IHF: Let’s Hear it for the Boys!

I just love this picture of my husband and his girls. We had just finished a long hike. I wanted to get a picture of my girls in this pretty field next to the parking lot before we went home. The girls were worn out and wanted to be left alone to pick flowers rather than pose for a picture. I pleaded with my husband to try to get them to stand together for just a moment. He did what he does best: he played with them. This was the very first picture of the series, and I love it so much. I love my husband, and I’m grateful for the caring, attentive, and fun dad he has turned out to be.

This boy makes me feel like such a lucky girl!

To see more wonderful pictures of boys, young and old, click below to see all the entries at I Heart Faces this week.

IHF: Anything but a Face

The theme at I Heart Faces is rather different this week. They usually ask that a human face be visible in every entry. This week, they want a human but not a face. I knew just what photo I wanted to enter. It may not be earth-shattering as far as photography goes, but it’s meaningful to me.

My hubby reads stories to the girls before bed. I love that time of night because everything calms down. Nothing is required of me. The kids are happy and spending quality time with their dad, who reads to them with all the voices, sound effects, and gusto a little girl could possibly hope for.

And I just feel so content.

Bedtime Stories

Maybe Flash Isn’t So Bad After All

For my birthday present (I turned the big 3-Oh a while ago), my husband said I could choose something fun for my photography hobby. So we went to our favorite trusted photography shop to take a look. I had a backpack in mind, or some sort of bag that would be better than the glorified lunch box-looking thing I’ve been carrying. While I’d love to get one of those camera bags that looks like a purse, I needed something more practical. Those purses aren’t exactly convenient for hiking. So I was perusing the backpacks.

While I looked, the shop owner, Mike, talked with us about my photography and what I should buy next. The idea of purchasing a flash was brought up a few times by my husband and by Mike. I finally told Mike that I had to be honest, I didn’t see the value in buying a flash since I avoid using flash if at all possible. So he began to explain to me the difference between the flash built into my camera and one I would purchase to connect to it. I was bending a little, but I still wasn’t convinced. When I brought out my camera to see how it fit in the backpack I had my eye on, Mike let me attach the flash and try a few shots. First, I took a few on auto white balance without flash. These are straight out of camera, no editing:

Then I tried a few with the flash pointed up at the ceiling (again, no editing):Wow! What a difference! Now, I could have stood there and adjusted my white balance on my camera until I found a better setting for the lighting situation and gotten close to that result and fixed the rest with post-processing, but the fact that I didn’t have to do that with flash was not lost on me. And my little tootsie wasn’t washed out with a black background (the way she would be if I had used my camera flash)! How exciting! Visions of indoor pictures without having to beg the kids to hold still for my slow shutter speed spun through my head. No more telling my in-laws I can’t take a family picture in their living room because I didn’t bring my tripod!

In short, I was sold. And since my hubby’s so sweet, he decided I deserved both the backpack and the flash. Besides, the flash wouldn’t have fit in my old bag, so it almost made the backpack necessary.

I’m so excited about my new flash. I’m sure there will be some learning curve to it, and I’ll still go without it when I have beautiful outdoor light. But I’m sure we’ll have plenty of fun together. Here’s another example of the difference. My mother came to our house for a movie night with the girls and me. Without flash:

With flash:Isn’t my mother adorable? I love her guts!

Favorite Photo from 2010

I was going to sit down tonight and glance through all my photos from 2010 to decide which one to enter in this photo challenge from I Heart Faces. But I already had a pretty good idea in my mind which photo I was going to choose. When I asked my husband what he thought, as I often do when I can’t make up my mind, he mentioned the same photo I had been considering. So I don’t think I’ll go through all the photos after all. Allow me to show you my favorite photo from 2010.

This is my father-in-law. He agreed to cooperate with me for one of my photography assignments while I was taking a class earlier last year. It was a photo journalism assignment, so I took pictures of him while he was in the process of making his pottery. I took a few portraits of him standing outside his studio before we got started. This was the first time I had ever tried taking portraits of someone other than my kids and husband. I was nervous, but he was being himself, kidding around the whole time. I really enjoyed taking this photo, and I love how it captured him. He is such a fun, kind man who has so much love for his family (especially his grandchildren—he even prods me when he hasn’t seen enough photos of them on the blog). I’m so glad to have this photo and to have been able to share it with the rest of our family.

Go check out the other favorite photos from 2010 at I Heart Faces by clicking the link below.

Self Portrait

I was less than enthused about the assignment at I Heart Faces this week to do a self portrait, but I forced myself to do it. I suppose I ended up having some fun in the process.

To view all the other entries this week, click the button below.

Family Photos 2010

All photos taken by Shonda Barlow Photography.

In a Field of Flowers

The theme over at I Heart Faces this week is “scenic B&W.” I haven’t participated in any of their challenges for quite a while, so I thought I’d join in again.

This is my oldest daughter (4yrs old pictured). You wouldn’t know it to look at her, but she had just hiked about 3 miles with us up Cascade Head. As we were packing up the car, she and her sister just played in the flowers.

My husband designed a watermark for me. Isn’t he sweet?

Be sure to check out all the talent shared on I Heart Faces:

Snapshots of Thanksgiving

There’s a beautiful blog called eighteen25 that started a new link party called Snapshots of Life. You go to their blog on Wednesday to see a listed time. On Thursday, everyone takes pictures of what they were doing at that time of day. And on Friday, we all go back to link up our pictures there on the blog. I’ve never done it before, but I thought it might be fun since this Thursday was Thanksgiving. So here’s what we were up to at 4:00pm yesterday:

My daughters were just finishing watching Sleeping Beauty while playing with doll clothes. These are the same cabbage patch kids and clothes that used to belong to my sister and me as children.See all the clothes? See the sleeping uncle and Grandpa’s resting feet in the background? We ate our Thanksgiving dinner at 2:00, so all the guys were in a turkey coma by this time. Even the dogs are resting (yes, they have their very own couch). Trying to put the clothes on the doll.

Trying to put the clothes on herself.

My sweetie, asleep on the couch.

My mother, who was starting to think about pie, as was I.

Hop on over to eighteen25 to see what others were doing on their Thanksgiving afternoon:

IHF: Smirk

To see more smirks, click the button below.

IHF: Photojournalism

My father-in-law took one pottery class in college and was instantly hooked. All his other plans were set aside, and he has spent years making a living off his great talent. He works in a studio built next to his house. My 4-year-old daughter can sit out there for hours, just watching Grandpa work. Sometimes he lets her join in, handing her a blob of clay to sit and play with while he works. He has even let her try throwing a time or two. I was able to go take a series of photos of him throwing pottery. I know we will always cherish these pictures of Grandpa doing what he loves.

I Heart Faces: Beach Fun

I was taking pictures of my daughter and her friend playing on the beach. They were both having so much fun digging in the sand that I could hardly get them to look at me. My daughter has gotten really good at ignoring me when I try to get her attention for the camera. But her friend looked up for just a moment, and I caught her.

Pardon My Drooling

I just LOVE these camera bags from Epiphany. What a stylish way to carry a camera everywhere you go. My favorite is Ginger. It would look so much better than my current camera bag that could easily be mistaken for a mini cooler, as if I’m carrying a cold lunch around with me all the time.

But that’s just something I want. What I NEED more than that is a good backpack. So I really ought to be drooling over something like this:

It’s much more practical. My friend has one of these Crumpler bags for all her gear, and they are so nice. But is it so bad if I want them both?

And while I’m in the Crumpler shop, I might as well pick up one of these camera straps. I’ve tried one, and seriously, when you put it on your neck, “it’s like buddah.”

Could you put all those under my tree this year, Santa Baby? I’ll be extra good.

I Heart Faces: Gotta Wear Shades

This is my first time entering the I Heart Faces photo challenge. I figure it’s worth a try.