From Ordinary Dad to Martin Scorsese

As a 70s child, I have a good deal of round-edged photos that are stuck in between card board and dirty, wax-ish "stuff" that's supposed to preserve pictures (when in reality all it's doing is sealing those precious memories to the cardboard stronger than superglue ever could).

Every so often, I'll look through those photos and see how hideous the outfits were back in the 70s. If I had a dollar for every out of control collar I wore from the ages of 2-8, I would have been a millionaire.

When I look at the collection, I quickly come to the realization that the collection is more like a bunch of bookmarks from my life, i.e. quality over quantity. I attribute that to two reasons: one, my parents were never ones to carry around a camera; and two, technology wasn't what it is today. Polaroids were the Twitter of photography back then.

That leads me to the point of this post.

From the first poop, to the first time they eat peas, to the first time you take them to Fenway Park or walk them down the isle, today's technology makes it very easy for parents to catalog every bit of their kids lives. You can tell from my arsenal of toys that I've done just that with my two kids (girls, five and two):

• Canon Vixia HF10 (high def, flash-drive based video camera.


• Two Canon 30Ds and a variety of lenses (long, imaged stabilized, prime, wide angle, etc.)


• Canon G9


• Mobile devices: Blackberry Storm and iPhone


• Macbook Pro


• Storage: over two terabytes of storage for family stuff

With all this technology and being able to shoot and record just about every second of my kids lives, there are no excuses to miss a thing. I'm able to stream live to the internet via my iPhone and Blackberry to Qik, which is then sent to Twitter and to Facebook. I can post photos to Flickr, videos to YouTube, create DVDs for the family to watch, etc. I've pretty much cataloged every major, semi-major, funny, unintentional moment that my kids have been a part. I've been sticking some sort of recording device in their face since the time the doctor brought them into this world.

Today's tech gadgets make is SO easy for parents to create, produce and share content. These gadgets turn the least tech saavy dad into the next Martin Scorsese. Aim, shoot, download, post and share. That's pretty much the process (with a few minor technical details in between).

The best part of it all is that I love doing it. Not only am I producing high quality images and high def video, I'm creating a treasure chest of memories that my kids will have for their rest of their lives (less any major computer crashes, drive failures, etc. - back-up is a post for another day).

Will my kids appreciate it when they have families of their own? I hope so because I'm having fun doing it. I just hope that they won't mind five cargo loads of external hard drives dropped off at their door step someday.

Some of my favorite memories: