Going digital: the next step

4 1/2 years ago (October 2001), just before our oldest child was born, we purchased a digital camera. That was our entrance into the digital age. Back then, they were very expensive, as is most new technology when it comes out. Since then, we've taken tens of thousands of photos with our Nikon Camedia 3.1 megapixel camera. I even dropped it during Mission Radicale 2004 and had it repaired. We bought another Nikon Camedia for about half the price, but still like the photos from our first camera.

That camera helped us enter the next stage: creating a web site. I learned from scratch how do do this, taking several weeks in December 2001 to focus on the ins and outs of HTML. (Fortunately, I did this before kids arrived). I've enjoyed tinkering with our web site since then. Some have said that web sites are the patchwork of today. Our web site has had over 92,000 hits since December 2001.

Sometime in early 2004, I got into blogging. Again, it was fairly new back then, but became the rage by the end of the year. Some have said that the results of the U.S. presidential election of 2004 were determined by some conservative political blogs.

We bought a digital video camera in October 2002. While we had the technology to create videos back then, I have hesitated to get into that so far. For one thing, I enjoy photography more than filming. My wife has a steadier hand than I do. Plus, I also haven't wanted to take the time to learn how to use the program to create videos (even though some have said that it is very easy). Having 2, then 3 kids also hasn't allowed for much new creative endeavors beyond maintaining our web site.

However, I noticed last week that our 4 year old likes watching video clips. I've been experimenting taking them with our old Olympus camera. While they are still blurry sometimes, the sound is great. Our 4 and 2 1/2 year old enjoy watching the video.

To captivate their generation, I've become convinced that we need to do video. I'm comfortable doing power point slide shows, as we have lots of photographic material to draw from. Creating videos is a step in the dark for me. I'll be frustrated at the beginning to not be able to have a video as nice as I would like it to be. But as my old Wheaton prof Jim Plueddeman said, "Anything worth doing is worth doing.
badly at first."

This afternoon I located the slots on our computer and digital video camera for a firewire cable IEEE 1394. I also learned that, in the midst of all the cables that I've accumlated, I don't have that one. So I'll need to buy that tomorrow.

If anyone has advice on firewire cables, please let me know.