Catch a Memory!

A couple of weeks ago my youngest child had to make a trip to the hospital--it seems he had stuck a Leggo up his nose!

My wife had our point-and-shoot camera with her. She pulled it out, put it in video mode, and captured a few minutes of Jacob talking about his "event".

This is a memory that we will play back for him in the years ahead--and being as it is video, will be much more ""memorable" than my wife simply telling the story.

I share this because I encourage you to take not only photos, but short videos of your children. You don't have to use your old bulky videotape camera--use your point and shoot camera--or your cell phone--or something similar to the "Flip Video" I mentioned in aprevious post.

These memories are fleeting--catch them while you can!

Video

I have been using our family’s “point and shoot” digital camera to take not only family photos, but also to take video. As I have mentioned in a previous post, the quality is exceptional, and I like not having to carry around the traditional video camera that requires tape.
When using the old video camera, I found that we rarely took that camera anywhere because it was just too big. Whenever we went somewhere the batteries were undoubtedly drained, or we were out of tape, or neither my wife nor I wanted to be “in charge” of the video camera.
Although our “point and shoot” camera works great, I have been looking for an even simpler solution. This weekend I purchased a “Flip” video camera—I love it! It is so simple to use, and will literally fit in my pocket. The quality is exceptional—as is the software. It comes with the cables to connect the camera directly to your television for viewing.

The model I got has a USB connector built in—so all I need to do is plug it directly into my computer. When I do this, it charges the camera, and shows you the video that you can upload or edit. The software is built into the camera—it just couldn’t be simpler! There is even software built in that will compress the video to use on websites (or in a blog!). When compressed for the Internet parts of the video may be pixelated, but that is a product of the compression for the Internet.
For those with young kids, I would highly recommend this camera. The most expensive model is about $179—and available at Best Buy. Go to http://www.theflip.com/ to get more info.
I came home from a trip last night—wanted to take some video of the kids with my new toy when I walked in the door. This is the greeting I got:

What a great way to hold a memory!

Looking for Moms (beta testers)

At Studio One to One we are always looking for new ways to help our clients share their memories.

We are currently developing a new product that helps our clients hold, organize, and share their memories. We are looking for twenty five beta testers to use and give us feedback on this new product.

If you take alot of digital photos and are looking for ways to better organize and share those memories, you may be the perfect beta tester.

If interested, please email me at Bob.Eveleth@S121.com. In a short sentence, please let me konw what kinds of memories/photos/videos you take today, how you share them, and what is important to you in sharing memories.

Please also let me know if you use any online photo sharing or social networking sites, what is important to you in those sites, and what features you would add to the sites you use to make them better fit your needs.

Thank-you in advance for your time.

Bob

Photography Tip: Organizing photos

Wow, it’s the middle of July, and we are half way to Christmas!

We are taking a lot of photos at our home this summer. It seems we want to capture every moment of our children’s lives.

Today’s tip is about how we organize our photos.

When I load my digital images into my computer, I do two things. First, I backup everything to a large hard drive that I take off site. This insures I have a copy of my images backed up safely.

When I send the images from my camera to my computer, I create a folder with today’s date in a directory called “My Pictures”. I copy all the images from my camera to that directory. In essence that is my archive of photos.

Then I look at all the photos I loaded, and grab JUST MY FAVORITES, and COPY them to another folder that I call “favorites”. This is the folder I use to play slideshows, print photo books, and share with friends. It doesn’t have all my photos, just all my favorite photos. Whenever I want to share an image with someone, I just go to my favorites folder—I don’t have to sort through hundreds of “ok” photos to find what I am looking for.

I also make sure that when I first use my camera, I have set it to the correct date and time. This insures the camera embeds the correct date in the photo file. I can later sort the images in the order they were taken.

The key is to do this quick step the moment you upload your images as it is difficult for us to find the time later to go back and pick out the favorites. This is a simple tip that works for our family, and makes sharing memories easier and less time consuming.

Cute Kids Contest, 2008

Every summer we kick off our Cute Kids Contest at the studios. This is a fun contest--everyone likes to look at cute kids. Unfortunately for me, my kids aren't eligible to enter!

In addition to a prize package, contest winners are featured in Studio One to One advertisements, promotional pieces, and on our website. Click here to see previous Cute Kids (and "That's My Baby") contest winners.

This year we also have Studio Plus retouching available to entrants. Studio Plus is a light retouching process that softens blemishes and scratches. For babies, it dimishes dry skin, and helps to smooth blotches on the skin. This is not a heavy retouch--we still want our kids to look like kids! Click here to see an example of Studio Plus retouching.

Also--in addition to discounted portraits and no session fees, all our Club121 members receive Studio Plus retouching on EVERY image purchased--complimentary!

Online and in-studio voting begins in September. Please call a studio near you if you have any questions.

Children and Modeling

I recieved a question from Martha last week--she wanted to know how to get her young child into modeling. Since I get asked that question quite a bit, I thought I would post my reply to her below:


My wife just happens to be a model agent (www.PageParkes.com) so I asked her this question. Her response was that it is difficult for small children and babies to break into the business because their looks change so frequently (having a 4,5,6 and 10 year old at home we can vouch for that!). Also at that young age children are so unpredictable that on a set they often need a couple of babies/toddlers just in case one is having a bad day.

Page recommends bringing your child into an audition when they are four or five years old—an age when more work is available to them.

You can also send in your babies photographs to local agencies. An agency like my wife’s will keep them on file, and should the need arise for a baby, they could give you a call.

You also need to be aware of “agencies” out there that purport that they want to represent your child, but are mainly attempting to sell you photo sessions or other “representation fees”. A reputable agency, while offering classes ranging from acting, to modeling, to self esteem, will not make promises that your child is going to be a star.

I hope that helps answer your question.

Good luck!

Thank-you,

Bob

Tip: Organizing Your Photos

It is summer time, and the kids are out of school. We seem to take a lot more photos during the summer. We certainly take a lot more photos with our digital camera then we ever did with film.

I have found that the key to have great “photo records” of our memories is in how we sort and organize our images.

We use a “point and shoot” digital camera with a four gigabyte memory card. That card holds a lot of photos—but we also use it for video, which eats up a lot of memory quickly.

When I copy images from my still camera to my computer, I will stop and take a moment to grab my two or three (or four or five or six) favorite images from the hundred or so we took, and immediately copy them to a folder I have named “Photo Favorites”. This keeps all my favorite photos in one place, and is easy for me to share without going through the several hundred “ok” photos every time I want to send one to a relative. I do this right after I copy the photos to my computer as they are freshest in my mind.

I also have that “Photo Favorites” photo synchronized with my iPod. You can set up your iPod to do this automatically. This not only gives me a backup of my favorites, but now I also have my favorite photos in my iPod to share with family or friends when I am on the road. You can do the same thing with a lot of cell phones on the market today.

Finally, I have an external hard drive that copies all of my photo directories. I will occasionally take that hard drive to my office to keep a backup copy of all our priceless photos backed up at my office (I recommend having a backup and keeping it somewhere different than your main copies).

My suggestion: have a “favorites” folder that holds all your FAVORITE photos, and back up all your photos every time you copy new ones to your computer.

Feel free to email or comment with any questions I can help you with.

Bob