Having physical memoirs of your child’s development is something invaluable. Every milestone your child attains is a reason to celebrate. Photos and video clips of such moments are a treasure that can and should last a lifetime. But you should not only capture and preserve such moments but also do so in an organized way.
How To Capture Those Special Moments
Your baby’s first smile, steps, or grimace are moments that you wish would last forever. What you would give to hold on those moments! Modern technology makes it possible for you to capture and preserve the memories of your little one’s development. Below are some of the top options that you can use for this:
Phone- Phones have become highly versatile digital gadgets. They not only can make calls or send texts, but they also able to take photographs and videos. If you have a smartphone, then you have a resourceful tool in your hand that you can use. You can do photoshoots and even edit them and videos using apps.
Camera– Aside from relying on your phone’s camera, you should get a quality camera with a fast shutter speed, and preferably one that also doubles as a video recorder. Most digital cameras offer the best of both worlds. Also, consider picking one with in-built Wi-Fi connectivity and expandable data storage (you can insert a memory card). That way, you can take photographs and shoot lots of videos without worry about running out of memory or having to connect the camera to a computer.
Which Formats Are Best?
The memories you capture will be preserved either as still mages or motion pictures. So, you will have photos and video clips of your baby’s first milestones. You also can do audio recordings.
Photographs– Photos are mostly still images; they freeze a moment in time and often tell a two-dimensional story. Nevertheless, they have a unique way of sparking up memories and thus are an essential part of your efforts to preserve every detail possible of your child’s development.
Video– With videos, you can capture a lot more than what you would get via photos. You can capture raw emotions and the feel or mood of the setting at that time. You can do this using your phone’s camera or getting a digital video camera that will record high-quality clips. You can set up cameras can district areas around the house so that you capture unscripted, raw footage of your loved ones.
Audio– Recording your baby’s sounds may seem a bit quaint, but it is a suitable alternative when you do not have a video camera. For this, you can get a stand-alone voice recorder for your phone or install one on your computer. It can record your child’s changing voice, first words, and evolving personality.
Get A Professional Photographer
You should consider hiring a photographer so that you avoid the hustle of taking your little one for a photoshoot. The photographer can come to your home or any familiar setting that the baby knows. Pick a place that resonates well with the family, and one that will contribute towards getting a special portrait.
Apps And Websites To Share Favorite Memories
The advent of smartphones brought with it some handy resources known as apps. With such applications, anyone with a phone that got a quality camera can snap photos records audio files or video clips. Editing can also be done on some of these phones, and even do a lot more with your phone.
A) Digital Baby Book
You can chronicle your little one’s growth and share the progress with close family and friends, all thanks to apps like digital journals. They are apps you can install on your phone. Top choices include Keepy, TinyBeans, MomentGarden, Bamboo, Lifecake, and stuttersong. Some of these apps allow you to record sounds that can be included in the photos.
B) Blog
And how about penning down everything about the roller coaster that is your baby’s development! You opt to work with blogging websites such as Weebly, Blogger, Tumblr, WordPress, and Typepad. You get to post new content on the go. You can do this using your phone, tablet, or computer. And if fortune favors you, then your parenting-related blog can turn into an online business.
C) Home Movies
You can rely on movie-making apps to pull together videos and still images as well as voice recordings to create a home movie that covers much of your child’s milestones. A few of the top choices to consider for this include PicPlayPost, Magisto, Windows Movie Maker, and iMovie.
Turning Memories Into Mementos
What’s the point of taking thousands of images, videos, and audio footage only to have them languish on your computer, concealed and unappreciated? They should be material that family and friends can review and relate to the story. Below are a few tips on how to ensure that you and others cherish these creative keepsakes.
- Watch Your Child Grow
Pick a day for every month in which you will dedicate to taking images of your baby. It can also be for videos. That way, you can pull the material together, organizing it month-by-month, be it video footage or a photo album.
- Handprints & Footprints
Those tiny little fingers and toes you adore so much wishing the stay that way for every will soon grow and change. But you can preserve their babyish form by making handprints and footprints. You will need a clay or plaster impression kit. Make sure that what you pick is safe for the baby. The prints can also be shaped into custom ornaments or memorabilia.
- Keepsakes
- Family Yearbook Or Album
The family album or yearbook would not go without a mention here. You can have this as a physical book or make a digital album that you can post on your blog or website.
- Memory Box
It can be where you keep things such as your child’s first lost tooth, hospital bracelet, favorite outfit, or any other item remind you of a particular moment in your baby’s growth and development.
- Recycled Treasures
Repurposing some of your child’s favorite items is an excellent way of ensuring the past lives on in the present. For instance, you can turn one of his or her favorite outfit into a quilt or pillow. Pick any memento and get creative.
How To Keep Digital Memories Safe
Digital archives of your baby’s photos and videos are a good way of preserving such memories. However, the online photo and video site might shut down, or your hard drive might fail, and you end up losing everything. That is why you should have another backup option. It can be a portable flash drive, DVD, or online data storage.
Home storage
In this option, you have the re writable CDs and DVDs as well as a portable hard-drive in which to store the backups. So, you will be updating these data storage options when you are adding new content in your baby’s archives.
Outsourced Storage
Keep in mind that the DVDs and drives can get lost, corrupted, or damaged by fire or flood. That is why having an online backup is also a wise move. With such data storage, you are confident of having the photos, videos, and audio files ready to retrieve at your discretion. Moreover, you will not worry about losing such data in case your computer is stolen. You might find some storage services that do not charge for photos or videos but will charge if you need extra space.
