One of the best things Mom & Dad can do is pull their phones out every once in a while and record all those moments.
It’s really a change in how I used to think. As a previously stubborn anti-tech-er. I didn’t get a smartphone till late 2011 ( 4 years after they came out). I really kept a flip phone and refused to text or get online or figure out what apps were. And I was 23! I was always in the mindset of stop starring at your phone and live in the moment. I still stand by that in the sense that I see a lot of parents ignore their kids and spouse and stare at that phone. I get it sometimes you are actually working on it. But a lot of times parents are scrolling social or playing games.
Back to my point.
I think recording is an incredibly valuable tool. I think it is actually important to grab some quick video of your kids swinging, at the water, or the family walking. Ask a stranger to take your picture. The older I get the more I wish there was footage of me when I was a kid. Even now I am incredibly thankful for all the footage we are taking of our family on the road. Time does move pretty fast. And we have these magical cameras that allow us to preserve memories. We can rewatch our family movies and enjoy our past and present.
There are a few real tactical tools that will help big time.
1.) Organize your photos and videos. Store them on your computer. We Create Folders by Year. Then By month. Then by place, if we have a lot for one trip or location. It helps! This will help you from having to go through and organize later. And everything is pretty easy to find.
2.) Back these up. Cloud storage is awesome. Have removable storage drives. You don’t want to lose your digital history to data corruption, fire, viruses, or any other accident.
3.) Stage the shots a bit. Shaky videos suck. blurry photos suck. So walk ahead and hold the camera still. Action shots are great. but you do want usable photos and videos!! You dont have to record all the time. Just dedicate a minute or 2 at places you might want to have memories of it. Be it a trip to the zoo or just an average day walking the neighborhood or playing at the park. Tip: ask you kids questions for cool footage. Where are we? Was that fun? What was the best part? What just happened?
4.) Edit the videos!! This is key to reliving your memories. Nobody (even you) wants to watch hours of boring footage. So get a simple video maker program and build a little home movie every month or so. Cut out the boring and only put in stuff you actually want to see. Create little slideshows with the pictures. Add some royalty-free music. Check out our youtube channel for examples of how to make them, It doesn’t have to be fancy. We are by no means trained video makers. You want to be able to pull these out in 10 years and watch without getting bored by long shots of nothing happening. So cut videos down. Stitch them together. add in photos and music and make cool little videos. They will not be good in the begining. The more you do the better you will get!
5.) Always keep your original shots! you never know you might want to go back and redo those video and need the originals. Or maybe you’ll hire someone. Either way, never delete!!
This is something my wife’s dad is really good at. They have videos from their whole life. And they are actually watchable!! So I got to see the embarrassing videos of my wife singing and dancing as a 4yr old. It’s pretty cool stuff. Our kids love to watch them. And I look forward to the day we have grandkids and can bust out all our videos!!
Certainly still live in the moment. But break out the camera and grab some video. Take some photos. Create albums and home movies. You will not regret it!!!