Last weekend, in preparation for Emmie’s first gymnastics meet, I read the instruction booklet for our “Canon Elura 60 Digital Camcorder”, figured out how to charge its battery pack, and plugged it in. I was glad to see the indicator light flashing, just as the instructions said it would.  Embarassingly, I hadn’t remembered how to work that camera without looking at the book, since it was one of only a few times I’d picked up the thing over the last few years.  Me, who had once counted Chief Family Videographer among my many duties.  Just how many years had it been?

I decided to get out the shoeboxes of tiny, labeled camcorder tapes we keep on a shelf, and do some sleuthing (Nancy Drew, eat your heart out).  As I glanced over the labels, I noticed an interesting pattern to the videotaping that seemed to repeat with each child (and our girls are almost exactly four years apart):  1. The baby arrives and a flurry of videotaping would begin--  so many “firsts” to record!  Each tape became full after only a few months of taping, sometimes after just one event, like the “1^st birthday party”.  2. The frequent taping continued on into their second year, and then tapered off, until an entire year’s worth of taping fit on one tape.

When the youngest was finally past the toddler/preschool stages, the tapes began holding two years’ worth of events.  And then the labels showed that an entire year went by before the camera was ever picked up again, and then two years…

Wow.  It’s been that long since I’ve taken video of my kids? Upon looking at the labels closer, I realized my predicament was worse—since Andy had been the cameraman for most of the more “current” stuff (and that covers only a few events), I haven’t played a serious role in family videography since about 2005. Almost FIVE years? What’s wrong with me? Am I a bad parent because I don’t hog the aisles recording every moment of my kids’ every school program and recital?  Am I so busy that I can no longer take the time to capture even a few precious moments on tape for posterity? 

Well, “No” to answer the bad parent question, because I still take lots of photographs— at least when the lighting is good.  Scrapbooking has long been one of my favorite hobbies, so there’s definitely not a lack of photos in this house. Also, as the kids get older, they take more and more of their own photos with their own cameras, and keep their own scrapbooks, sometimes even picking up the camcorder now and then—even though their Kodak Moments have often included out-of-focus shots of the dog, “butts”, and people with their heads “cut off”.  

I’d answer “maybe” to the question of, “Am I too busy to take video on my own?” There’s definitely not a lack of “busy-ness” around here. 

But video is important, in my opinion, not just for the pictures, but for the audio.  It’s important for your kids to see and hear how they grow and change, it’s important for loved ones who aren’t able to witness your kids’ special moments in person, and it’s important to capture friends and family in ways your brain might never remember.  I know I would love to have a video record from my own childhood, but all I have are silent, 8mm family films my dad transferred to VHS tapes years ago.

I honestly think the main reason I haven’t gone near the family camcorder very much lately can be traced back to one simple act: the day near Christmas 2004 when my husband, Andy, came home and put a box on my desk and said, “Here’s a new digital video camera I just bought.”  I remember I was surprised—and not exactly jumping for joy.  I was comfortable with our old, non-digital, twice-as-big “Sony Handycam ”. I knew how to use it.  I didn’t have to read instructions. And I’d recently mastered special editing software and had made an AWESOME family reunion video out of footage I’d taken on that 10-year-old Handycam, complete with music tracks, graphics, and credits.  Yes, I knew that camera was having problems, but I’d planned to take it to a specialty battery store where, I’d been told by a reliable source, they could help me…  Andy said it would probably cost more to fix it than to buy another camera, so he opted for the new camera (Don’t guys always use that line in order to buy new stuff?).  And, he told me, since he knew I liked editing and adding stuff, I could really do some fine work with this one.  Which was thoughtful, except, this new camera had a lot more features than our “vintage” model.  And who is a major techno-phobe? Me. There, I said it.  And as painful as it is to admit it, I will say it again-- I am a major techno-phobe.  And no one should know that better than my husband.  I mean, when we first started dating in 1989, my large collection of music was entirely on …cassettes (Hey, at least they weren’t 8-tracks!) (But definitely a true test of his love, considering he works in Audio Visual Presentation).  Once we were married and he wanted to bring home a Mac in the mid-nineties, I balked at the idea because…I was happy with my Magnavox Videowriter, basically a glorified typewriter with a screen and a dot-matrix printer attached, for which I’d saved my money to buy when I was single.  I didn’t want a bigger TV, either, and I didn’t think I needed a cell phone-- until he got me one.  Yes, it always takes me awhile to get onboard with new technology, and I think our “new” 5-year-old camcorder has been no exception, especially when combined with our busy life.

Luckily, Emmie’s gymnastics meets are pushing me to finally “get with the program". According to seasoned gymnastics parents, it’s important to videotape all of your daughter’s performances so she can watch and see what she needs to improve upon.  And Andy can't make it to every meet.  So, it looks like I’ll be pulling out this camcorder fairly often in the next few months, proudly joining the ranks of the other cameras raised in the air-- happily knowing how to turn on the power button and get the tape set to just the right starting point, effortlessly flipping out the LCD screen on the side…  My first time doing that is going to have to wait, however.  ‘Cause just before we left for the first meet last weekend, I unplugged the camera from the charging cord, and… it wasn’t fully charged yet.  
Guess it's only fitting that I should start a new era of family photography with baby steps.

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