Wish I Could Be There With You...

For my husband:

This time it's a little harder than it usually is. This time, you're in my old stomping grounds, and I'm not there to share it with you. You floated in through the Gate, underneath that great golden bridge, and into the Bay where I spent some of the most formative years of my life. But I wasn't there to see it. You sailed right past my old home where I had so many different experiences - being in a major earthquake, watching my dad sail by on his way to sea and Somalia, and much more ... but today I wasn't there to wave as you passed.

And when you tied up at the pier, just a few streets down from my favorite place to go as a kid, I wasn't there to greet you.

Many others will get to see you; they will walk around with you inside your ship, see the inner workings of where you spend most of your waking hours, and learn about the day-to-day life of a Navy Sailor. But I won't be in the crowd listening to you speak.

I will be here at home, doing what I do. Loving you, praying for you, taking care of the kids and house, and waiting for you to come home. And wishing I could be there with you...

Sketchy

Sketchy
Originally uploaded by FlyButtafly

This was done at one of those "photobooths" at Chuck E. Cheese's. It's my hubby and me. (He's so hawt.)

I just had to share this old Chuck E. Cheese training video which Todd so kindly directed me to. Kinda scary, but interesting nonetheless. I have to imagine the approach is a little different nowadays.

Gone all Friends & Family

Yep, I've decided to completely turn all photos of my kids on flickr, to friends/family only. :( Unfortunately, hundreds of stolen-from-flickr photos of kids are showing up in various places 'round the net, most notably on Orkut (google's own social-networking site) and also on MySpace. I'm not as popular as some of the other people who've had photos stolen, but there's also some new to flickr who've had photos taken. The majority of my kids' photos have been f/f for a while now, mostly to protect them from viewing by less-than-savory people, but I've shared some of them with the public; not anymore. To be honest, I'd been considering it anyway. Some of them had showed up in Explore, and been extremely popular - and ended up being misused and reposted by people pulling them through the API. Even though I've had downloading turned off for non-contacts, and 3rd-party API searches turned off, direct feeds were still pulling them and occasionally I'd find them on some odd site I never heard of before. I got major crap from one person after I asked him to remove my photos and let him know he was violating many of the API's TOS, so from now on, I just share with those I trust. Sad, but what else can I do?

Aye, Even Flickr Talks Like the Brethren...

Aye, Even Flickr Talks Like the Brethren...
Originally uploaded by Look alive swabs! 'Tis FlyButtafly!

Arr! Ahoy scallywags, swabs, and bilge rats - it be International Talk Like a Pirate Day this very day! Aye, all ye scupperly dogs and lubbers watch out or ye might find yersel' keelhauled or kissing the gunner's daughter... if ye're lucky!

Yay! Good News!

Self-Portrait
Originally uploaded by FlyButtafly

I haven't taken any new SPs for a while, so I decided to use this one from a while ago to share my fun news. :)

When I joined flickr almost three years ago, I would never have expected to be where I am now, as far as photography is concerned. I only joined because I had just started a blog, (sadly not updated very often nowadays - too much time on flickr ;) and it said I could post my photos from flickr to the blog. It didn't take long till I was hooked, and then a few months later I got my first digital camera. Then I learned about Camera Tossing, and posted my very first attempt. It was one of my most popular images on flickr ever - still is in fact - and it was my very first paid-for published photo. (I was interviewed for and it was published in a story about camera tossing in the Washington Post.)

I was also contacted by Jim Dever of Evening Magazine (a local entertainment/news show), to do a segment on my camera tossing. That was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I don't have the video (so kindly recorded for me by KnowWonNose) uploaded anywhere on the 'net - maybe when flickr goes video. ;)

I've also licensed 8 different images for use on ExperienceWA.com, Washington State's tourism website.

And now, I'm gearing up (literally - I have some serious gear to buy) for a wedding this winter! My sister's best friend has asked me to shoot her wedding this December. This will be the first time I've been hired to do photography, and I am so excited. I've long wanted to do photography professionally, and I'm slowly, finally, seeing my dream come to fruition.

Of course, I had to decide on a name for my business, if in fact I wanted to have a business. I wracked my brain, trying to come up with something memorable, pretty, and representative of me in some way. And something that wasn't already in use, obviously. I originally was thinking something like DownyThistle Imagery - I love thistles; the color, the way they look, and they represent my Scottish heritage. But it just didn't seem quite right. Well, one morning, I was driving home from taking my husband to work, and I saw the mist from the Snohomish River hanging in the air over the water and the nearby strawberry fields. Strawberries are a big crop where I live. (I have yet to find a suitable place to pull off I-5 and take a photo of the magical sight; but I'm determined one of these days, before the clouds set in for the next 7 mos., to do so.) As I looked at the scene before me, the name StrawberryMist Photography came to me. So I've decided to go with it.

Of course, without my husband's support and patience, and my kids' tolerance of my camera constantly in their faces, I'd never have gotten this far.

But now, who knows where I'll go from here? :)