Reagan and her friends LOVE watching the video of her birthday, and she will always remember the day as she looks back on this short video! 

Notice how the photographer added short snips of video to the photos to create an added dimension to the memory!

Don’t you wish you had a something like this to remind you of your ninth birthday?

Many HoldMyMemories.com studios can help you capture a memory like this–whether it is helping you to produce a video from your images, or having an HMM photographer come to your event, HoldMyMemories.com is here to help you capture and hold these special memories!

Enter your newborn to five year old in "That’s My Baby, 2010" photo and video contest.  Click here for more details.  Great prizes–no purchase necessary to enter!

I have had expensive 35mm cameras, medium format cameras, "one time use" cameras, the first digital cameras, point and shoot digital cameras, and cell phone cameras.

Which one was the best–simple–my opinion is that the best camera is the one you have with you.

I use to use my big SLR camera for just about everything–which wasn’t much as the camera was so big I never took it anywhere!  Then I started to carry my point and shoot digital camera for almost everything.  The quality for SOME shots may not have been as good as my Nikon DSLR, but it was "good enough"–and I didn’t mind carrying that small camera in my pocket.  For video, I used a Flip video camera–pretty cool, and pocket size, but you had to remember to take it with you.

When Apple came out with their latest iPhone last year–the one that captured video–I switched to AT&T so that I would always have my photo and video camera with me.  I find myself taking a lot more photos of my kids–and of course a lot more video.  I take photos of things I would not have in the past.  For example, last week I had to purchase some paint for a room I am painting.  I took out my iPhone, and took a quick photo of the paint can lid–so that if I ever need to match the paint, I have the exact color documented–and handy to get to (I stored the photo on my computer in a folder called "Home").

Apple recently introduced the next version of their iPhone.  The camera has been updated to take low light photos (and includes a pseudo led flash), and has an upgraded video camera. Click here for a great review on the new iPhone.

Most cell phones now have cameras on them that take decent photos, and decent video.  I switched to the iPhone for a number of other reasons (one of which is the HoldMyMemories.com app that is coming out shortly).  Whichever phone you have, I encourage you to use the photo and video capabilities–especially if you have children at home–catch those fleeting memories!

Almost all of the photos and videos in this show were taken with a cell phone.  When you put them all together like this, you create a very special "one of a kind" gift!.

There are many programs out there that will create a video like this one–or, you can use your local HoldMyMemories.com licensed photo studio to help you create your video.

If you would like for us to create the video for you, just comment on this video and we will get back to you on how to get us the images (through your HoldMyMemories.com account).  Then we will create your Father’s Day video for FREE!

Here is a great idea, just in time for Father’s Day, of what to do with those cell phone photos and videos.

Those "cell phone memories" are great to use for producing a very simple video for Dad for Father’s Day.  Below is video created from cell phone photos and videos–a years worth of memories–tidied up into a great little production–that melted mom’s heart on Mother’s Day.

There are many programs out there that will quickly create a memory like this.  For the video below we used Animoto.  If you need help creating your own video for Father’s Day, contact your local HoldMyMemories.com studio–that is what we are here for!

We take a bunch of video of our kids.  Video that nobody really cares about–EXCEPT US! 

Here is my son Jacob–one of his first times at bat–ever!  This will be a fun video to share with him five years from now…ten years from now…twenty years from now…FIFTY YEARS FROM NOW!

How much video do you take of your children?  Try taking small snippets–with your cell phone or with your point and shoot camera.  Then PUT THEM ON LINE where you can organize and store it.  Whether you use HoldMyMemories.com, or other sites, put it somewhere so it doesn’t get lost in a drawer (or on a hard drive).

I promise you will be glad you did.

Of course you can also use Skype for chatting with family in other cities–it is a great, and FREE way to keep in touch!

This weekend my boys had a football game that I had to miss because I was out of town–I may have missed the game, but my wife caught the memory on video (to put on our HoldMyMemories.com site), and my kids got to tell me all about it "face to face"!

(I have written about Skype before, but I thought the info valuable enough to mention again!)

Recently I had the opportunity to catch a "first" of my own.  A friend of mine just got an electric car, a Tesla.  Being someone who believes strongly that we have to break our dependence on oil, I have been researching alternative vehicles for some time.  Cars that run on compressed natural gas, clean burning hydrogen vehicles, hybrids, and electric vehicles.  They all have advantages and disadvantages, I have been waiting for one of these technologies to break from the pack, and be available for our six person family.  

Electric vehicles have intrigued me the most.  Not golf carts, but "real" electric cars.  The concept isn’t  new (the EV1 was tested by Chevrolet in the 90s), but it seems like the development has been stagnant as battery technology has been the limiting factor.  The Chevrolet "Volt" will be available within a year–it has a 30 mile range on electricity alone–then its generators kick in.  The Volt is intriguing, but 30 miles seems somewhat limiting–and it still relies on a combustion engine if you need to go more than 30 miles.

I have been following Tesla for awhile.  The $100,000 plus car seemed like it would be a start if the company could pull it off.  No doubt that $100,000 price tag could quickly come down to the $20,000 range as electric motors and related necessities should be cheaper to build than combustion engines (I remember when the first digital watch came out in the 70s…with the glowing red dots that told you the time when you pushed a button–for about $200!).  The Tesla has about a 200 mile range which is almost as impressive as the 0-60 speed in 3.7 seconds!  It is a small (very) two seat vehicle, but hey, its a start! 

I was looking forward to getting to drive my friends car.  I wanted to see if the technology was ready.  The car looks like a small sports car–you would never know it was electric.  Getting into the vehicle was tight–and sitting next to my friend felt like sitting in the middle seat on Southwest Airlines, but what would you expect from a sports car? 

Starting the car is an odd feeling, because it doesn’t "start", it "turns on"…even making sounds like a computer does.  As you start to drive, the sound of the rubber on the road was all you could hear–until the engine starts to whine when you floor it.  WOW.  The thought that comes to mind is when the DeLorean takes off in the movie "Back to the Future"–as you floor the pedal, you get THROWN back into your seat.  The specs are true–zero to sixty in less than four seconds. 

Driving this vehicle it just seems like we have the answer to our dependence on oil.  Sure, we may need to install a few "charging stations" at gas stations, but that is much cheaper than building a hydrogen infrastructure along the highway system.  In 2012 Tesla is also coming out with the Model S, a seven seat vehicle–one of the coolest looking vehicles I have seen–with up to a 300 mile range.  This vehicle is slated to cost $50,000 after a $7,000 US tax credit.  I am putting down a deposit on one next week.

After driving this vehicle, I think I have seen the future of the automotive industry.  As far as the technology goes, I can only think of two words, Game Over.

I caught my first "electric" ride in the video below.  This will be fun to look back on in twenty years when we are all driving electric cars–and my grandkids wonder what all the fuss was about.

Then it hit me.  As a family we take a lot of videos and a lot of photos.  We put them on HoldMyMemories.com, and often look at them as a family.  What my kids were remembering were the videos they saw–it was those videos that burned in those favorite memories. 

I want my kids to have great memories of their youth–we probably take more videos than most people.  To me the key is to take short videos–little snippets of great memories.  We post them to our HoldMyMemories.com site, and I blog about our favorite memories on our site’s blog.

Here is an example; our kids at Poppa’s Thanksgiving weekend–raking a pile of leaves–running and jumping in.  Didn’t we all do that at least once when we were kids?  This video won’t mean much to anyone–anyone but my children, who will have a fond memory of their Thanksgiving trip to visit Poppa in Garland.