If you’re like me, finding the precious video taken during a trip or celebration can be as frustrating as finding my matching glove. Lately I’ve been looking for ways to preserve, honor and share special memories more readily. Here are a few suggestions on how to get started creating a souvenir video collection.
Visit, Film, and Repeat
Have you gone to some of the same places, with some of the same people, year-after-year? This can be a great place to start your collection organizing. Hunt down the matching stories and piece them together. You and those in the movies will love to see how you have enjoyed the holiday or beach overtime. Focus on the smiles, but maybe also the repeated laughs. Does someone in your group always wear the same silly hat or sunglasses? Maybe one friend always comes late, serves the funny salad or organizes the sloppy soft ball game?
Lions and Tigers and Bears to Visit
Does your family enjoy visiting zoos or animal preserves? You might grab these videos and see how your visits have added up. Maybe you see different animals, or the animals see different groups of your family and friends? Certainly the little kids have grown, and then added their own children into the visits. Perhaps the locations have escalated from your local zoo to a national treasure and even an international preserve. And, don’t forget to include the funniest times when animal feedings or water splashing may have not gone as planned.
We Return and Memories Grow
Some of us are fortunate to have a “place to return to” year after year. This may be our childhood home, our family’s cottage, or that special fishing hole. The importance of this spot may seem to grow with even visit. When you document these times in the form of home movies (the olden day’s slang) we can treasure them year round. How about gathering them together, maybe from now antique cameras and storage devices. Collect and share the highlights and you may awaken your senses as you return to that special smell, sound, and look you treasure.
Match Wedding Toasts and Dances
You may be holding on your phone or computer long wedding videos, simply too long to view at an instant. How about learning to clip similar parts and create a family wedding-themed video to share. You can grab similar parts, like the toasts, first dances, and cake cutting. Drop in those special memories and you have a real collection. Consider how you are creating a tapestry of family gatherings, rarely more elaborate and inclusive than a wedding.
Every Baby, Every Time
How can we better mark the milestones in our lives than by the lives that join us. Grab the newest baby video from each family member and create a family welcome video. You will see immediate similarities of their first day on film. Then, when placed so close together you will probably surprise yourself and others with each baby’s uniqueness. Their cry, their smile, their daddy’s awkward first holding, will bring smiles and moments of time standing still, almost.
Now, you hardly want another video stored only on your phone or computer. Consider how you can share these creations. Sending them to your lucky audience can be as simple as an email attachment. How about showing your clever side and earning the family’s gratitude at the same time? Heirloom video books offers the same easy click and you can send a video book that instantly preserves these priceless montages.