Highlights from some recent sessions ...

August, September, and October were pretty busy months.  I was hopping!  Between photo sessions, being a wife and mom and all that those titles entail, raising a boatload of Monarch butterflies, volunteering at my church, being PTO Treasurer (still), etc. etc., I didn't take much time to blog.  So now I thought I would share an image or two from the sessions that were keeping me up late into the night editing until my eyeballs bled.  (Not really, but sometimes it felt like it.)  :)

(I shared some peeks back in September if you want to check them out also.  This post includes the ones that happened after those.) 

There was Zac ...

And Evan ...

And Paige ...

My lovely sister-in-law and my nieces ...

The whole B family ...

which even included a couple dogs ...

A baby bump ...

And an adorable big sister ...

My friend, Jen, and her two kids ... 

A 35th wedding anniversary celebration ...

And last, but not least, a family that I have had the pleasure of photographing a couple times before ...

Things are slowing down now that the colder weather is upon us.  Though I am hoping to do some snow sessions again this year.  They were a blast last year!

As this year winds down I can't help but feel truly blessed by all of the great folks who entrusted me to capture their memories for them.  Some were friends or family but many were people I didn't know who were referred to me, which is really a great compliment.  

I plan to spend my "slow" season doing some DSLR teaching, editing my personal pictures, and learning more about Lightroom and Photoshop.  And just spending time with my family who has been so (mostly) patient with me during this time of growth.  Oh, and finally updating this ol' blog.


In case you are interested, here are a couple other places you can find me:
My website:  Kimberly Vensel Photography
My Facebook page:  Kimberly Vensel Photography

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This and That

My days have been filled with shooting, editing, and butterfly rearing lately.  God has really blessed me in those areas which has left little time for blogging.  But I thought I'd pop in for a moment to share a few pics.  Okay, maybe more than a few.  :)

August consisted of:

A lot of this ...

And this ...

And this ...

And lots of this ...

And let's not forget my lovely assistant on several occasions ...

But August wasn't ALL work.  We did squeeze some family fun in too.

We spent a day at Idlewild.  Nick is missing from this pic because he refuses to ride the Loggin' Toboggin.  :)

We visited our local farm show and the kids rode some more.

The kids and I visited a new-to-us state park.  We hiked and swam and explored.  It was a great day!

Keira and I finally donated our hair.  We each got 10 inches chopped off!

The kids went back to school on August 27.  I will share their back-to-school photos another time.  You're welcome.  :)

Then September came.  Which brought with it this beautiful baby girl ...



And these lovely teens ...


And most recently, this polite young man ...


I have four more sessions scheduled this month.  On top of planning a 16th birthday party, helping with children's ministries, and PTO.  And let's not forget homework with the kids, the never-ending piles of laundry, keeping the house somewhat presentable, trying to spend at least 5 minutes here and there with my sweet husband, and making dinner most nights.  Why is it my kids think they need to eat supper every. single. day?!  

I think maybe I'll sleep next year.  :)

Despite all that, we are trying to squeeze in at least a little fun this month.

Alex was excited to be old enough for the Young Eagles plane rides this year.  He looks so small in that plane!


The kids have next Friday off of school, so we are hoping for nice weather so we can do some more hiking/exploring at a nearby park.

We also had more of this ...

Let me know if you see her (or any of the others I have tagged - TLA 175 - 183 so far).


My last caterpillar got into its J form yesterday ...

And went into chrysalis today - shortly after this handsome male emerged from his chrysalis.


I'm sad to see this year end, but it has been a remarkable year!  If the last four make it to adulthood, I will have raised 156 Monarchs this year!  WOW!  156 miracles happened right here in my office over the past 3 months!  Praise God!  Planning for an even better year next year, God willing!

Lastly, Keira is taking a photography/graphics art class this year as an elective (which makes this mama very happy) and needed to create a collage.  She chose to do a butterfly collage.


Isn't it spectacular?!  All of the photos are mine except for the white dots around the edges.  Apparently I don't have any photos of white butterflies.  :)  The only requirement for the project was that she included at least one photo of herself.

The template was cut out using the Silhouette machine - each wing section is about 10 inches.  She cut each photo out and placed it all on a black foam board.  Once it was all stuck down, she cut around it with an exacto knife.  Needless to say her teacher was impressed.  :)

Well, I need to get back to editing.  I hope to blog more about each session and my Monarch journey this summer soon.  Hope you are having a great day!

Linking with Kim today ...

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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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Michael ~ One Year Old

This sweet little guy turned one recently.  He's not your typical one year old.  His grandmother, who asked me to do his pictures, said he may have cerebral palsy.  He was to visit the doctor soon after his session.

He was such a sweetheart.  And even though I couldn't get a smile out of him, I really enjoyed our time together.  Here are just a few shots from his session ...

He wasn't able to sit up by himself so his grandmother held him up.  Which required lots of editing - not something I'm used to.  But it was worth it to get her a photo of him on a hay bale - something she wanted.

He was fascinated by the hay bale.  He kept pulling strands out and examining it.  Then he'd drop that and grab another.  It was fun to see the wonder of something new through his eyes.

We didn't get to do all that I had planned for his session because he decided to take a nap.  Must be nice.  :)

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