It’s the holiday season, which means that you’ve got hundreds of new holiday pictures on your camera. Unless they are something special, you’re probably going to import these into your photo library and forget about them until one Friday night when you’re at home all alone with nothing to do because you don’t have any friends. and you’ve got nothing to do except look at pictures from last year’s Christmas party.

Don’t let this be you!  Let your pictures be seen!  Let them be interesting!  Make a slideshow!!!

I’m sure that by now you know that I’m an Apple junky, but it’s really easy to make a slideshow in iPhoto. Honestly, it really doesn’t matter what you use to create the slideshow.  There are tons of very user-friendly, east to use options out there. If you don’t know of one right now, just do a quick Google search for a slideshow creator.  Once you’ve found one, just pick the pictures you want to use, add some music, and export your slideshow to a file.  With that, you can either burn a DVD or upload it to YouTube to share with your friends and family.

It’s so easy to put together a slideshow, and it almost guarantees that you will look at your pictures again. You really have no excuse not to put one together.

GET ON IT!

With Christmas upon us, here are a few things to keep in mind as you record your family memories this holiday season.

#1 Remember to charge the batteries

It’s Christmas morning, your baby’s very first, and you can’t record any of it because you forgot to charge the camera batteries. You’re pretty much out of luck. It looks like you’re going to have to shoot this one with your cell phone, which isn’t too terrible, but the quality just isn’t the same.  Remember that you can avoid this situation entirely by just putting your camera on the charger the night before.

#2 Don’t get in people’s faces

Sure, remembering the moment is important to you, but not everyone wants to have your camera in their face. Maybe they are camera shy, or maybe they’re plastered and they don’t want everyone to see them like that.  Don’t feel like you need to record absolutely everything, and if someone asks you not to record them, respect their wishes.  Just remember to be courteous.

#3 Give your project some polish

It’s 2011 (almost 2012). Take the time to add transitions, titles, and effects to your videos. There is no reason that your work shouldn’t look semi-professional.  This takes minutes with entry level software like Windows Movie Maker and iMovie.  You have no excuse for creating a rough video.  Take the time and create something that looks great.

#4 Sound can make or break your video

If you’re at a party and you want to shoot video, don’t get too attached to the audio. Unless you’ve got an excellent microphone on your camera, the sound that you want will probably going to be drowned out by background noise. There are ways to minimize this, but sometimes it’s just easier to mute the video track and add a song. My advice: unless the audio is is clear and without annoying background noise, just scrap it. Obviously this doesn’t work for everything, but it keeps your audience engaged.

#5 Publish on YouTube

In this modern era, it’s a lot easier to upload your video to YouTube and email links to your family members than it is to make several DVD copies. If you’ve never done this before, check it out.  It’s really easy, and it’s more economical too!

During the summer of 2010, I embarked on a great journey. I began Ed Dale’s Challenge, which is a month long program with the goal of creating a blog.

At the time, I was totally wrapped up in all things video editing related. I had my MacBook with iMovie, and I had access to a computer with Final Cut, Motion, and Shake. I was in Heaven.

I spent countless hours watching video editing tutorials on YouTube. I watched guys like AppleShakeGuru, and learned to use the tools that were available in Final Cut especially. I learned to make composites and to use green screens. I learned to add effects like muzzle flash. I learned to use trackers and all sorts of other things. If there was a tutorial on YouTube, nothing could stop me from learning how to do it.

For a while, I really wanted to pursue some sort of career in video editing or video production. I was dreaming big, and the sky was my limit. I would watch movies like Harry Potter and try to work out in my mind how they achieved certain effects, and I tried to replicate them on my own.

When I was looking for a topic on which to create a blog, video editing seemed like the natural choice. It’s something that I’m genuinely passionate about and love to do. However, I decided that if I was ever going to be seen I would need to drill down into the video editing field and carve out a niche for myself. That’s how I settled on tutorials specifically.

Originally, when I named this the Video Editing Tutorial Blog I had planned to create my own tutorials like the ones I had been watching on YouTube for so long. Unfortunately, I became discouraged by a lack of time, a lack of resources, and a lack of commitment.

Until recently, I really hadn’t though about the blog much. It sort of chilled out on the periphery of my mind. For whatever reason, I’m suddenly feeling motivated to come back and give things another try. Why not take another shot at glory?

Anyway, the moral of the story is to keep checking in over the next couple of weeks looking for new content. Leave me a comment and tell me what your interested in or what you’d like me to write about. Honestly, I’m not entirely sure where I want to take this or where it’s going, so I’m open to suggestions.

Thanks for reading!