The Hurricane

Our lab and corporate offices are in Houston. We were very blessed to be spared the wrath of Hurricane Ike. We are in a new building that lost power for a few days, but that was about it.

Our Baybook studio associates seemed to be hit the hardest--along with some of our Baybrook clients. Sue, our manager at the Baybrook location, just sent me the email below--it is a reminder of how important photo/memories are to everyone.

>>>Pearline _____ and her family lost EVERYTHING in Galveston. She was so upset about her pictures. Cleaning through the muck, she found our CD still in its case, and floating in water. She brought it in last night and I was able to upload them again. She and her husband were so happy! We will redo them when they get settled, they are living at a Comfort Inn the next few months. <<<

We are happy that we could help Sue's client, and would be happy if there are any other clients that we can help with their images.

Meanwhile, we count our blessings. Although some of our friends, family, and associates were hit hard by the storm, everyone appeared to be safe.

Is it Christmas time already?

I am sure you have noticed it. As we get older, Christmas just keeps coming faster!

With tomorrow being October 1st, we are in the home stretch for Christmas. Of course we will have lots of memories to collect and share during the holidays.

I wanted to share a "video Christmas card" that we sent out to some friends last year. Before we went to church I took out my "point and shoot" camera, put the kids in front of the Christmas tree, and asked them to sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". I sent this to family and friends. It is a fun memory that my wife and I can look back on in ten or twenty years (when the kids are all grown).

As you go through the holidays there may be moments you want to catch, share, and review in years to come. Grab your "point and shoot camera", put it on video mode, and capture those memories!

Wiggly Teeth!

If you have children, you know what it is like for them to lose that first tooth!

"Do you want me to pull it?"

"No Daddy"

"Can I just feel how loose it is?"

"If you promise not to pull it"

"It's pretty loose...are you sure you don't want me to pull it?"

"Will it hurt?"

The first tooth is special. Not just because they are losing it, but becuase it signals a change. For my daughter, it is the first visual cue that she is growing up. Once they lose that first tooth, their look changes. It seems they automatically age a year by losing that first tooth. Then, when the permanent tooth comes in, you can add antoher two years! Once you see that first tooth start to wiggle--grab your camera--take those still photos, take some video--take them to a studio! This is your last chance to catch that age! Of course, once they lose that first tooth, grab that camera and catch the moment--in pictures and in video! My daughter lost her first tooth at Christmas last year. Check out the next song that played (what a coincidence!)

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.