things like Campbell's soup, Nabisco crackers and Wonder bread? All heavily processed and not what I would choose today, but certainly staples in the 50s and 60s. So there you have it, my salute to the wonder years!

Happy Birthday to Hannah!

Look who's 2!!! I was not exactly looking forward to trying to capture another monkey pic, because I wasn't sure how cooperative Hannah would be. We forgot tho' that having a toy would make it a lot more pleasant for her. Jenny bought these cute birthday hats, not knowing if Hannah would wear one. She agreed at first, but I made the mistake of pulling the strap under her chin. Then it was "all done hat!!!" :) Monkey already had his hat on, so we kept trying to persuade Hannah to wear one too. She was near tears and still saying "no" until Jenny noticed she was pointing at monkey's hat. Apparently, she wanted to wear monkey's hat instead of her own. Mind you, they were exactly the same, but not to Hannah! She was happy as a clam once we switched! :) BTW...this is the cutest little tea set. It teaches manners as the tea pot says "Another cup? Why thank you, I believe I will"...or something to that effect. Very CUTE! I think it's in a British accent too, tho' I might have made that up. lol

At some point, I hope to post the outtakes. There were some cute ones, but I'm behind on my processing.

Sneak preview...

My friend Judy's son got married a couple weeks ago in Argentina. He and his bride came back to Dallas for a local reception. Judy asked me to take pics for her. I still have no idea what I'm doing with the flash, but I can definitely see an improvement over having the hot shoe flash this year (compared to the on board flash I used at Judy's birthday party last year). At the end of the reception, Judy gathered her family for this pic. They were getting a little silly by this time and I wasn't sure I would get anything usable....but how about that!....I only had to photoshop 2 faces in and everyone is looking at the camera. Everyone except the little guy in the back who's pitching a fit. :) That's my favorite part! I hope you like it Judy!!! I'm still working on the others. It's going to take me a while, but I'm getting there. :)

Rainy day walk...

The picture I should have posted for the "photo walk shot" challenge. It was such a dreary day that we didn't want to spend more than a few minutes out there. Hannah is ALWAYS up for a walk tho' ! I like the autumn feel of this...and of course, the little hearts on Hannah's pockets. :)

Let it snow...let it snow...let it snow...

Having a little too much fun with the Christmas lights. lol. I think I must have some secret desire to be a Hallmark card designer. :) Shot for the challenge of "reflection".

Protecting the princess...

Finished product from yesterday's building session. CUTE!!! I predict hours of fun in Hannah's future. She doesn't understand too much more than "horsey" just now...but she still had fun...and she loved putting the little flag on the top of the castle!

Building buddies...

My sweet students Caroline and Charlotte brought us some of their outgrown toys for Hannah. She has a tricycle and easel at her house, just waiting for her to "grow into them". :) I was selfish enough to keep the Little Tikes castle building toy here, because I knew Hannah's engineer G-Pa would love building with her. I've had the blocks stored in a closet for close to a year, just waiting. Brought them out last week and they were a hit! Yay for grandpas who get on the floor to play with little girls! (Super cloudy day, so my ISO was high and I shot wide open. A little on the soft side....oh well).

Contrast...

I think this kind of shot is an acquired taste, but I really like the contrast of the gnarly chain link in the foreground with the soft leaf bokeh in the background....Also liking that tree shadow...

Wonder...

This was the first time she'd seen our tree this year. Their tree was not up yet. It was so much fun watching her enjoy it all. She walked reverently around the tree and commented on different ornaments, saying things like "Hannah's house" for our little birdhouse ornament...or "Puppy...wolf"....and frequently..."Hannah touch". She was amazingly obedient if Jenny said "no...we'll just look". Bob had fun taking different ornaments down for her to hold for a minute. So sweet. Christmas is going to be SO much fun this year!

Hanging on....

That last shred of autumn. Shot at Duck Creek....the white spots in the distance are geese.

The music lesson...

I love all 3 of these for different reasons, so guess you're just stuck with 3 images today! I couldn't chose. I don't think the white balance is quite right yet, but I'm tired of messing with it. It's times like this when I wonder if I should be shooting in RAW. Someday, I plan to experiment.

Bokeh fest....

Shot for one of the challenges, of course. This is an old perfume bottle that belonged to my grandmother. Pretty with the Christmas tree background, right?

Sorry there have been no Hannah pics lately. We missed having her with us for Thanksgiving. She's coming Friday tho' to try to get her 2 year monkey photo. Wish us luck! I think we're gonna need it!!!!!!! :)

From KC with love....

Meowy Christmas!

I know...I shot her in this costume last year, but couldn't resist doing it again. This time I had no assistant, but she was surprisingly cooperative. I used my tripod...got her pre-focused, then used my remote shutter release so I could engage with her. Waved some food in front of her face. That definitely got her attention! lol

Around the corner...

Shot for the challenge of "bricks". Seriously? Bricks???? Took me a long time to get inspired about this one, but was happy when I finally found my shot!

The gift goes on...

Shot for the challenge of "white on white". This one really was challenging as it poses tricky exposure issues and it's challenging to find something interesting with so little contrast. I thought my mom might like to see that I finally had those broken pearls restrung. We found these in my grandmother's jewelry box with a hand written note shortly after my grandmother's death. She had intended to give them to me for my high school graduation. They were given to my mother at her graduation and they now belong to Kara...given to her when she graduated from high school. :)

New eyes...

I love that photography has given me new eyes to appreciate things like a bug on a leaf or the sun shining through the trees.

The question...

Shot for the challenge of "abandoned". Have to say I really love this image, tho' it's very different for me. Wish we could do something about the "hurry up to grow up" in America.

A-maize-ing grain...

I know.....REALLY bad pun, but I couldn't resist. Shot for the challenge of "ears". I found it really interesting that at least 50% of my flickr contacts had never seen this type of corn before. Guess they don't sell it in Europe or Australia.

Snuggle...

Some photos just scream for black and white.

Garden friend...

"Hi snail....How you DOIN'?" :)

Salvia...

Sweet alyssum...

Shot this at my friend Karen's garden. Love these teeny tiny flowers. They're very low growing, so I was flat on my belly to get the shot...and they smelled SO good!

BTW, this is SOOC (straight out of the camera). I love the color so much!

Big sister in training...

When I told my mom how Hannah is enjoying her baby doll, she asked for a picture. That was more than a month ago...and I'm finally getting around to it. Sorry Mom! Enjoy! (Love this baby bottle that looks full when it's upright and empty when you tilt it to feed baby.

Fearfully and wonderfully made...

A kiss and a touch for baby sister...

I know there's still a lot she doesn't understand, but how precious. Last week, when Jenny told her they were going to the doctor, Hannah asked "Hear baby sister heartBEEP?" (smile)