A Shades Column - The Creative Toolbox

September 6

2009-09-06T01:33:00.000-07:00

THE CREATIVE TOOLBOX
BY DENISE OLSON
A Monthly - Weekend With Shades - Column

As family historians we spend a lot of time and effort preserving and protecting our family treasures. We have learned how to correctly store our paper, photographic and fabric treasures. However, not only are we preserving the past, but we're also making our own family history. Instead of letters and diaries, our memories are email messages, blogs, voice mail and videos. What are we doing to preserve these memories for future generations?

My wedding reception was filmed using a 1980s-era video tape camera that weighed almost as much as I did. The VHS tape survived more than 20 years before getting mangled in a VCR. Fortunately I had already converted the "highlights" (which did not include hours of marsh views broken only by an occasional out-of-focus body walking by) to digital video. Unfortunately, I had used a system with proprietary codecs that worked only on Windows. When I moved to the Mac, those files were useless. Thanks to Camtasia and several non-business hours of work on my office computer, I was able to convert those files to something viewable on all current computers. But for how long?

The challenges of preserving my wedding memories taught me an important lesson. I needed a plan to maintain my digital archives. Yes, my digital collection continues to grow. Not only am I digitizing my historical collection, I'm generating a lot of new content. I'm documenting my family history in blogs and interactive slideshows and collecting current family events using digital photos, audio and video. I'm building interactive scrapbooks using apps like Memory Mixer, Scrapblog, Keynote and iMovie. The difference is now I'm paying more attention to the digital formats I use - especially for my source files (those original, unedited images, audios and videos). I'm sticking to industry standards and choosing open source over proprietary formats whenever possible. When software updates impact file formats, I now make sure I update all existing data files so I don't wind up with useless orphan files sometime in the future. Yes, maintaining my digital archives does require time and effort, but so does maintaining my historical archives.

One major advantage of digital archives is portability. Not only do I maintain off-site backups almost effortlessly thanks to systems like Flickr and Mozy, but I can easily share my digital treasures with other family members. Thanks to my backups, my digital collection will survive should a fire or storm destroy my house. Too bad I can't digitize the heirloom linens, crystal or furniture - yet.

The portability issue has inspired me to digitize my current content as well as my heirloom stuff. Look at music. I have seen technology go from vinyl records to 8-track tape to cassette tape to compact disc. In addition to the costs of new equipment to play each format, think of how much you've spent on space and furniture to store all those albums, tapes and discs. Same is true for video. I won't be buying a blu-ray player - or any other video players for that matter. I now have one external hard drive that holds my entire music library AND is quickly becoming my video, audiobooks and ebooks library too. This drive cost me less than $100 and takes up the same amount of space as one hard-bound book. When it fills up, I'll just add another. Using my iPod Touch, I can easily load up whatever I want and carry it with me. Plug the iPod into my car's audio system and all that stuff is accessible there or I can watch a movie while I wait for an appointment. Reasonably-priced devices like Roku and Apple TV will let me watch content - even HD content - from my computer and the Internet without trips to the rental store. And, because online storage and distribution is cheaper than brick and mortar services, prices continue to go down. When somebody comes up with a new and improved digital format to replace MP3s, my guess is there will also be one or two neat applications that will convert your existing music - automatically.

As technology continues to improve, we must stay informed on how these updates will impact our digital archives. Yes, new technology will require cost and effort on our part to upgrade our content files so they will remain functional. Before you start yelling that you don't have to work this hard on your heirloom stuff, remember how much effort it took to rescue those photos from your mother's magnetic albums, the cost to make prints from your 35mm slides, how fast your latest file cabinet is filling up. It's the price we pay to be the family archivist.

August 2

2009-08-02T01:33:00.000-07:00

THE CREATIVE TOOLBOX
BY DENISE OLSON
A Monthly - Weekend With Shades - Column

I've attended several outdoor events recently where keeping cool was a priority. It dawned on me that an updated version of the funeral home fan found in many country churches could be a great way to keep the air moving and make a statement at the same time. So, off I went to my local craft store to look for inspiration. Less than $20 later I had everything I needed to create my own fans. Here's my supply list:

* a package of 5.5" by 7.5" card stock in assorted colors
* a bag of jumbo craft sticks
* craft glue - squeeze bottle and stick
* a large, round corner punch

Construction is quite simple:

Create your design(s). This is the most time-consuming part of the process - and the most fun. Since the card stock I was using for my experiments was the cheap stuff, I kept my design simple. If you're considering a more photographic design, spend the money on quality, coated card stock that can deliver a quality print.
Print two cards which will be the front and back of your fan.
Use the corner punch to round the corners of your cards.
Glue your cards together with the craft stick sandwiched between at the bottom of the fan. Leave about 1/3 of the stick exposed to serve as the fan's handle. The other 2/3 helps to keep the fan stable.

The toughest part of the whole process was the glue. I first tried basic white glue squeezed from a bottle. My thought was that a thick coat of glue would add stability to the fan. That might work for a better quality card stock, but in this case it buckled the paper as you can see in the example above. My second version used a glue stick with a much cleaner result. The glue stick was also quicker and easier to get the glue right up to the edges. For both versions, I used a heavy book to keep them pressed flat while the glue dried.

Now that you've seen how easy these are to make, think of their potential . . . Our next family cookout will have fans focused on family history. I may create several different designs focusing on different ancestors to keep the dinner conversations lively. My neighbor cousins are already planning our own design promoting the creekside family. I'm working on a design for our annual Thanksgiving regatta.

Custom fans would make great favors for family reunions, weddings and other family events. Imagine showing up at your next genealogical/historical society meeting or conference with a fan promoting your blog. (Actually, last month's conference and tours of our local historic cemeteries was the inspiration for my fans.) The possibilities are endless.

In addition to adding some fun to a family event, it's quite possible you'll be creating future family heirlooms.

March 1

2009-02-28T20:40:00.000-08:00

THE CREATIVE TOOLBOX
BY DENISE OLSON
A Monthly - Weekend With Shades - Column

In my family most of our major events - birthdays, holidays, weddings, funerals and more - involve food. Treasured recipes are passed down from generation to generation and we consider ourselves blessed if we possess a dog-eared cookbook full of notes and clippings that has been passed down from mother to daughter. It's not unusual to hear a discussion of a previous family affair include mention of an interesting dish served at the event. One coconut cake is still fondly remembered almost 15 years later.

Often food and holiday traditions related to food are one of the few ways today's family members show active interest in their heritage.

To that end, family cookbooks are a popular way to share family recipes. Thanks to today's technology and some superb publishing services, we can not only collect and share both heritage recipes and current favorites but we can also include photos, family stories and other memorabilia. The result is a family history your family will devour.

Our first family cookbook was typed up in the DOS version of WordPerfect and taken to a copy center to "publish". There were about 40 recipes, text only and printed in black and white except for a beige card stock cover. The logistics of organizing the printed recipes for copying so the result would be in the appropriate order was a time-consuming challenge. I produced 25 copies at a cost of about $12.00 each. This rather amateurish attempt was a big hit with the family.

More than a decade later, it was time to update the cookbook. I had discovered the Lulu publishing service and it inspired me to include photos with the recipes. This edition was created with OpenOffice.org and Photoshop Elements and uploaded to Lulu. This edition has 104 pages - all in full-color - with 119 photos. Lulu's cost to print and bind our cookbook was about $22.00 each and I sold them for $25.00 each. [NOTE: Prices have increased since it was first published.] After looking at the prototype, quite a few family members bought copies. I haven't gotten rich on book royalties, but they are still buying an occasional copy to pass on to others. A family photo album with great food - what's not to love?

I'm currently working on the next edition of the family cookbook, which I hope to publish next year. Again, technology will make this edition even easier than the last one. Why? I've discovered recipe software! Recipe software is nothing new, but today's apps are making it so much easier to collect, organize and share recipes. And, most are including features for publishing cookbooks.

I was still using Windows when I produced the last cookbook. I had stumbled on Living Cookbook but didn't have the time to really look at it until the cookbook was finished. I realized that if the cookbook recipes were maintained in the software, I wouldn't have to retype them should I decide to do another edition. PRANG! Later, after moving to the Mac, I found MacGourmet and easily migrated my recipes to the new app. Recently, MacGourmet announced a new plugin called Cookbook which will allow you to organize your recipes into chapters, add text and image pages AND upload the result directly to Lulu. All of a sudden, cookbook creation took on a whole new dimension! It was also at this point that I had another PRANG! moment - each recipe's notes field could be used for a story related to the dish and the photo didn't have to be a food picture. D'uh.

So now I'm happily putzing along updating the existing recipes with family photos and anecdotes either about the dish or its creator. I can focus on collecting additional recipes, photos and stories - the toughest part of any cookbook project. I even have a couple of family members using recipe software themselves and since most of these apps provide very nice sharing functionality, it will be even easier to get copies of new recipes. One goal for this year is to try and get more family cooks using software to manage their recipes - and to collect their related photos/stories. [Hmmm . . . could this be considered stealth genealogy?] In addition to printed cookbooks, we can share recipes (with their associated photos and memories) digitally.

In this family of great cooks, the future of memories is looking delightfully delicious.

April 5

2009-02-27T17:18:00.000-08:00

THE CREATIVE TOOLBOX
BY DENISE OLSON
A Monthly - Weekend With Shades - Column

This is our granddaughter Cecilia enjoying some ice cream. We get to enjoy this delightful moment because her mother is never far away from her camera phone and regularly captures little events like this. For a mother of four, a camera phone that can capture and email a photo in two quick steps is the tool of choice. For the grandparents who receive these precious pictures in our mailbox, it's a wonderful gift that brightens our day. For the family historian, not so much.

While camera phone technology is improving, these photos are - and will probably continue to be - much lower resolution than a normal digital camera. Trying to transmit a 10MB photo across a broadband connection takes lots of time so you can imagine the effort (and data transfer costs) across a mobile phone connection. As a result, we are limited in what we can do with these photos.

One way around these limitations is to do what I did and turn the photo into photo art. This can turn less-than-perfect photos into family treasures. It can also turn a simple photo into a special gift. And, if you already own Photoshop Elements (Win & Mac) or Corel Paint Shop Pro (Win), you already have the tools to get started. Both offer filters and effects which will turn your photo into a painting, poster or sketch in a few quick steps. The new family treasure above was created with Corel Painter Essentials 4 (Win & Mac), which is also included in the current version of Paint Shop Pro. I opened the photo, chose the style I wanted (chalk sketch here) and it did the painting for me. Once it finished, I did some quick cleanup and it was ready to go. The photo that once could only be printed at "wallet" size is now a portrait printed on watercolor paper headed back to mom and dad. Now, the size limit is my printer - it only prints letter/legal sized paper. This portrait file could easily be printed on 11" x 17" if I had the capability.

Not all photo art requires any great photo-editing skills or software. This piece was created using only the simple editor in iPhoto. I gave the original black and white photo a sepia effect and added the matte effect to create the oval frame. I then printed it on iron-on transfer paper and ironed it onto one of those cheap canvas boards (cardboard with canvas glued to it). This is a small (6" x 8") board so I was able to get two copies of the photo printed on one sheet of transfer paper. This example was the first try. You can see the line at the top of the board where the edge of the paper left a mark. A few simple adjustments and the second try became a gift for my sister (the little beauty on the left). The imperfections of the iron-on process, combined with the roughness of the canvas, gives the result an interesting grunge effect that adds even more interest to the piece.

Photo art can be an inexpensive way to create a personal gift that will not soon be forgotten. One family member ordered 10 sets of notecards from one of the online photo-processing sites using a different photo for each set. Since each set contained 10 cards, she could quickly rearrange them so each set had 10 different photo cards inside. As a result, she had 10 delightful gifts at a cost of approximately $8.00 each. Years later, I'm still talking about that gift.

So, where do you find inspiration? Start with the software creators. Both Adobe and Corel have built online communities around their products. Here you'll find tutorials to teach you how to use the effects and filters included in their products along with ideas for putting those techniques to use. There are all kinds or resources for ideas. Here's just a few:

Video tutorials at Adobe TV.

Elements User magazine and online community.

Books such as Digital Photo Art, The Art of Digital Photo Painting, and Photo Craft: Cool Things to Do with Photos You Love.

Magazines. The scrapbooking mags are full of ideas, but some of my favorites have come from Better Homes and Gardens. I spend an hour Saturday mornings enjoying a coffee at Barnes and Nobles while cruising the magazines for inspiration. Some weeks are better than others.

You'll be amazed at the number of ways you can turn a simple photo into a work of art. Even better, you'll be even more amazed at how easy many of them are. Most of all, you'll be pleasantly amazed at how much your family and friends will love your efforts.

May 10

2009-02-26T19:26:00.000-08:00

THE CREATIVE TOOLBOX
BY DENISE OLSON
A Monthly - Weekend With Shades - Column

Mary Catherine Link (1850 - 1917)

The lady in the center of this photo is Mary Catherine Link (1850 - 1917), known as Miss Kate to her family, friends and students. She taught school for 40 years, helped raise her brother's children after his wife died and was active in church and community affairs. This is the only photo I have of Miss Kate, but I do have one very special treasure that belonged to her - her autograph book.

This beautiful little book contains notes from friends and students spanning a period from 1885 to 1906. Unfortunately the binding has mostly disintegrated, but the pages are still intact. Although its condition requires limiting how much it is handled, today's technology makes it easy to digitize. To limit further damage, I chose to photograph the book rather than scan it.

Several cousins had expressed an interest in the autograph book so the next question was how to share it in a way that would maintain the integrity of its contents.

At that time I had just become aware of the Lulu publishing-on-demand platform. This is one of several such services now available online. It gives everyone the opportunity to produce a book with little or no upfront costs and, in Lulu's case, even provides a platform for selling your creation. I was intrigued with its potential for publishing an affordable family history but then it dawned on me that this was also a perfect solution for sharing the digitized collections of family documents, letters - and even autograph books.

Since the photos were already taken, building the book was a relatively simple process. With publishing-on-demand, you control both the editorial and layout/design efforts. At the time I photographed the book, I had no idea I would ever "publish" the photos. If I had, I would probably have included a more complete view of the pages with cover and binding showing all around each page to better show the age and condition of the book. Still, I'm pleased that all the notes are quite readable and the colors true.

Once you've written and formatted your book, it must be converted to a PDF format before being uploaded to your Lulu project area. I created my book using OpenOffice.org's Writer app. Other than a brief intro and a short biography at the end of the booklet, all I did was place one photographed page from the autograph book per page in my book. Cover to cover there are 23 pages in this little book.

One of the things I really like about Lulu is that they offer both a hardcopy print option and an e-book download option. When I added Miss Kate's Autograph Album to my Moultrie Creek bookstore, I chose to offer both. For this publication, I chose to offer the printed book at cost - $9.30. The downloadable e-book is offered at no charge. Costs are based on several variables - binding choice, physical size, number of pages, color or black and white, and so on. This also includes what it costs Lulu to provide the online project area for its users and to maintain the user's storefront. When someone comes to purchase the book, Lulu handles all the work - order management, printing, shipping, customer service, etc. This allows me to share Miss Kate with all my research cousins at a price everyone can afford.

While we are all aware of these online printing services for photo books, scrapbooking and family histories, it's time to think outside the box and use them to share even more of your family treasures. Is there an artist in your family who left sketchbooks behind? What about those letters, journals, recipe cards and scrapbooks? We're all busy scanning these family treasures, but what are you going to do with them now?

Maybe it's time to add a few publishing parties into our scanfest schedule.

7 June 2009

2009-02-25T20:28:00.000-08:00

THE CREATIVE TOOLBOX
BY DENISE OLSON
A Monthly - Weekend With Shades - Column

The future of your memories begins with your digital library. A digital library offers many advantages over a hard copy library and allows us to reference any piece of our collection at any time while the original remains safely tucked away in appropriately protected storage. And, a digital library is much easier to manage than the hard copy library.

Unlike paper records, digital records physically reside in one location on your disk drive and can be virtually connected to any number of topics, people or places. You don't have to make copies and file them in multiple locations. Digital records and photos can include metadata - information about that record or photo - which is then used by your computer to find that item through searches. Instead of spending hours setting up formal filing systems, spend a bit of time building a simple system of keywords (or tags) to describe each item and its relationships. Your taxonomy might include tags to describe the type of item (photo, birth certificate, census image, deed, etc.), family surname, location, date and any other descriptive keyword that suits your needs. Now, as you scan or save a new item in your library, just add the appropriate tags to the file's metadata and your done. When an item is associated with more than one family, don't create a new file. Just add another surname tag to your metadata. It's that simple!

So, what does it take to manage a digital library? Here are a few tools and tips you can use to get your digital library in order:

Disk space. Yes, scanning photos and documents at archival levels will eat up disk space. No problem, you can buy reasonably-priced external drives to extend your library. My 500GB Western Digital drive cost me less than $100 and is the size of a Tom Clancy novel. It will hold more than 140,000 high quality images. When that one fills up, I'll just get another.
Backup system. I use Mozy, a web-based backup service which automatically backs up my files to their server. After setting it up, it's totally automatic and I don't have to even think about it. It costs me $60/year for unlimited backup, but since hurricanes are a fact of life in my world, it's worth every penny. I also spend another $25/year for a Flickr Pro account. Not only is it additional backup, but it's also a great way to organize and share my photos.
Photo and document management software. Most of the photo management applications (Picasa, Photoshop Elements for Win and Mac and iPhoto to name a few) provide the ability to add metadata to your image files. The tags, geotags and descriptions you add all become part of the file. There are similar applications for managing documents. Both Paperport (Win) and Yep (Mac) allow you to organize both scanned and saved PDF files using the same tagging and description metadata elements.
Learn to use your system's search. The Spotlight search tool on my Mac is truly awesome. It finds photos, files and email quickly and easily. I don't need to spend hours developing a rigid system of folders and sub-folders to organize my digital files. Spotlight searches both the metadata and the actual text to find the file I want faster than manually drilling down through multiple folders. I can also create "smart" folders - virtual folders based on a search. Smart folders collect files from all over your system and "list" them in the smart folder. None of the files are moved or copied - just listed here for easy access. Do you know how to use your system's search capability? If you're not happy with the built-in search, you can always take advantage of apps like Google Desktop or Yahoo's X1.
Plan for obsolescence. Technology is constantly changing and the day will come when the file formats you use to save your digital assets are left along the wayside. You hear a lot of ranting and wailing about digital files that are no longer accessible. My response? How many of us still have a turntable to play records? When's the last time you listened to an 8-track tape? If TIFF or JPG image formats are dumped tomorrow for some new and improved format, every photo-editing software package will offer some way to save your old files into the new format - and quite possibly scripts to batch-convert files automatically. What equipment and effort will it take to get those old video tapes of your wedding moved to a different media? Regardless of the original media, conversion will always be an issue so plan for it now.
Take advantage of open standards. I use OpenOffice.org as my primary office system because it supports the Open Document Format (ODF). ODF doesn't use any proprietary components and there are no licensing fees to use it. An ODF document, spreadsheet or slide presentation can be opened and edited in any application that supports ODF. The number or apps supporting ODF continues to grow as more people realize the advantages and make the switch.

Your digital library not only protects your precious hard-copy treasures but makes it easy for your to organize, find, manipulate and share all your digital assets. It supports your research as well as your archival efforts. Learning to manage your digital library is not difficult and will reward you with extra research or creative time to concentrate on the future of your memories.

Article
Copyright © Denise Olson

July 5

2009-02-25T19:20:00.000-08:00

THE CREATIVE TOOLBOX
BY DENISE OLSON
A Monthly - Weekend With Shades - Column

Remember the days when you picked up your photos at the drugstore and then sat down with a soft lead pencil to carefully document the details on each one before they were forgotten? Neither do I. Even though I’ve been pretty good at documenting my photos, there are many times that effort consisted of notes on the envelope the film-processor gave me - in ink no less.

Digital photos are revolutionary in many ways - and documenting their contents is one of them. The digital file that is your photograph actually contains a lot more than just the image. It also contains metadata. Huh? Wikipedia says it best: “The simplest definition of metadata is that it is data about data - more specifically information (data) about a particular content (data).” Your photo file contains information about the image as well as the image itself.

Adobe has been working on this for some time and has developed a metadata standard called XMP to support their digital imaging effort. If you use Adobe’s Photoshop, Photoshop Elements or Abobe Bridge, you are using XMP to add titles, descriptions and tags to your photos. Although it is not yet a universal standard, it is gaining steam. When you’re working in Adobe Bridge or the photo organizer in Photoshop Elements, you can quickly add titles, descriptions and keywords to your photos. I highly recommend doing this - and spending the few minutes it takes to learn how to batch edit your photos when you upload them to your computer.

Most digital cameras automatically add EXIF information as they take a picture. This includes things like camera model, date taken, shutter speed and other technical details. Unfortunately this only works for the JPEG and TIFF image formats. If you’re shooting using your camera’s raw format - or convert your image to another format in your photo-editing software - you’re out of luck.

One last standard - IPTC is mostly used by the press services. I mention it here because my favorite photo-sharing platform, Flickr, uses IPTC for its tags and other descriptive data attached to uploaded images.

At some point - hopefully soon - we will see one standard dominate digital imaging. I’m not waiting until then to digitally document my photos. When software like Adobe and iPhoto make it so easy to include this information, why would I ignore it?

February 1

2009-01-30T10:37:00.000-08:00

THE FUTURE OF MEMORIES
BY DENISE OLSON
A Monthly - Weekend With Shades - Column

While I am totally addicted to researching my family history, I'm not too fond of the "formal" family history. Sure, these documents include all kinds of great information to help me make connections with my ancestors, but they are also very dry. The rest of my family might look at the photos included in the history - "might" being the key word here - but not much else. Like me, they enjoy their family history education in small doses that include photos, letters, journals and good stories. To that end, I take advantage of all the creative digital tools I have to produce fun and fascinating slices of family history to share. That's the future of my family memories . . .

In the coming months, we'll look at all kinds of fun and fascinating ways to share our family history. From blogs, to photo books and calendars, to slideshow presentations on digital frames and iPods, to videos and DVDs, there are so many ways to get your family excited about their ancestry. This month we start with the basics - the tools you'll need to get started.

My creative toolbox is quite simple and inexpensive. I'm including several online tools for several reasons. Not only is it easier - and cheaper - to share these stories with family members living hither and yon, but it might even attract research cousins I haven't yet met. My toolbox includes:

a blog site
a photo storage and sharing site
a video sharing site
photo editing software
movie editing software.

A Blog Site

The blog site is the backbone of my toolbox. It provides the platform for stories, photos and videos that even the most digitally-challenged member of my family can navigate. Instead of trying to distribute CDs or DVDs, I just send an email when something new is posted and they can come get it themselves. And, when they want a copy of that story about Uncle Jim from two years back, they can quickly search the site and find it themselves. Sure, I have my share of totally helpless kin but even they are easier to manage thanks to my blog site.

You don't have to be technically savvy to build and manage a blog site. Basic editing is quite simple and, as your confidence increases, you can begin to explore some of the more advanced options. Oh, and you have several choices of free blog platforms to use so money isn't an obstacle either. Blogger is probably the easiest way to get into blogging. It's a Google property so if you're already using Google (Gmail, Google Reader, Picasa, etc.) you can use your existing username to create your Blogger site.

As you see here, the Blogger editor is quite simple. A simple toolbar offers basic formatting and tools to include links, photos and video. Add a few labels (keywords to organize your topics) and you're ready to publish. As soon as you click on the Publish Post button your article appears on your blog site. The most recent post always appears at the top of your blog page and Blogger automatically creates and maintains an archive of your previous articles organized by date. Blogger offers several design choices - called templates - to add personality to your blog. You can choose a stock template or you can spiff it up with your own color scheme and fonts. Blogger offers all kinds of gadgets to spice up your blog. These can be used to add links to other sites (like your photo and video collections) and other goodies like your local weather forecast. It's fun to experiment - and easy to return to just the basics if that's what you prefer. My advice is to start simple and, once you are comfortable with the basics, start experimenting. Just remember - your stories and photos are the focus!

Blogger isn't the only free blog platform. You have several options, each offering their own features and style. Take a look around and see which best suits your needs and skill-level. Other free hosted blog platforms include:

Photo Sharing

I am a huge Flickr fan and highly recommend it to anyone with a large photo collection. There are free accounts available, but if you have a large collection I suggest spending $25 a year for a Pro account. This gives you unlimited storage and lots of tools for organizing and sharing your photos. With a Pro account you can upload your current digital photos and high-quality scans of your old family photos as a backup that not only protects you against hard drive failure, but also fire, flood and other disasters. Flickr gives you the option to keep any part of your collection private - only visible to you and your family.

Flickr provides tons of tools for sharing. One of these tools quickly became my favorite when a family member wanted me to scan, blow-up and print several old family photos for her home. I didn't have the time - or printer ink - to manage all that printing so I just uploaded them to Flickr and showed her how to order her own prints at whatever size she wanted. She could either have them sent directly to her or to her local Target where she could pick them up the same day. I was off the hook and she was quite happy. I can also use the sharing features to pull photo collections from other family members into my newsreader. Whenever new photos of our grandchildren are uploaded to their Flickr account, they pop up in my newsreader too.

That's just the beginning of the things Flickr can do for you. Other features include a blogging tool where you can post a photo - and your descriptive text - to your blog. You can create "badges" on your blog site to display groups of photos from your Flickr collection. Want to create a photobook, calendar, Christmas cards or other photo-related gifts? No problem! Online businesses like Lulu. Blurb, Moo and others cooperate with Flickr so you can build your creations directly from you Flickr collection.

Like blogs, there are many options for photo-sharing. These include:

Video Sharing Site

We all have made a visit to YouTube at some point. It can be a wild and crazy place, but it can also be a very useful platform for posting and sharing videos. Even short videos can be huge files and both free and premium blog hosts have space limits. YouTube not only gives you the space, but they give you the tools to embed your video on your blog site. Embed means you can view the video on your site while it remains physically located at YouTube.

You may not think you're going to be making any movies any time soon, but it's very easy to create video slideshows of your photos with music and even narration. And, since just about every digital camera does video as well as still photos, you may want to dip your toes into video sooner than you think. Even if you never create a single video, that shouldn't stop you from including videos on your blog. I've included video of Otis Redding singing one of my favorite songs while reminiscing about my high school days. And then there was the post ranting about Florida's plan to drop Suwanee River as the state song that included an incredible performance by Ray Charles, Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis. Yeah, that will grab anyone's attention!

In addition to YouTube, you'll find these sites also offer hosting with embedding and sharing features:

Photo Editing Software

If you're just getting started in photo editing, stick with something simple. You will need something that both organizes your photo collection and provides tools for your basic editing needs - straightening, cropping, color and exposure adjustment and red-eye removal. Mac users have all those things in iPhoto. Windows and Linux users can take advantage of the free Picasa software. In addition to an online photo-sharing platform, Picasa is also a desktop application to organize and edit photos on your computer. Both of these applications are a great place to start and will work well with online platforms for creating family treasures from your photos.

More adventurous users will find software like Adobe's Photoshop Elements (both Windows and Mac), Paint Shop Pro (Windows) and Pixelmator (Mac) provide more flexibility at an affordable price. These apps can support some serious digital scrapbooking with tools to create backgrounds and embellishments as well as manage your photo-editing needs. They do cost more and require a longer learning curve, but the creative possibilities are endless.

Video Editing Software

The good news is you don't have to spend money to get started with video editing. Mac users have iMovie included in their iLife suite and Windows XP and Vista include Movie Maker. Both are surprisingly easy to learn and you'll be amazed at the results you get. Although I'm quite happy with iMovie, I can always move up to Adobe's Premiere Elements (Windows and Mac) or Apple's Final Cut Express (Mac) should I ever get more adventurous.

As you can see, your toolbox is very reasonably priced. You can get started with no upfront costs and minimal training. Even when you're ready to move to more sophisticated tools, you can find ones that fits your budget. Your biggest investment will be your time and creativity. Experiment with the options mentioned here and find the tools that best suit you. Take some time to learn how to use the systems you choose and be ready to party next month when we start building some exciting family history projects.

A Shades Column - The Creative Toolbox

September 6

August 2

March 1

April 5

May 10

7 June 2009

July 5

February 1

January - The Creative Toolbox

A Blog Site

Photo Sharing

Video Sharing Site

Photo Editing Software

Video Editing Software