Purely a family album

[KyDan]

I have created an exe show of my family, vacations and gardens

from the year 2009.

My aim is a photo keep sake for my family.

I realize that watching someone elses "home movies" can be boring

but I think some here might be interested anyway.

It has music and captions and some pretty good views

of places we visited.

The show was created for family so it has lots of pictures

of us but there are plenty of views of WARM places.

Last year we visited

Gulf Shores Alabama USA

We had a terrible ice storm at home in Kentucky

We visited Pine Mtn GA and Callaway gardens

while the azelias were in full bloom

We took a hot air balloon ride

We spent a week in Shenandoah Nat. Park in the

Blue Ridge Mtns.

We visited Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and

Yorktown.

We had some local trips and a garden party

and I've included some pictures of our back yard

gardens.

Yes it's an amateur creation but just thought there might

be some here who are maybe a bit intimidated by the professional

shows that might get inspiration.

This is my first attempt in nearly 4 years and also my first

time to use any sort of pan/zoom.

Also my first show where I've trimmed the music files

to fade out and start at the appropriate times.

MANY thanks to Lin Evans and others for their wonderful

tutorials and links.

Special thanks for the links to free music editing software.

(yes I did make a donation!)

I could not have done it without this forum and all your great

support.

I have downsized the jpg files considerably to keep the result

of a smaller file size.

There is some mottling in places but it still looks OK I think.

My personal high def MP4 looks great on a big screen

LCD TV but it's too large to upload.

http://tinyurl.com/ykh8bxg

(file name 2009_Dan_Rita_med_resolution.exe)

about 54 Meg.

The show runs a little over 16 minutes not

counting music credits at the end.

[trailertrash]

Well I thouroughly enjoyed that. You dont need professional bells and whistles to make something enjoyable. I'm delighted to see you travel in a trailer camper, 'cause we do to. We call it a caravan over here and yours looks fantastic. What a variety of places you have seen.

Question, who empties that parking meter in your garden?

That was well worth watching.

Andrew

[Lin Evans]

Hi Dan,

Looks like you and Rita had some great adventures in 2009! Love the gardens at home - I've always wanted one of those "garden nymphs" but Sherry won't let me have any "naked" girl statues - LOL! Did you take the motorcycle in the back of your truck or is your trailer a "toy carrier" with the back which opens up? Anyway, great show and excellent photos!

Best regards,

Lin

[KyDan]

Did you take the motorcycle in the back of your truck or is your trailer a "toy carrier" with the back which opens up

Wow, thanks Andrew and Lin. Your comments are a thrill to see.

The motorcycle goes up in the back of my truck via a folding ramp.

It is wide enough to keep my feet down on both sides but still a bit scary to

back a motorcycle off the truck. There is one point when the

back wheel is on the ground but front wheel is still on the ramp

and my feet can't reach the ramp or ground.

Riding up into the truck is much less frightening.

I told my wife for years that "one day, when the kids are grown" I'll have

a "naked lady" in my garden. Well they've been grown and gone for a few

years now.

She's at the very back and worth a walk down the path to view I think!

Peace!

Dan D. Louisville, Kentucky USA

home of the Louisville Slugger bat!

[dpeterso]

I have created an exe show of my family, vacations and gardens

from the year 2009.

http://tinyurl.com/ykh8bxg

(file name 2009_Dan_Rita_med_resolution.exe)

about 54 Meg.

The show runs a little over 16 minutes not

counting music credits at the end.

Hello Dan -

Thanks for the chance to look inside your world. Wow. You're a traveler, a camper, a photographer, a hiker, a biker - my kind of folks. I enjoyed looking at your pictures. As you stated, this was a personal slideshow, and I know from experience that it will have limited appeal. However, you said something that I think is important. It's easy to become intimidated by some of the great shows presented on this forum. Unfortunately, it keeps the viewing audience restricted to just a few shows. I personally like a lot of variety, both in skill levels and subject matter. That is how I learn.

So, I applaud you Dan for letting us see your work (play).

Regards,

Dave

[coopernatural]

Hi Dan,

I enjoyed that.

A large download,long duration and family album viewing.Thats on par with being stuck in a lift with an insurance salesman for me.

I was wrong.What made it work ,was breaking it up into bite sized mini-AVs.

The work on the soundtrack was great as well.

Now at the end there was the push escape button to exit.I was happy just listening to the last track and it cut out.

Not even a fade out.

I'm deducting a few points for that.

Well done Davy

[KyDan]

>.I was happy just listening to the last track and it cut out.

Not even a fade out.

I'm deducting a few points for that.

Davy, point taken. Next time I'll let the last song play to it's end.

Dan

[Don]

Hi Dan,

I enjoyed that.

A large download,long duration and family album viewing.Thats on par with being stuck in a lift with an insurance salesman for me.

I was wrong.What made it work ,was breaking it up into bite sized mini-AVs.

The work on the soundtrack was great as well.

Now at the end there was the push escape button to exit.I was happy just listening to the last track and it cut out.

Not even a fade out.

I'm deducting a few points for that.

Well done Davy

Davy,

I really enjoyed the last piece of music, too. Follow the link below and you'll hear and see 5 minutes and 52 seconds of this wonderful song. I had never heard of this group before, but they are certainly on my radar now. Nice stuff!

Dan... I agree that personal videos like yours are most meaningful to family, but isn't that the most important thing. Think of the memories that this will bring about for your family in 10, 15, or more years forward. Keep doing them.

Don

[coopernatural]

Hi Don,

Yes I had a look thanks.Sounds like Norah Jones meets Sheryl Crowe.

Never heard of them either.

Davy

[Ken Cox]

Norah Jones

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/7196113/Norah-Jones-interview.html

Sheryl Crowe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheryl_Crow

ken

[coopernatural]

Ken,

My bad.

Meant I hadn't heard of 'Over The Rhine'.

Their sound was like a blend of Norah Jones and Sheryl Crow.

Sheryl Crow.

Davy

[Ken Cox]

Davy

i realised the Irish are up north but did not figger you were that far out of things

ken

[LumenLux]

Dan, I'd say your PTE family album is an unmitigated success. Good work. It's long been my contention that part of PTE's greatness, is it's usefulness to so many varied purposes. Sure we all enjoy the near perfection or the striving for photographic or AV excellence that is possible in our efforts. But many of us, like you, get huge satisfaction in using PTE to deepen the memories and appreciation of our lives beyond the camera and pc. So with that in mind, I'm sure you can be pleased with this presentation. That said, even to this "outside" viewer, it was an enjoyable trip. I enjoyed, found fitting, all your music choices. I think your occasional use of text, and movement, is useful to your intended audience as it both informs and breaks up the routine a bit - always a factor in a longer (by necessity) show. Congratulations, and thanks for sharing.

[KyDan]

Dan, I'd say your PTE family album is an unmitigated success......

Wow, (blush, shuffle, shuffle) aw shucks......

I feel like I was sitting along the street playing my guitar and Bruce Springsteen walked by and

said "you sound pretty good".

One final comment and I'll shut up.

My dear old Dad (who died nearly 30 years ago) took many reels of 8 MM home movies.

If he was filming at home he would spend lots of footage and be sure to include

ALL my aunts and uncles and grandparents, cousins etc. BUT HE was almost never

included. He just about never handed the camera to someone else.

I have nearly 2 hours of old movies from the 40s, 50s and 60s and my dad is

found in there about 8 seconds.

Also, when he was on vacation he would spend long minutes panning this

river or that mountain and very little of the people who where there with him.

The river or mountain most likely looks the same today but it's the people

we are interested in when we watch those old movies.

I try to keep this in mind when I'm taking photos of our vacations.

I think maybe I include my wife and myself too often but I hope my children

will appreciate the mix 20, 30 years from now when I'm gone.

This brings up a totally different subject-- what media will be available

in 30 years. Will they be able to view a DVD burned in 2010?

Don't answer that in this thread but it might be worthy of a new

discussion.

Peace and many thanks to you all.

[LumenLux]

One thing I failed to mention Dan - Of all your nice pictures, I think maybe one of the best was the one presumably taken by your wife! The one of you sitting with chin on hand looked like a nicely-shot candid portrait.

Like you, I learned years ago, that when shooting activities, the people shots are what the participants want to see. And often the participants are your main or only audience. You take boy scouts into the most beautiful scenery in the world, they will still want to see the goofy face when they jumped in the lake. The scenic vistas are recorded more for the photographer's personal satisfaction. Now with digital, we can often take enough shots of both scenery and people to then exercise our discretion later as what is useful for the specific purpose. Couple summers ago, our family camped a few days in Goblin Valley. I first made a quick PTE "experiment" with Igor's then-new animations features.StrangeLand.zip Then at the end of the year, I did similar to yours, a family year-in-review, utilizing mostly entirely different photos of the same trip. This family version was probably 25 minutes long. Now over the years, occasionally I will go back to the stock of photos, choose one, and try to tweak it into a piece of art worthy of a wall. Lots of ways to enjoy good stuff/photos.