Vox

Up For Air

I have been mostly out of touch, blog-wise, for a few weeks. Not that anyone would notice...

Anyway, for the one or two of you that may care, it was all Christmas related, which for my family was last Saturday.

And a serious case of mission creep.

It all began with a decision that my mother would probably like a digital picture frame. She isn't very tech savvy, though, so I knew loading pics on would be a challenge for her. Easy enough, I'll load some on.

But I don't want her to have a frame full of nothing but my pictures (not that I have many) So, I sent an email to my siblings and asked for contributions. Only two responded to the email with digital images, but my sister tore apart her albums for shots I could scan.

So I scanned...and scanned...and scanned...

Then I thought about how, when someone looks at your photo album, you have to sit there and tell them who everyone is. Especially true with some of the kids in my family who look like they were sprung from the same mold, though years apart.

So, I figured I would label them. Easily done in a digital format. Of course, I can't just put the names on there in the same font for all of them; the typeface should match the image, the color should compliment. Oooh, I had forgotten how many fonts I have to choose from on my computer.

Then I noticed that there were a lot of red eyes, so I figured I would fix those. And a lot of the backgrounds were busy and distracting, so I figured I would fix those. And pimples. And bra straps. And spills. And.... I have Photoshop, should be a piece of cake. Sure, if you're not OCD. I was tinting and tweaking till my fingers ached.

Eventually, I realized that I could get more creative. After all, shots in portrait mode are just going to leave blank space - I might as well combine shots and/or embellish them. Heck, why not just do the whole digital scrapbook effect. I added backgrounds and photo corners and thumb tacks and patterns and multiples....

So..a couple hundred photos later, as I am loading them onto the SD card for her frame, I realize that people are probably going to want to see what I did with their pics. Crowding around a little frame didn't seem very practical, however, so I wanted to make something she could play on the TV.

At that point the project moved into Pinnacle Studio. Can't make a slideshow without music, though, so I have to dig through my collection to find a tune.

After all that work, I might as well share the files with everyone, right? I'll make everyone a CD with the files...oh, and why not make them all a slideshow, too? Each of them should be personalized, though, and with just the right music.

Did I mention that I come from a very large family.

Poor D was sooo patient and helpful, I was buried in this project for weeks.

I did finally get done (OK, mostly done, there are 3 more to finish) and the results were worth it. My family seems to appreciate the time investment. I imagine D is happy I'm not glued to my laptop anymore.

Perhaps I can even blog again :-)

Posted by Vox at January 7, 2008 07:52 PM | personal