Jenny, there are lots of options for you. As others have advised, try out something if you can, and talk to the folks at CLC and Pygmy for their advice. Here's my 2-cents worth.

I've built and paddled the 17' Arctic Tern; a 5'3", slightly heavier than you family member has used it also. It fits me (5'6') better than her. It is a terrifically manueverable kayak, and the new 14ft would be even more so, and probably a good fit for your ht/wt. BUT, I personally would not pick it for photography and such. It is reasonably stable, but doesn't give the kind of stability I would want for that purpose. Depending on other things you want in the kayak, you might want to consider a CLC Mill Creek. The first kayak I built was the 13 foot Mill Creek. I am very fond of it. I find it nicely manueverable because of its short length. But it is also rock-solid in stability--no doubt due to the flat rather than multi-chine or V bottom, plus a generous 29" or so beam. Twisting, turning, reaching around inside the cockpit, etc, simply isn't much of a concern in the Mill Creek. Another plus is that the Mill Creek has a large, very open cockpit. I can keep gear in the front, between my knees, and have it readily and easily accessible (the gear includes cameras and lenses in my case). And since I built mine, CLC has come out with a 15 footer that sounds better (faster, slightly narrower and easier to paddle, but still offering exceptional stability and good gear accessibility). Still, the Mill Creek is not a touring kayak, and if you want to do double-duty of that kind (i.e., long distance capability, closed off with a spray skirt, loaded with touring gear, etc), it would not be your craft. You should then consider an Osprey (perhaps the std), a Chesie, or a Coho or a Tern. Another thing to consider if you go for a touring kayak is that you can always put a rudder on something like a Chesie 16, or a Coho or even the Osprey std and get exceptional manueverability that way. It's not the purist's approach (all are very good withhout rudders), but you should do what works best for how you are using it. A rudder would let you stick with a regular length touring kayak (many of which should fit someone your height) and still turn on a dime. My thought would be that if you want some of the features of a touring kayak, you might want to try to stay in the regular lengths, rather than the shorties. Whatever you pick, though, you'll have a great time building and paddling it!