Mr. Pogue wrote a column about why we spend countless hours and dollars snapping, taping, shooting and documenting the mundane events that make up our lives. For me the answer is easy; because I need to. It is in my blood. I grew up in a home where we took a lot of pictures and videos of whatever we did. So much so that for fun my brother, our friends and I would video tape ourselves lip syncing in our upstairs rec room. (If these tapes were to ever be found then they would probably be good for blackmail). Another example of our family putting it all on video would be Christmas morning. My Dad would set up the tripod for the video camera and let it just record it all. All the conversations, the bickering about whose turn it was to pass out presents or open a present. We have it all on tape; about 30 years worth.
When my brother and I went to the Grand Canyon with our Grandmother in 1990 we took our big VHS video camera to document the trip. Talk about scenery, too bad we really didn't think about narration...But you can sure see the canyon. I was o involved in getting the adventure filmed that when I lost my footing on a path near the canyon and ripped eight stitches out of my right knee, it was due to the fact that I was filming the view from the canyon rim. (That was not a pleasant drive back to Idaho, since the wound had to heal open and I couldn't bend my knee at all).
Now as a father I will admit I am not as bad as my father was...but I do have quite a few pictures on our MacBook. I take full responsibility. This is the reason that in the spring I hope to install a larger hard drive. Our photo library takes over 7gb of space. That is after archiving photos that are pre-2005. There are many photos. The goal is to eventually upload them and create hardbound books about each of the kids. But for now they are preserved in iPhoto. I know that I am not the only one that does this. It is not that I hope that my kids or friends will be famous or that I will be able to sell the pictures or movies to "E!". It is that when I look back as an old man and share stories with my great-grandchildren I want to be able to show them how happy there family is and has been. How blessed we are. The good stock they come from. So that they know what kind of legacy they should leave for thier great-granchildren.
This is my favorite reader response:
“ Were it not for the video shown to me on our first date, I probably would not be in this 22-year-old marriage of mine. When we sat down to see his family video, I watched my husband run around in the woods playing Indian at the age of 7; I saw his family and the house where he was born and raised. In that half hour of our first date, I fell in love with the boy in the man I married. Viewing that video told me all I wanted to know; I still see the boy in his now 80-year-old self.”
Here is the link to the story from David Pogue.
Why we shoot home videos
Responses to Why we shoot
1 comment:
Yep, the most documented generation to date. Sometimes I wonder how much of it should be shown, (i.e. RBHParty) and how much should be buried in a deep, underground vault so that when the rest of the world goes in a handbasket, whom or whatever is left can see how and why we were.
I made my own "videos" as a kid too. Music videos, comic skits involving slugs, dirt piles and my little sister.... I have no idea where those tapes are.
Dave and I just recorded all over our VHS/Hi8 tapes to the storage hard drive and multiple CD's. Hopefully my Farmers can see themselves and what we've cursed them to look forward to.
~Stacey
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