Our Tenth Week ~ 2014

Once again I didn't pick my camera up much last week.  Winter is long this year.  Motivation is low.  We did have a few days of spring-like weather - yesterday and today - but winter is expected to return tomorrow.  Hopefully it won't stay long.  Even with the spring-like temps, everything is ugly and gross.  Muddy.  Brown.  Covered in ick.  Perhaps that is why God sends the rain in spring.  To clean up all the gunk winter leaves behind.

 I did get out for my first run of the year today though.  The weather was gorgeous, so the boys, Honey, and I went for a run/walk down the road.  I was able to run two-minute intervals with one minute of walking in between.  Poor Honey is wiped out on the floor beside me though.  I probably should have worked her up to such a long journey.  :)

Most of the photos I took last week were already shared in my Scavenger Hunt post.  However there were a couple more that I didn't share yet.  

My friend, Melody, brought her baby boy over for photos on his 1-month birthday.  He was a little fussy so we didn't get as many as we would have liked, but we did get some sweet ones.  He's such a doll baby!

On March 1 I started a gluten-free eating plan to see if gluten is the cause of a few nagging symptoms that I always seem to deal with - allergies, headaches, etc.  So I have been spending more time in the kitchen experimenting with different recipes.  This particular day I created this berry dressing for on my salad.  It has some kick to it, but it is really good!

I spent a couple days at a conference at a local church, Friday Alex stayed home from school - even though they only had a half day - because he wasn't feeling well.  We had a Shrek movie marathon that afternoon/evening.  I was the last one standing when Shrek Forever After was finished.  :)  And Saturday evening was symphony night.  This time we dropped the boys at a friend's house and took Keira along.  She loved it and wants to go again next month.  The special guest is a violinist so I'm going to try to make that happen.

Oh, and on a totally unrelated note, the page views on my blog just exceeded 100,000!  How crazy is that!?!  I realize that I have a lot of repeat customers and for that I am grateful.  Thank you for your visits!  I really do appreciate each and every one!  Okay, I'm starting to sound like I'm writing an acceptance speech, so I'll end now.  :)

So that was my week in a nutshell.  Hope yours was a great one!

Linking with Tamar

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday 03.09.14

After falling off the Scavenger Hunt wagon for a week (due mainly to lack of motivation, winter blues, whatever), I am back this week.  I didn't pick my camera up a lot again this past week, but I am hoping to change that this coming week.  The sun is shining more, which is definitely helping rid those winter blues.  And even though I'm dragging a little today after springing the clocks ahead, I'm enjoying today's sunshine despite the chilly temps.  And looking forward to the warm up that is coming the next couple days.  C'mon spring!

Anyway, on to this week's finds ...

{mini}

He's not the mini-est babe I've ever photographed, but he is such a sweetie.  :)  His mom, who allowed me to photograph this little guy's birth in February, shared him with me last week for some 1-month-old pics.

{shoes}

I prefer little baby toes without shoes.  :)  I mean, look at that little dimple!

{mirror mirror}

After some playing around in Photoshop, I managed to use an old photo and make it into a mirror image.  It is cool and creepy at the same time, don'tcha think?

{shopping}

The only shopping I did this week was for some gluten free products to try.  I give two thumbs up to the pancake mix and bagel chips; one to the pizza crusts.  They are okay but not great.  I plan to try making my own as soon as I get some ingredients.

{just because}

I know I shared this photo in this post, but, as I said, I didn't pick my camera up much last week.  I did, however, try to capture the sunset every evening that we had one.  They are all so different.

Thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to visit Ashley for more great Scavenger Hunt photos!

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Our Sixth Week ~ 2014

Last week was one like none other.  (Of course, aren't they all?)  :)

I took pictures at a baby dedication on Sunday, spent the day at my church on Monday for craft day, hung out at the hospital photographing a labor/delivery on Tuesday, had the kids home on Wednesday due to school being cancelled (again!) because of snow, spent the day with Alex on Thursday because he wasn't feeling well, took Keira to her violin lesson and went to a PTO meeting Thursday afternoon/evening, on Friday took newborn photos and went bowling, watched Alex's soccer game Saturday morning and went to the symphony with Doug on Saturday night.  Whew!  No wonder I needed a nap Sunday afternoon!  :)

Our Pastor got to dedicate two babies on Sunday.  And they are cousins!  I loved seeing him holding two babies at one time.

Ted and Melody were loving on baby Emerson shortly after he was born.  Being involved in a labor/delivery was the coolest thing!  I hope I get to photograph more births.  Soon!  I shared another of Emerson's birth photos on Sunday's Scavenger Hunt post.  Can't share too many yet until mom and dad get to see them all.  :)

The sun was glistening off the newly fallen snow Thursday morning.  It was a beautiful sight!  If you'd like to see more of my latest winter photos, check out this post ... Winter Continues.

My friend, Jenn, brought baby Jonathan over on Friday afternoon so I could take some newborn photos of him.  He's such a doll baby!  Another photo shared of baby Jonathan in Sunday's Scavenger Hunt post.

My kids had a blast bowling on Friday night with our church family!

Looking back at all the photos posted here, I guess I was in a black and white mood this week.  :)

So that was my week.  What were you up to?

Linking with Tamar ...

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday 02.09.14

It's Scavenger Hunt time again!  This week's list was relatively easy, which was nice.  As much as I love playing along, I don't like getting stumped on prompts.  So let's get right to them ...

{looking up}

First off you get to see me being a dork.  :)

Keira took this photo of me while we were bowling with our church family on Friday night.  We had a blast!  Apparently things were looking up at this point of the night.  However, by the end of the evening, I realized that I was a bit rusty at bowling.  Guess we'll need to go more often.

{light}

Using the natural light from our big picture window, I took newborn photos of this sweet little guy on Friday.  He's only 9 days old in this photo.

{favorite mobile device}

No question about it, Keira's favorite mobile device is her Kindle.  She spends way too much time on it.  :)

{outside}

On Thursday, the day after the big snow/ice storm, Honey and I walked around outside to see what cool things we could find.  Like this frozen water drop.  More pictures from that day can be found here.

{inside}

On Tuesday, I spent the majority of my day inside a hospital awaiting the arrival of this sweet baby boy.  This was my first labor/delivery photo session and I loved it!  I hope to get the opportunity to do them again!

Well, that's it from me.  Be sure to visit Ashley to see more great Scavenger Hunt photos!  Make it a great week!

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I guess it was bound to happen ...

Last night I got home from a busy day of running.  Some friends (old and new) and I went to Kraynak's, a Christmas display and huge toy store, and Daffin's Candies (chocolate!!!!).  We also had too much food as we ate lunch at the Golden Corral.  I got home later than I had anticipated, got the kids in the car and ran some errands that needed done.  We got home around 7:30, did the usual homework and bedtime routine.  

Once the boys were tucked in, I did my normal Facebook check to see what had happened that day.  I noticed I had a few new 'likes' on my page, Kimberly Vensel Photography.  Sometimes when someone likes my page and I have no idea who they are, I will click on their name to see where they came from.  I'm curious that way.  :)

This one particular new fan had one of my photos posted as her cover photo.  Well, not exactly.  It had been altered, but it was definitely my photo.  My first reaction was anger.  I was fuming mad!  What?!  Who?!  Why?!  I noticed that one of her facebook friends was my niece and the photo that she had as her cover was a photo I took recently of my great-niece, this niece's one-year-old. 

After a little investigating, I discovered that she is the baby's other grandmother.  And that this same photo had been altered a couple times.  I contacted the mom (my niece) to find out if she knew anything about this.  She felt horrible about it, which she didn't need to, since she didn't know anything about it.  After some conversation, she said she'd contact the woman (the baby's father's mom) and tell her about it.

I debated how to handle this.  Stealing someone else's photo not only isn't cool, it is illegal.  After pondering whether to contact her directly or not, I opted to post a general blurb to my page.

Just a friendly reminder to all my awesome clients and their family/friends ... you may use one of my photos as your profile picture or cover photo, and you may tag them and share them, but please don't alter them in any way, by cropping or editing or removing my watermark. It is considered a copyright infringement and is frowned upon. Thank you for respecting your photographer.

And then I waited.  And fumed a little more.  And downloaded the photos that she had on her page that once were mine, but had been altered.  Badly.  Just wait until you see.

After about 30 minutes, she responded that she was sorry.  Her uncle had altered my photo and she would ask him not to do that anymore.  I responded by asking her to kindly remove the altered photo from her cover photo.  And I told her that if she wanted to use my original photo, she was welcome to, but that my watermark needed to be on it.  So she did.

Anyway, I thought I'd share the photos here so you could get a chuckle out of them the way I did.  Once I was done being angry about someone stealing my picture.  :)

Here's the original photo ...

Here's the photo that was in her cover on facebook.  Awful edit #1 ...

And after scrolling down her page to try to figure out who this person was and why she'd be using my photo as her cover, I came across awful edit #2 ...

Notice the hack job trying to remove my watermark.  Although I'm kinda glad he removed my watermark because I wouldn't want to claim either of these edits as mine.  :)

I'm sure this man meant well, and maybe wasn't aware that editing my photo was stealing.  Hopefully he won't do anything like this again.

I'm not posting this so you can bash on these people.  That won't be helpful.  Even if it is tempting.  :)  Just wanted to share so that you can be aware that stuff like this happens.  And you can chuckle at awful editing jobs.  :)

Sharing this for Project 52 since I took the original photo of Bella on Veteran's Day.

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