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Keepers of Memories
Tom Hubbard
August 22, 2007
 Here's a photo from a recent family vacation that my wife took with her trusty HP R967 digital camera. That's my son and dad in the picture with me. For us, the photo is irreplaceable. Yep, we're all named Tom |
One of mom’s most uncelebrated roles is as the family historian. In this role, the chore of ensuring an accurate historical visual record of all those “once in a lifetime” family moments is entrusted. In my years of managing amateur photo labs, I have been fortunate to see the best and worst practices by those assigned the task of capturing family moments.
Here are a few do’s and don’ts that I’ve learned along the way. These suggestions are a little different than the usual “don’t shoot into the sun” tips you may be familiar with. I hope these tips for digital photography help ease the burden of family picture taking and add to the pleasure that a family picture collection can add to your life and the lives of generations that follow.
- Make a small digital camera a permanent purse component. You just never know when an irreplaceable moment will occur. You can be pretty sure it will probably never happen again.
- Cameras don’t need to be expensive to be valuable. Considering most family pictures are reproduced as 4”x6” prints and occasionally as 5”x7” enlargements, today’s 5, 6, 7 and 8 megapixel cameras capture more than enough digital picture data to produce excellent prints that are rich in both detail and color. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how well an 8”x10” or 12”x12” scrapbook enlargement looks from these cameras when you need that occasional big print. However, at the present time, don’t rely on the camera in your cell phone as your primary family camera. The resolution (perceived as sharpness) and image quality produced on these devices still have a few generations to go before they can be entrusted with you family’s memories. At the other end of the spectrum, a $2,500 digital SLR produces stunning images and lots of creative flexibility, but if you’re just capturing family moments and producing primarily small prints, the expense can be overkill.
- Plan on taking pictures of each family member at least once per year. I cannot tell you how many customers have handed me a 20-year-old, faded picture of a loved one and needed copies made because it was the only picture they had of that family member. In today’s world of digital photography and the simplicity it brings to picture taking, not having a current picture of a family member is an avoidable tragedy.
- Don’t forget child number two. There seems to be a law of diminishing photography within families. The first child is photographed at birth, at birth plus one minute, at birth plus two minutes, at birth plus three minutes, etc. As the child count rises, the number of pictures taken rapidly decreases. I’m guilty here as well – and that’s inexcusable for a working photographer. So, learn from my bad example and consider each child the first.
- Save your original digital files. Don’t review you pictures, print a few and then erase your camera’s memory. Save every original digital image file to your computer. Better yet, save every image file to CDs or DVDs. You will eventually wish you had every image you erased. Considering the low prices for CDs, it’s cheap insurance and CDs are easily organized and stored.
- The prints you make on photo quality ink jet printers will far outlive traditional photographic prints. However, they are not eternal. To gain the maximum life from your prints store them in archival quality albums in a cool but dry area of you home.
- The pictures you choose to enlarge and frame should not be displayed on a wall that receives direct sunlight or is in close proximity to a heating vent. Try to use mattes when you frame your picture. This simple safeguard prevents the picture from adhering to the glass or plastic over time. Most frame suppliers make several styles of mattes that fit standard picture sizes and standard frames. For example, if you are framing a 5x7 print, purchase an 8”x10” frame with a 5”x7” archival matte.
- Carry extra batteries or your charger when attending events that occur over several days. Would hate to see you miss the “family getting off the cruise ship” picture due to dead batteries.
- When in doubt, shoot more than less. Memory cards are cheap, but the family occasion only happens once. Take extra memory cards and shoot plenty of pictures. You’ll never regret overshooting.
And, of course, “don’t shoot into the sun”.
Take care.
Category: especially for mom
Latest page update: made by tehubbard
, Aug 23 2007, 7:20 PM EDT
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