Capture the Moment
Those of us not able to attend the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree are getting some great updates from the many bloggers who are there. We’ve even got some great photos. I’ll bet Dick Eastman has found some interesting people to interview and we’ll all get to see them on Roots Television shortly – Megan’s already got a promotional/DNA clip posted from Friday. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were also some videos of the presentations and the blog summit?
Recently I attended a veterans association reunion and took along my new (birthday present) Xacti digital camera. While most digital cameras can do video, it isn’t their priority function. The advantage of the Xacti is that it was designed to handle both video and still functions equally. I used the reunion as a testing ground to see what kind of quality I could get. Considering that the sum total of my videography experience consists of sharing office space with two professional videographers, I was pleased with most of the results. Each clip was spur of the moment – little location planning, no tripod and no agenda/script – but they do show that with a bit of advance planning it would not be difficult to provide video clips from just about any event.
The first video was from our membership meeting. I was sitting at a table right next to the podium – with part of the floral centerpiece making a cameo appearance.
This video was taken at the alumni ball that evening – after a couple of glasses of wine. I’m some distance from the stage and things got pretty clumsy during the standing ovation.
The point I’m trying to make is that it doesn’t take expensive, professional equipment or years of experience to capture and share family events, reunions and even conference presentations. An affordable digital camera (this Xacti cost $250), some memory cards and a tripod, along with some planning and staff coordination, can give both attendees and absentees a video record of the event they can enjoy again and again. Oh, and don’t forget their promotional value for next year’s event!
July 1st, 2008 at 10:21 am
Hi Denise!
Thanks for your advice on my “freezing” problem. I think the size was part of the problem. I put almost the whole book together and then went back and changed the Table of Contents page (made it larger), which in turn “bumped” each page down a bit after that. At that bumping made the program freeze :). Then I couldn’t open it at all in Writer, so I ended up having to delete it and start all over again. Lesson learned there! It wasn’t too difficult to rewrite it, as I already had all the images and documents ready.
I prefer to do things the hard way, it seems…
Have a great day!
Ruth