She's a REAL plane!

Wahoo! March 26th, 2009 ... Peter and Steve completed the 40 hour fly-off test phase! This means that Steve's RV7 has become a real plane. She's no longer restricted to the 50 mile designated test area and can now accept passengers! And yes ... I was the honored prima passenger!

Peter is an amazing pilot and was very gentle with my first small aircraft experience. It was absolutely incredible ... smooth, gentle, purrrrrfect ... soaring above our home and seeing Port Townsend from a completely different perspective. I followed the familiar roads and mentally logged them into their appropriate slots as the larger picture became much clearer than it ever was from the road. The white steam plume of the Port Townsend paper mill serves as a quick and easy marker from miles away, the San Juan Islands appear as gentle rich green mounds scattered in the deep blue waters, a light dust of snow sharpens the cliffs and craters in the Olympic Mountains, the thick dramatic clouds in the distance promise a Pacific Northwest shower is on the way ... mostly overcast with very little wind, it was the perfect day for a first flight. Now I understand why the boys have been pushing so hard to get her completed these past 2 1/2 years ... I will be taking my camera next time but I'm afraid it wont capture but a fraction of the awesomeness.

Steve's RV7 is equipped with seat warmers (wahoo!) and an incredible display of electronic equipment and doohickeys that light up and apparently produce all and any information a pilot could ever need. You can fly the plane from either side of the plane ... Peter prefers to fly from the right side because it's familiar to his military days. Peter showed me the speed and altitude numbers, and a brief glance at the GPS system ... However my eyes kept bouncing back to the FAA required sticker that reads "Passenger Warning- THIS AIRCRAFT IS AMATEUR-BUILT AND DOES NOT COMPLY WITH THE FEDERAL SAFETY REGULATIONS FOR STANDARD AIRCRAFT." It only made me grin proudly to think wow ... they built this in a garage and it works! (okay, proudly and with just a pinch of nervousness)

Lynn, Peter's wife, was the second honored passenger and from the brilliant smile on her face before take-off, it was obvious this wasn't her first time in a small experimental plane. When they returned, the boys put her back in the hangar and we celebrated with champagne and strawberries (thank you Lynn).

Kudos to Steve and Peter ... there are not many people in the whole wide world that can claim such an amazing accomplishment!

Renee's Birthday

What more could you want for your birthday than to have your mom and sister to come over and hang with the girls while you finish unpacking from your latest move? (same address ... just bigger rooms) That, and the opportunity to take an uninterrupted full shower followed by dinner at the Vegan Vegetarian Teahouse! Okay, so the vegetarian food was more for Rochelle and myself ...

Little Miss Ayana is teething again. It looks as though she will have a full set of teeth before the end of the year! (not really) Poor little gal is 80% miserable /20% cheery. I believe she is getting #7, #8 and #9? Her bright pink cheeks, runny nose and slobbery kisses will hopefully let up by next week and then maybe they'll all get just a wee bit more sleep ...

Sweet little Naira is staying awake for longer periods of time and checking out all the new sights and sounds. Renee' said her last doctor's visit put her at 8lbs 11 oz. All signs healthy and good! Her eyes are still a smokey greyish green and seem to be changing every time I see her.

Digital Stock Photography Push

Hooray! We've already had one sale from the "North Carolina group stock photos"! Family Genealogy starring our one and only Jane was purchased last week. The buyer searched for the words "wall photos" and decided this one was just the one they wanted! Thank you again to my wonderful family members that tolerated the constant flash and click of my camera throughout my visit! I'm anticipating great success with the latest batch upload and am hopeful that you'll allow me to get some more fantastic shots of all of you next week when Dad and I visit?

The online digital stock photography business is a slow but steady process and so far (knocking on wood) seems to be holding it's own during our distressed economy. Though I take hundreds and hundreds of photographs on a regular basis only a small percentage of them go to commercial stock.

Hmm ... you might be wondering how I choose which ones will be submitted to my agency????

• Broad Market Value - Can this photo be used for many different concepts? A happy couple sells just about anything ... but there are also a LOT of happy couple photos already on the market... tough call. A happy couple holding money ... now that might give the photo the extra touch that a commercial buyer is looking for. A happy interracial couple holding money ... that proves promising.


• Specialty Market Value - Hmm, close-up firefighter images in the middle of a blaze are a "hot" item and the competition is minimal. Firefighters are universal and represent many broad subjects such as security, safety, insurance, danger, professions, teamwork, physical challenges, etc ... that proves golden.


• Excellent Quality - Focus, color, clarity, composition, noise, artifacts, etc. all must be top notch! All photos are reviewed at 100% magnification and any photos with flaws are ruthlessly weeded out.


• Minimal Post Editing - Will I need to spend hours cloning out logos on shirts and baseball caps, or background details that might violate copyright laws? If the photo is incredibly fantastic, it might be worth hours of editing ... otherwise it will cost me more money in post processing time than the image will probably make.

Once I've edited, uploaded and key worded selected photos the rest will be up to the agency editors. They may or may not accept the photo based on certain criteria. The whole process can take weeks just to get the photos online. Once they are online, I keep my fingers crossed and hope that the photos stimulate interest in prospective buyers. It's also very important that I've key worded the images correctly. If a buyer can't find it in a search ... they can't buy it.

It takes many sales to make a photo profitable. The more popular a photograph becomes (the more sales), the more money it generates as it "levels up". For example, my number one seller (posted below) is of a group of firefighters in front of a roaring blaze (119 sales to date) and it's currently a "level 5". When it was a "level 1" it would only cost 3 credits to purchase an Extra large Royalty Free license, now it costs 13 credits for the same sale. And it keeps on selling ... If I can get my portfollio filled with "level 5" images like this one, Steve and I can retire (almost)! Wahoo!


© Photographer: Crystalcraig
Agency: Dreamstime.com

What's the "Push" all about??? Well ... my portfolio is currently at 253 photos and I'm hoping to double that by September 1st. That's 161 days and counting! Wish me luck and say cheese please. Thanks!

The Week After

The week after Naiara was born, the three girls (Renee', Ayana and Naiara) were able to stay with Steve and I in our Port Townsend home. The goal was to give Renee' a little head start on recovery and help her with the little ones. I seriously had forgotten how exhausting babies can be!

Little Ayana was teething most of the week (one molar and two kanines) ... so she had a little bit of a rough time and wasn't super interested in completing her meals. Of course, that made our dog very happy, as she was given permission to clean up whatever Ayana left behind. And of course, that was entirely entertaining for Yana.

Steve kept himself fairly busy elsewhere most of the time, but when he was around, he and Ayana kept eachother very entertained. At one point (and I wish I weren't too tired to have gotten my camera out for this), Steve and Ayana sat on the couch for nearly 45 minutes shredding a magazine and sticking the little paper pieces to one another.

Baby Naiara developed a little bit of newborn jaundice around day four. We googled as much as we could on the subject and decided it was mild enough to wait until their scheduled doctor's appointment the following week. Ironically, most of the newborn blankets and fabric coverings were pale yellow (Naiara's theme is Giraffes) ... so we kept taking her to the natural window light to be sure it wasn't getting any worse.

Renee' did fantastic with her recovery and healing has been much better and quicker this time from the c-section. She hardly looks like she could be a mom of two!

I tried very hard to get "Sibling Portraits" but the best we could do ended up being very comedic and memorable all in itself. There was just no way we could keep Ayana from wanting to clobber her sister.

Arlyn and Rochelle were able to make it over for Ayana's first birthday. She sure liked the tissue wrapping paper, the birthday song, and ... of course, the cake!

Happy Birthday Ayana!

Can you believe Ayana is One-year-old??!!

Great Grandparents!

While the girls were staying with us in Port Townsend, my parents were able to make a visit and meet their newest great grand daughter! I really wish I had the camera ready when Dad took off his legs to show us his two different prosthetic feet (apparently his prosthetic dude at the hospital has a sense of humor) ... Ayana found it all quite interesting.

Ayana very much enjoys being read to and can sit through the same book several times in a row before she finally gets bored. Obviously, her Great Grandma is a hit!




This was the first time my parents were actually able to make it over to our home in Port Townsend, so it was an especially wonderful treat.

At the Hospital

Here we are at the Hospital awaiting the arrival of little Naiara ... It's sometime after 8am, and everything is going as scheduled.

Ayana is cuddling with her mom at the hospital before the operation ... she knows something is going on and she isn't sure she's all that excited about it. Her Auntie Rochelle is going to keep her company while Grandma (that's me!) and her Mom are in the operating room.

Renee', in surgical blue, moments before she will get to meet her second daughter face-to-face! The doctors were fabulous in letting me have my camera in the room throughout the procedure. (So long as the photographs weren't to show up on the Discovery Channel).

Tada! Here she is ... arms open wide and ready for the world! Beautiful baby Naiara (pronounced N-I-ar-uh), born on the 23rd of February via scheduled c-section. I am so blessed to have been able to be in the operating room during the births of both my grand daughters!

All fingers and toes accounted for, and perfectly proportioned. She was ready to start nursing within 10 minutes after being born!
Little miss Ayana has become a big sister, ready-or-not! She is a little hesitant at the hospital and shies away from her mom and new little sister, but it's to be expected and we know that given time they will become the very best of friends.

Just like their Mom and Aunt!