I started doing Time Capsule Events in my local area as an opportunity to educate mommies and mommies-to-be on the importance of documenting their little ones from the womb and beyond. I am extremely passionate about this topic, as I had the unfortunate experience of dealing with the ramifications of my house catching on fire while I was in the hospital having my son. I was all out of sorts having to spend my first night out of the hospital in a hotel, and that was in addition to the typical stress of being a new parent. I was uprooted from my home for a total of five months, and lived in a construction zone for the following three.
As a professional filmmaker, I am pretty devastated that I was unable to capture any of my son's early moments with my professional gear, but what is even more disappointing is that I didn't do more with the tools I did have at my disposal throughout our various temporary housing situations. And it's because of these reasons I like to help parents feel more confident in capturing their little ones as well as give them a small gift for attending my event, hoping to inspire them to continue to do even more on their own.
During our time together at the event, I spend the first part discussing why it's so important to capture milestones and which milestones are important to capture. I talk about the benefits of having my own baby book as a reference to use with my son and his development. In addition, I talk about how my son will benefit in the future from the documenting I am currently doing. I spend the next part of our time discussing tips and tricks for filming and documenting their little ones. I talk about many of the things discussed in my earlier blog posts, as well as help them with issues they may currently have with the tools that they are using.
The final part of the event consists of my attendees writing a letter to their children for a special event in the future. I then film the attendees reading this letter to their child and get some great shots of them interacting with their baby. I also get some footage of the letter itself in order to capture the emotion that can only be expressed in one's handwriting. Within the week following the event, I edit it together with some photos that they provide me to create a mini time capsule.
If you currently are in the Los Angeles area and are interested in attending one of my events or hosting one, please contact me. If you are not local, you can check out my next blog post on how you can host your own time capsule event in your town.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Editing tips...Part II
As promised, here are some more technical tips for editing. First off, if you're gotten as far as pulling all your clips and putting them into a cohesive story, congratulations! It's a big deal to even make it this far. If you want to make your videos look even more professional, read on...
So your clips are either in chronological order or grouped together by types of milestones, now it's time to tweak the video it and make it look even better. In my last post about editing, I recommended not using clips more than 20 seconds long, so you may have some clips of the same event right next to each other and it feels kind of jumpy going from one shot to the next. Putting in a transition, like a cross dissolve, may help. But if you're cutting from one perspective to just a bit of time later from the same perspective, then your clips will still look a bit jumpy, even with a cross dissolve. If you can cut away from the same perspective, even if the true passage of time is altered, it will look better to a viewer. For example, you can cut away from the front perspective to the side perspective, and then back to the front perspective again. In my filming tips I recommended shooting events from different distances and from different angles and the camera movement could be edited out.
Hopefully you have the option of cutting to shots from different perspectives. Now it's important to make the cut on an action. If you look at some of my sample videos, you'll gain a better understanding of what I mean. In my Video Baby Books Sampler at 1:22 you'll see I cut when his hand was hitting the table from the front perspective to the side perspective, so it almost looks like I shot this with two different cameras at the same time. It was two different shots, but when cut it together on the action, it looks seamless. Another example is in the First Haircut Video, at 1:23 I cut with the "cut" of her scissors from a wide shot to a tight shot. Because I edited from a wide shot to a tight shot, it's hard to tell that they were shot at a different time, continuity isn't an issue.
Another thing you want to take into account is the use of music and cutting on the beats of the music. Sometimes you'll have a great edit that cuts on the action, but once you put a soundtrack to the video, it just doesn't feel as nice. The music should enhance your story, not detract from it. When you're doing a montage with all different clips, it's easier to edit your clips to the music. Just make sure that you have the best part of the clip still in the edit after you've tweaked your cuts to the music. You may have to start the clips a bit earlier or a bit later.
In terms of putting clips together, you want to feel like your story is moving forwards. You don't want to have too many similar clips one after another. I have the benefit of being able to shoot in true slow motion HD on my Sony FS100. If you're using a high quality editing software, you should be able to manipulate the passage of time in your clips. However, when you make a clip slow motion, it will look a bit jumpy because the frames "between" the frames do not exist. More specifically, if you shoot something at 30fps (typical digital frame rate in North America) and then play it back at 15fps, then every other frame will be missing. If you're camera has the ability to shoot slow motion, it is actually filming twice as fast so that when you play back at normal speed, it looks slow motion.
I hope this information is helpful. Remember, you can always take a stab at it yourself and then bring in an expert if it becomes too overwhelming. I am available to help with editing remotely as well. Be sure to check out my other blog posts for other tips on creating your own video baby books or take a look at some video baby books I've created on my site.
So your clips are either in chronological order or grouped together by types of milestones, now it's time to tweak the video it and make it look even better. In my last post about editing, I recommended not using clips more than 20 seconds long, so you may have some clips of the same event right next to each other and it feels kind of jumpy going from one shot to the next. Putting in a transition, like a cross dissolve, may help. But if you're cutting from one perspective to just a bit of time later from the same perspective, then your clips will still look a bit jumpy, even with a cross dissolve. If you can cut away from the same perspective, even if the true passage of time is altered, it will look better to a viewer. For example, you can cut away from the front perspective to the side perspective, and then back to the front perspective again. In my filming tips I recommended shooting events from different distances and from different angles and the camera movement could be edited out.
Hopefully you have the option of cutting to shots from different perspectives. Now it's important to make the cut on an action. If you look at some of my sample videos, you'll gain a better understanding of what I mean. In my Video Baby Books Sampler at 1:22 you'll see I cut when his hand was hitting the table from the front perspective to the side perspective, so it almost looks like I shot this with two different cameras at the same time. It was two different shots, but when cut it together on the action, it looks seamless. Another example is in the First Haircut Video, at 1:23 I cut with the "cut" of her scissors from a wide shot to a tight shot. Because I edited from a wide shot to a tight shot, it's hard to tell that they were shot at a different time, continuity isn't an issue.
Another thing you want to take into account is the use of music and cutting on the beats of the music. Sometimes you'll have a great edit that cuts on the action, but once you put a soundtrack to the video, it just doesn't feel as nice. The music should enhance your story, not detract from it. When you're doing a montage with all different clips, it's easier to edit your clips to the music. Just make sure that you have the best part of the clip still in the edit after you've tweaked your cuts to the music. You may have to start the clips a bit earlier or a bit later.
In terms of putting clips together, you want to feel like your story is moving forwards. You don't want to have too many similar clips one after another. I have the benefit of being able to shoot in true slow motion HD on my Sony FS100. If you're using a high quality editing software, you should be able to manipulate the passage of time in your clips. However, when you make a clip slow motion, it will look a bit jumpy because the frames "between" the frames do not exist. More specifically, if you shoot something at 30fps (typical digital frame rate in North America) and then play it back at 15fps, then every other frame will be missing. If you're camera has the ability to shoot slow motion, it is actually filming twice as fast so that when you play back at normal speed, it looks slow motion.
I hope this information is helpful. Remember, you can always take a stab at it yourself and then bring in an expert if it becomes too overwhelming. I am available to help with editing remotely as well. Be sure to check out my other blog posts for other tips on creating your own video baby books or take a look at some video baby books I've created on my site.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Looking forward is great, but slow down, there will be a last time for everything
Last night I had the pleasure of giving a Time Capsule Event for a lovely group of mommies. During my educational presentation while I was talking about milestones and looking forward to the next ones our babies will accomplish, I started to think about the converse...things he's doing now won't last forever, there will be a last time for everything. Although slightly off topic from my usual posts, I thought I'd share some of these things with you in the hopes that you'll cherish each and everything just a little bit more.
Of course I'm looking forward to when my son can put himself to sleep and finally sleep through the night, but that means he'll no longer need me to nurse him back to sleep. There already was a last time we co-slept in his swaddle. Soon there will be a last time he latches on and falls asleep on me.
I am looking forward to when my son can bathe himself. But that means I'll no longer get to watch him experience the simple joy in playing the water after his bath has finished. There already was a last time he bathed in the little bathtub sitting over the sink. Soon there will be a last time he sticks his head under the running water and giggles at how it feels.
It will be nice when my son will be able to feed himself, but that means we'll no longer be able to make him do "tricks" for food. Right now he makes the cutest impression of a monkey when he wants to eat his baked peas from Trader Joe's. He already doesn't need me to make all of his food pureed, but pretty soon there will be a last time when he will no use his chubby little finger to point to the different things he wants to eat off of my plate.
It sure will be less worrisome when my son stops tripping and falling almost every time he gets excited and runs, but that means he'll no longer need me to pick him back up again and kiss his boo-boos. He already walks ahead of me at the park and goes to the different equipment he wants to play on. Pretty soon he won't look for my hand to grab to help him go up steps, and there will be a last time when he will want to sit on my lap to go down the big kid slide.
There will be a last time when he will allow me to kiss him in public, there will be a last time when he signs "Momma" or "Dadda" with such a sparkle in his eyes, there will come a time when he will no longer think of my husband and I as his entire universe. I know that we gave him life so that he will have a life. But I really want to look at all of the things he's doing right now, both difficult and wonderful, and cherish them just a little bit more, because there will be a last time for everything.
Take the time to capture everything. For more ideas go to videobabybooks.com or check out previous posts in my blog.
Of course I'm looking forward to when my son can put himself to sleep and finally sleep through the night, but that means he'll no longer need me to nurse him back to sleep. There already was a last time we co-slept in his swaddle. Soon there will be a last time he latches on and falls asleep on me.
I am looking forward to when my son can bathe himself. But that means I'll no longer get to watch him experience the simple joy in playing the water after his bath has finished. There already was a last time he bathed in the little bathtub sitting over the sink. Soon there will be a last time he sticks his head under the running water and giggles at how it feels.
It will be nice when my son will be able to feed himself, but that means we'll no longer be able to make him do "tricks" for food. Right now he makes the cutest impression of a monkey when he wants to eat his baked peas from Trader Joe's. He already doesn't need me to make all of his food pureed, but pretty soon there will be a last time when he will no use his chubby little finger to point to the different things he wants to eat off of my plate.
It sure will be less worrisome when my son stops tripping and falling almost every time he gets excited and runs, but that means he'll no longer need me to pick him back up again and kiss his boo-boos. He already walks ahead of me at the park and goes to the different equipment he wants to play on. Pretty soon he won't look for my hand to grab to help him go up steps, and there will be a last time when he will want to sit on my lap to go down the big kid slide.
There will be a last time when he will allow me to kiss him in public, there will be a last time when he signs "Momma" or "Dadda" with such a sparkle in his eyes, there will come a time when he will no longer think of my husband and I as his entire universe. I know that we gave him life so that he will have a life. But I really want to look at all of the things he's doing right now, both difficult and wonderful, and cherish them just a little bit more, because there will be a last time for everything.
Take the time to capture everything. For more ideas go to videobabybooks.com or check out previous posts in my blog.
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Capturing Important Moments Past the First Year
If you take a look at any Baby Book that is supposed to help you to document the first three to five years of life, you'll notice that the majority of the book is dedicated to the first year, about three quarters in fact. Of course there is quite a bit of space dedicated to thoughts about baby before the arrival, and the birth story is pretty significant, but from that perspective, it's easy to assume that the milestones in the first year are actually the most important: smiling, laughing, rolling over, sitting up, waving, standing, and possibly walking. However, our children actually change significantly in the first couple of years and it is just as important to track that progress as well, not just for you to reminisce, but for your pediatrician to track progress, and for your children to look back on in the future.
My earliest memories are probably from around the time I was four or five. At this point, I'm not really sure if they are actual memories, or if my head is just filling in blanks between the stories I have been told about that time. Regardless, anything between birth and three years old just does not exist for me, except in faded pictures in dusty albums. But my second and third years of life were a very special time: I got better with walking, I learned to run and climb, I got a mouth full of teeth, I learned to talk, I further developed my personality, I learned to process thoughts and express my emotions, I made friends, I gained independence, and overall became a very big communicator.
Just because the milestones during this time are not as obvious on the surface, they are just as important when it comes to remembering your little toddler who all too soon will be attending kindergarten. They are also important for your pediatrician to track your toddler's progress. Most of the milestones are more mental than physical, although getting better with fine motor skills is part of the growing process after the first year. You should still track basic physical growth, ie height, weight, and head circumference, but more importantly, you need to pay attention to the more subtle changes your little one is going through. Keep in mind that these milestones come at less specific times, there are ranges of a few months that dictate when certain developments should occur by.
So how does one go about capturing these important and less than obvious milestones? Be ready to capture seemingly mundane moments at any time. Most of use are attached to our cell phones anyway, take advantage of it. When you notice your little one focusing on something very intently that they seemed to overlook just yesterday, discretely grab your phone and film. But make sure you film them from their perspective--that means getting down on their level physically. When your little guy or girl starts to get fussy because he or she wants to do something themselves that they once needed your help for, try to capture it on film. In the early stages of communicating, you'll notice that random sounds start to come together like a conversation, even though the sounds do not make any sense. Continue this conversation with your little one as your start to film. Your toddler will start to follow simple directions and these "tricks" will be wonderful memories when caught on film. Another important milestone to capture at this time is your little one interacting with other toddlers or kids. These precious moments truly will be priceless. And just as important, when you and your child are having a special moment that just melts your heart, get it on film. Try to make sure you include your voice in the interaction and if you can include yourself visually, all the better.
Overall, don't be too concerned about capturing the milestones the very first time that they happen. The second, third, or fourth time will probably look and sound just the same. The very best way to keep track of changes is to make it a point to jot down notes somewhere (I prefer my notes app on my phone) of what your toddler is up to every month on their birth date. That way, before you start to write, you can remind yourself of the new developments the previous month and know just what is new the current month. I try to divide my observations into physical changes and developments, eating habits, communication developments, sleeping habits, and just cute events I will want him to know happened during that past month. Once you've reminded yourself of that months developments, you can make it a point to film some or all of them the next time your see your little guy or girl showcase that new skill or part of his or her personality.
Most parents like to make it a point to get photos of their child every year on their birthday. I recommend capturing video of your child at least once a month and do your best to alternate who takes the video so the same person isn't always behind the camera. Or hire a family videographer to help out. For more ideas and examples, you can go to my website at: www.videobabybooks.com
My earliest memories are probably from around the time I was four or five. At this point, I'm not really sure if they are actual memories, or if my head is just filling in blanks between the stories I have been told about that time. Regardless, anything between birth and three years old just does not exist for me, except in faded pictures in dusty albums. But my second and third years of life were a very special time: I got better with walking, I learned to run and climb, I got a mouth full of teeth, I learned to talk, I further developed my personality, I learned to process thoughts and express my emotions, I made friends, I gained independence, and overall became a very big communicator.
Just because the milestones during this time are not as obvious on the surface, they are just as important when it comes to remembering your little toddler who all too soon will be attending kindergarten. They are also important for your pediatrician to track your toddler's progress. Most of the milestones are more mental than physical, although getting better with fine motor skills is part of the growing process after the first year. You should still track basic physical growth, ie height, weight, and head circumference, but more importantly, you need to pay attention to the more subtle changes your little one is going through. Keep in mind that these milestones come at less specific times, there are ranges of a few months that dictate when certain developments should occur by.
So how does one go about capturing these important and less than obvious milestones? Be ready to capture seemingly mundane moments at any time. Most of use are attached to our cell phones anyway, take advantage of it. When you notice your little one focusing on something very intently that they seemed to overlook just yesterday, discretely grab your phone and film. But make sure you film them from their perspective--that means getting down on their level physically. When your little guy or girl starts to get fussy because he or she wants to do something themselves that they once needed your help for, try to capture it on film. In the early stages of communicating, you'll notice that random sounds start to come together like a conversation, even though the sounds do not make any sense. Continue this conversation with your little one as your start to film. Your toddler will start to follow simple directions and these "tricks" will be wonderful memories when caught on film. Another important milestone to capture at this time is your little one interacting with other toddlers or kids. These precious moments truly will be priceless. And just as important, when you and your child are having a special moment that just melts your heart, get it on film. Try to make sure you include your voice in the interaction and if you can include yourself visually, all the better.
Overall, don't be too concerned about capturing the milestones the very first time that they happen. The second, third, or fourth time will probably look and sound just the same. The very best way to keep track of changes is to make it a point to jot down notes somewhere (I prefer my notes app on my phone) of what your toddler is up to every month on their birth date. That way, before you start to write, you can remind yourself of the new developments the previous month and know just what is new the current month. I try to divide my observations into physical changes and developments, eating habits, communication developments, sleeping habits, and just cute events I will want him to know happened during that past month. Once you've reminded yourself of that months developments, you can make it a point to film some or all of them the next time your see your little guy or girl showcase that new skill or part of his or her personality.
Most parents like to make it a point to get photos of their child every year on their birthday. I recommend capturing video of your child at least once a month and do your best to alternate who takes the video so the same person isn't always behind the camera. Or hire a family videographer to help out. For more ideas and examples, you can go to my website at: www.videobabybooks.com
Friday, January 3, 2014
Editing Tips for Home Movies
Happy New Year! I hope you captured some wonderful footage of your little one(s) over the holidays with family and friends. If you've been keeping up with my posts thus far, you should have an abundance of videos of photos of your little one. Unless your little one has yet to arrive, then you probably have a very long list of photos and videos you will want to create. Nevertheless, at a certain point you're going to have to do something with those videos, because you're phone can only hold so much data. As much as it kills me to delete photos and videos of my little guy off of my phone, I know that I have to from time to time in order to make room for MORE photos and videos of my little guy. Make sure you back everything up before deleting anything. I would recommend on-site and off-site back-up. Considering our house caught on fire when I was in the hospital giving birth (thankfully there was mainly just smoke damage), you would think I would take my own advice on that, but I digress.
Editing is actually when the storytelling happens in unscripted material. Just watch the credits at the end of your favorite reality show, there are actually "writers." They don't necessarily tell the "actors" what to say, but they go through all of the footage and create a story out of the hours and hours of chatter. This may seem like a daunting task for your home videos, and that's when you can hire someone else to step in and create the story for you and your family, but it actually can be pretty fun once you get started.
The first thing you will probably need to do will be to find a program to edit your footage in. There are a number of online editing programs that are rather user-friendly as well as simple editing software options for Macs and PCs. There are tons of online tutorials that can make you a sufficient editor without too much time and hassle. Make sure that you know at least how to pick in and out points of the clips you want to use, how to add in simple transitions and titles, and how to export a final file that you can either display online or use to create a DVD.
Once you have chosen the program, you may have to convert your footage into a recognizable file format for your editing software. If you don't know what format your footage is already in, do a quick Google search of the camera (or phone) you're filming with and the word "codec" and you'll be able to find out. Then you can put that codec into Google and the name of the software you'll be editing with to see if they are compatible. If not, again you can search for online tutorials on how to convert the footage into a useable format. In my case, I had to run all of my iPhone videos and my husband's Galaxy videos through Compressor before I could bring them into Final Cut Pro.
Okay, so now you've got footage ready to edit and a program to edit it in, congratulations, now the real fun begins. Watch all of the footage...a few times. You'll start to see that some clips are more useful than others when it comes to telling the story. Really ask yourself if that clip shows a new milestone, is just too cute not to include, or shows the same thing in a different outfit. Or perhaps the video may include your little one interacting someone else that isn't around very often or may not be around for very long, then you'll want to include it to show to your child in the future.
Now that you've figured out which clips are the most important to include to tell your story, now it's time to really pick out those important moments in each clip. Each clip should be at least ten seconds, but really not longer than twenty when creating a montage for others to enjoy. If you find a clip that you definitely want to use more than twenty seconds of, see if you can divide it into two or more different clips and cut out some footage in between and then connect them with transitions. This way you'll really keep the story moving and your viewers interested.
Depending upon the software you're using to edit, you may be able to add in titles and drop in photos to fill in the gaps in the story when you weren't able to capture video footage, as well as add in a music track. Definitely put in dates and age in months when the footage or photo depict a milestone, especially if you are not keeping a traditional baby book as well. Transitions, such as cross dissolves and fade out/fade in are a nice touch to move from clip to clip. Try to stay away from some of the "cheesier" transitions that will cheapen your story. Remember, the video you are making is about the subjects in the video, not your editing. A rule of thumb to remember, if the editing calls attention to itself, then you're doing something wrong. Cuts should feel motivated and have a nice flow to them.
If you want more specific tips on cutting clips, I will include those in a future blog post. In the meantime, feel free to see some of my storytelling in the video baby book samples on my website.
Editing is actually when the storytelling happens in unscripted material. Just watch the credits at the end of your favorite reality show, there are actually "writers." They don't necessarily tell the "actors" what to say, but they go through all of the footage and create a story out of the hours and hours of chatter. This may seem like a daunting task for your home videos, and that's when you can hire someone else to step in and create the story for you and your family, but it actually can be pretty fun once you get started.
The first thing you will probably need to do will be to find a program to edit your footage in. There are a number of online editing programs that are rather user-friendly as well as simple editing software options for Macs and PCs. There are tons of online tutorials that can make you a sufficient editor without too much time and hassle. Make sure that you know at least how to pick in and out points of the clips you want to use, how to add in simple transitions and titles, and how to export a final file that you can either display online or use to create a DVD.
Once you have chosen the program, you may have to convert your footage into a recognizable file format for your editing software. If you don't know what format your footage is already in, do a quick Google search of the camera (or phone) you're filming with and the word "codec" and you'll be able to find out. Then you can put that codec into Google and the name of the software you'll be editing with to see if they are compatible. If not, again you can search for online tutorials on how to convert the footage into a useable format. In my case, I had to run all of my iPhone videos and my husband's Galaxy videos through Compressor before I could bring them into Final Cut Pro.
Okay, so now you've got footage ready to edit and a program to edit it in, congratulations, now the real fun begins. Watch all of the footage...a few times. You'll start to see that some clips are more useful than others when it comes to telling the story. Really ask yourself if that clip shows a new milestone, is just too cute not to include, or shows the same thing in a different outfit. Or perhaps the video may include your little one interacting someone else that isn't around very often or may not be around for very long, then you'll want to include it to show to your child in the future.
Now that you've figured out which clips are the most important to include to tell your story, now it's time to really pick out those important moments in each clip. Each clip should be at least ten seconds, but really not longer than twenty when creating a montage for others to enjoy. If you find a clip that you definitely want to use more than twenty seconds of, see if you can divide it into two or more different clips and cut out some footage in between and then connect them with transitions. This way you'll really keep the story moving and your viewers interested.
Depending upon the software you're using to edit, you may be able to add in titles and drop in photos to fill in the gaps in the story when you weren't able to capture video footage, as well as add in a music track. Definitely put in dates and age in months when the footage or photo depict a milestone, especially if you are not keeping a traditional baby book as well. Transitions, such as cross dissolves and fade out/fade in are a nice touch to move from clip to clip. Try to stay away from some of the "cheesier" transitions that will cheapen your story. Remember, the video you are making is about the subjects in the video, not your editing. A rule of thumb to remember, if the editing calls attention to itself, then you're doing something wrong. Cuts should feel motivated and have a nice flow to them.
If you want more specific tips on cutting clips, I will include those in a future blog post. In the meantime, feel free to see some of my storytelling in the video baby book samples on my website.
Monday, December 23, 2013
The Importance of Keeping a Baby Book
...or "Why I Do What I Do"
There are a lot of great reasons to keep a baby book for your little one(s). Keeping track of milestones is not only great for reminiscing in later years, knowing that your little one is hitting their milestones is important to track for progress, even years down the road. The sooner a developmental delay can be identified, the sooner intervention can take place and quite possibly avoid problems later on down the road. Your pediatrician will want to know at each of your well-baby visits that your child has not only reached specific milestones, but when they happened.
Another reason to keep a baby book is none other than avoiding the dreaded "mommy guilt." Believe it or not, not writing down when those milestone occurred can create a great deal of negative feelings and then the overwhelming feeling that occurs when it's time to finally play catch up may keep the catch up from ever even happening. More simply put: the more you have to write down, the less likely you'll write down any of it. This tends to be the case, more often than not, for successive children. Then the "mommy guilt" is even worse when the kids get older and compare the lack of documentation of their lives to their older siblings. Luckily, my mom had four years between me and my older sister, so for being a third child, my baby book is pretty well filled out. Of course there are gaps here and there, but the fact that I can ask my mom when I did such and such and she can say "I don't know, check your baby book" is usually good enough for me. I have yet to compare my book to my older siblings, but what I've got is good enough for when it was made.
This brings me to my next reason for keeping a baby book, FOR YOUR CHILDREN. Inevitably kids will ask where they come from at some point, being able to pull out a book (or it's equivalent) makes answering that question a lot easier. Of course I'm not recommending putting all of the conception details into a baby book, but typically looking through the book (or again, it's equivalent) will squash the birds and the bees question, for a while anyway. Looking even further into the future, when your kids have their own kids, it will be important for them to compare when they did something with when their child is doing those things. For example, my son is just now, at fifteen months, getting his first tooth. When the one year milestone passed and no pearly whites were in sight, I of course got concerned. But since I myself did not have too many teeth early on (thanks to being able to find out in my own baby book), a lot of my concerns were put at bay (and searching on Google was helpful as well).
Looking even further down the road, as much as we don't want to think about our own mortality, we will not always be around and giving our children the chance to read about our thoughts and feelings towards them and gain deeper insight into those early years and the relationships we developed during that time, can really make all the difference. In the case of Video Baby Books, seeing how we look at our babies, the way we respond to them, how we talk about them, how we look at them, is a priceless treasure that will mean more to them than we will ever know.
If a typical baby book is not for you, you are not alone. Feel free to check out my previous blog post on the typical baby book and alternatives that exist. If you're an expectant or new parent and already feeling overwhelmed, you can always delegate the responsibility to me and have me create a Video Baby Book for you. Check out my website, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter. On my website you can sign up for my mailing list to receive the "Top Ten Home Movie Failures To Avoid."
There are a lot of great reasons to keep a baby book for your little one(s). Keeping track of milestones is not only great for reminiscing in later years, knowing that your little one is hitting their milestones is important to track for progress, even years down the road. The sooner a developmental delay can be identified, the sooner intervention can take place and quite possibly avoid problems later on down the road. Your pediatrician will want to know at each of your well-baby visits that your child has not only reached specific milestones, but when they happened.
Another reason to keep a baby book is none other than avoiding the dreaded "mommy guilt." Believe it or not, not writing down when those milestone occurred can create a great deal of negative feelings and then the overwhelming feeling that occurs when it's time to finally play catch up may keep the catch up from ever even happening. More simply put: the more you have to write down, the less likely you'll write down any of it. This tends to be the case, more often than not, for successive children. Then the "mommy guilt" is even worse when the kids get older and compare the lack of documentation of their lives to their older siblings. Luckily, my mom had four years between me and my older sister, so for being a third child, my baby book is pretty well filled out. Of course there are gaps here and there, but the fact that I can ask my mom when I did such and such and she can say "I don't know, check your baby book" is usually good enough for me. I have yet to compare my book to my older siblings, but what I've got is good enough for when it was made.
This brings me to my next reason for keeping a baby book, FOR YOUR CHILDREN. Inevitably kids will ask where they come from at some point, being able to pull out a book (or it's equivalent) makes answering that question a lot easier. Of course I'm not recommending putting all of the conception details into a baby book, but typically looking through the book (or again, it's equivalent) will squash the birds and the bees question, for a while anyway. Looking even further into the future, when your kids have their own kids, it will be important for them to compare when they did something with when their child is doing those things. For example, my son is just now, at fifteen months, getting his first tooth. When the one year milestone passed and no pearly whites were in sight, I of course got concerned. But since I myself did not have too many teeth early on (thanks to being able to find out in my own baby book), a lot of my concerns were put at bay (and searching on Google was helpful as well).
Looking even further down the road, as much as we don't want to think about our own mortality, we will not always be around and giving our children the chance to read about our thoughts and feelings towards them and gain deeper insight into those early years and the relationships we developed during that time, can really make all the difference. In the case of Video Baby Books, seeing how we look at our babies, the way we respond to them, how we talk about them, how we look at them, is a priceless treasure that will mean more to them than we will ever know.
If a typical baby book is not for you, you are not alone. Feel free to check out my previous blog post on the typical baby book and alternatives that exist. If you're an expectant or new parent and already feeling overwhelmed, you can always delegate the responsibility to me and have me create a Video Baby Book for you. Check out my website, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter. On my website you can sign up for my mailing list to receive the "Top Ten Home Movie Failures To Avoid."
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
So You've Got a Ton of Photos of Baby, What Now?
Long gone are the days when you would think about each snap of the shutter and eagerly take a roll of exposed film to the drug store and wait two days for your prints. We have become a society of instant gratification, cooing over each and every photo as they are taken, sometimes at the expense of missing an even better shot unfortunately. If you're like me, your phone is slowly becoming a mobile photo album, constantly going back over old shots, reminiscing about when baby was small(er).
So what do you do with all of these wonderful photos? Of course you can still print them, cell phone cameras are pretty high quality these days and the auto focus usually grabs the right point in the frame, but then what? Buy an actual "Photo Album" to put them in and then find a place on a shelf for the album and bring it out to coo over every once in a while? Not too practical for this modern age of digital consumption. You could pick a few of your best shots, store them on a memory card and put that card into one of those picture frames that creates slide show. The problem with both of these ideas is that then the picture is just a picture, it doesn't tell the whole story.
We don't want to think about the one day when we will no longer be around to fill in the gaps about the story surrounding each picture. As much as we love to take pictures, look at them, and share them with friends and family, the photos we take are sometimes more for our little ones than ourselves. Have you ever taken the time to go through your parents old photo albums and scan through the faded orange images, trying to make out when and where each photo was taken and the circumstances surrounding those photos? I know that I have. Sometimes I actually remember those events, or rather remember being told of the events and have now incorporated those stories into my own memory banks as actual memories. Regardless, it's the stories surrounding the photos that make the memories valuable, not that Kodak paper those pictures are printed on.
So how does one record those memories and stories to go with the pictures for years and possibly generations to come? One option is to create a digital scrapbook of sorts, using any of the wonderful online options. Shutterfly will often send out discount codes for a free 20 page album, usually enough for incorporating a good amount of memories. Remember to incorporate text with your pictures, it doesn't have to be lengthy, just enough to fill in the blanks where the "thousand words" of the picture leaves off. If you have been taking notes somewhere of milestones, those can be added in with dates around the period of time the pictures were taken. Be sure to incorporate a number of pictures per page to really get the best bang for your buck, and make the album as much of a joy to look at as it was to make.
The other option you have is to take those digital photos and create a video out of them. There are a lot of free programs that computers come with to create digital slide shows. Just make sure you have the capability to incorporate text as well (see paragraph above about using text with photos). You can also put a few recorded soundbites in as well. Most cell phones have the capability to record audio notes. Use this as an opportunity for your little one to hear your voice. If you can easily incorporate some mini videos as well, that will make the entire piece a lot more interesting to watch. After all, if a video is created with love and energy but no one every gets to enjoy it, it never really exists.
Video editing tips will be in a future blog post. Be sure to sign of for my mailing list to receive all of my tips and tricks!
So what do you do with all of these wonderful photos? Of course you can still print them, cell phone cameras are pretty high quality these days and the auto focus usually grabs the right point in the frame, but then what? Buy an actual "Photo Album" to put them in and then find a place on a shelf for the album and bring it out to coo over every once in a while? Not too practical for this modern age of digital consumption. You could pick a few of your best shots, store them on a memory card and put that card into one of those picture frames that creates slide show. The problem with both of these ideas is that then the picture is just a picture, it doesn't tell the whole story.
We don't want to think about the one day when we will no longer be around to fill in the gaps about the story surrounding each picture. As much as we love to take pictures, look at them, and share them with friends and family, the photos we take are sometimes more for our little ones than ourselves. Have you ever taken the time to go through your parents old photo albums and scan through the faded orange images, trying to make out when and where each photo was taken and the circumstances surrounding those photos? I know that I have. Sometimes I actually remember those events, or rather remember being told of the events and have now incorporated those stories into my own memory banks as actual memories. Regardless, it's the stories surrounding the photos that make the memories valuable, not that Kodak paper those pictures are printed on.
So how does one record those memories and stories to go with the pictures for years and possibly generations to come? One option is to create a digital scrapbook of sorts, using any of the wonderful online options. Shutterfly will often send out discount codes for a free 20 page album, usually enough for incorporating a good amount of memories. Remember to incorporate text with your pictures, it doesn't have to be lengthy, just enough to fill in the blanks where the "thousand words" of the picture leaves off. If you have been taking notes somewhere of milestones, those can be added in with dates around the period of time the pictures were taken. Be sure to incorporate a number of pictures per page to really get the best bang for your buck, and make the album as much of a joy to look at as it was to make.
The other option you have is to take those digital photos and create a video out of them. There are a lot of free programs that computers come with to create digital slide shows. Just make sure you have the capability to incorporate text as well (see paragraph above about using text with photos). You can also put a few recorded soundbites in as well. Most cell phones have the capability to record audio notes. Use this as an opportunity for your little one to hear your voice. If you can easily incorporate some mini videos as well, that will make the entire piece a lot more interesting to watch. After all, if a video is created with love and energy but no one every gets to enjoy it, it never really exists.
Video editing tips will be in a future blog post. Be sure to sign of for my mailing list to receive all of my tips and tricks!
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