Better Late than Never

I realized that I never shared the gorgeous photos that Melissa of Melissa Bliss Photography took of our family this summer while on vacation.  I have been a huge fan of Melissa's for a while now - following her blog and her Facebook page - so when we decided to vacation at Sandbridge Beach, Virginia this past June, I contacted her to see if there was any chance she was available to do a session with us.  When she said she was available, I was super excited!  I mean, since this was our first big family vacation EVER, we NEEDED to document it with professional photos, right?  :)

So while I sit here on this cold, gray day in front of my space heater dreaming of summer heat and butterflies, let's take a look at some of my favorites, shall we?

This is now a huge canvas waiting to be hung on my living room wall.

This one is going on our Christmas cards this year.

And my absolute favorite ...

Another huge canvas waiting to be hung.  (I want to do some painting before I hang them, in case you were wondering).  :)

I am so grateful to Melissa for coming to hang out with my crazy crew!  And glad that I finally got to meet her in person!

(Just a note that I added the watermarks on the photos for her protection.  They are not her usual gorgeous watermark - just a quick text addition).

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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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Project 52 - Week 51

Last week had so much crammed into it, it seems like it lasted a month!  Is that possible?  :)  I mean, our church's Christmas play was just last Sunday but now that feels so long ago.

Anyway, just days before Christmas and not one gift is wrapped.  Maybe today I'll get a few done.  If not, they just won't be wrapped this year.  I'm not fretting about it.  Keira and I want to make some cookies.  Mainly to give as gifts to family.  And because they are fun to make.  And eat.  :)

But enough about that.  Let me show you a few photos from our week ...

Sunday morning was our Christmas play, The Legend of the Candy Cane.  The folks in this photo were the masterminds behind the whole thing so it seemed fitting that they get their picture taken in Mr. Sweets' candy shop.

Sunday afternoon I had a mini snowy session with this lovely couple.  It was COLD!  But we still had a good time.  And I discovered how fun it is to do photo sessions in the winter.  I hope I get to do more!  (Her eyes are so gorgeous, don't you think?!)

My boys crack me up.  We bought new Santa hats this year since our old one had seen better days.  The boys agreed to let me snap a few shots of them together.  I don't really know what they are doing here, but I'm sure they are up to no good.  :)

On Wednesday afternoon I had another mini snowy session with this family.  When Rachel contacted me, she said she wanted a "fun" session so I did my best to deliver.  This idea isn't mine originally.  Sarah did something similar during her Christmas minis and posted a photo to Facebook.  As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to try it too.

During our Wednesday night Children's program we had a Christmas party for the kids, which included a White Elephant gift exchange.  Only the kids didn't bring gifts; we provided them.  Things like old dish cloths, stale bread, last year's phone book, and old muddy boots were among the "gifts".  Most of the kids got a good laugh out of it.  Like Sarah who got a kick out of her old dish cloth.

On Friday afternoon I helped at the Christmas party in Nick's classroom.  One of the games the kids played was a dress up one of your teammates game.  Nick's team won.  They had to dress Clayton up like a Christmas tree.  The other teams were a snowman, a gift, and a reindeer.

Keira loves to bake.  Another great thing about having a teenager in the house.  If I need something made and don't have time, I can typically ask her to do it and she does.  So I gladly returned the favor.  I helped her make cookies to take to her youth group sleepover Friday night.  She needed help getting the Kisses unwrapped and placed once the cookies came out of the oven.


We had a family date on Saturday at the Carnegie Science Center.  The kids had a great time in the sports center.  Keira and Nick kept going on the BOYO.  It was like a human yo-yo machine.  FUN!  We also sprinted against each other and rode in the roller coaster simulator.  It was a great day!

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The Ellenberger Family

After trying for months, we finally got together last month to photograph my friend Nikki's family.  When she asked me to do them, I was excited and, I will admit, a bit nervous.  We have been friends for years and I put some pressure on myself to not disappoint.  We looked through them together when I delivered them and picked out our favorites and discussed some things we may have done differently.  This is still a learning process for me and I love walking away with some additional knowledge that I can apply the next time.  

Anyway, here are a few shots from their session taken at a local college campus ...

Those eyes!  :)

Keira was my assistant and we experimented with some different posing.  I think this was one of her ideas.

When I do sessions at the college, we always end up in the big field by my favorite tree.  It is so pretty in the fall.

Thank you, Nikki, for the honor of photographing your family!

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday 10.27.13

Chilly weather has set in here in Western Pennsylvania and we even saw our first snow flakes this week.  I must admit I'm not ready for snow yet.  So I chose to stay indoors and keep warm while it was snowing instead of venturing out with my camera.  However Alex, Honey, and I did venture out one day this week and go for a short walk around the area.  (It wasn't snowing that day).  :)  I don't want to completely miss autumn because of busyness.

Anyway, on to the Scavenger Hunt ...

{change}

One of the things we saw on our walk was the neighbor's tree in the process of change from green to red.

{your mood today}

This is an outtake from a session with my sister-in-law and her two girls from last month.  Christi was apparently getting tired of having her picture taken.  :)  While I'm not really in a bad mood today, I am tired from going going going, and kinda feel like this lately when asked to do something.

{dark}

If you happen to be a fan of my facebook page, you already saw this.  If not, here's a link to my page.  (Kimberly Vensel Photography) I'd love for you to go give me a "like".  :)
During a senior photo session with Kourtney yesterday, one of the places we went to was an old train tunnel which is now part of the rails-to-trails bike trails in PA.  Normally I am drawn to light for photos and would not consider going into a dark tunnel to take pictures.  But we decided to give it a try and I'm glad we did.  I had my kids shine their flashlights on the back of Kourtney's head and this is the result.

{welcome}

Any kind of rainbow in the sky, like this sun dog, is always a welcome sight.  This was the second one we saw on this particular day.  I didn't get my camera out in time to capture the first one.  So God blessed me with another chance.

{depth of field}

Depth of field is something I love to play around with.  Experimenting with narrow DOF to deep.  And seeing what a difference it makes.

So that's it for me.  Gotta get back to processing more photos from the sessions I did recently.  Thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to visit Ashley for more great Scavenger Hunt finds if you haven't already.

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