18 posts tagged “hamish”
Music by the Greencards
I've created a video slideshow of Hamish's second year starting from his first birthday when we were at Disneyland Paris. I used Lightroom to select the images -- it's great for that kind of thing as you can select all photos between two dates and then filter down to specific tags, in this case Hamish. Then use colours or flags to narrow down the selection and finally export out to jpg.
Once that was done, I imported into iPhoto 08 and did a slideshow that way, but it really doesn't give you very much control. So I tried it in iMovie and that worked a lot better. I'm used to the more traditional non-linear editors, specifially Premiere Pro, so iMovie looked a little weird at first. I did some of the online tutorials on Apple's site and it was then really easy to get the music imported, adjust the duration etc. I think the iApps are really great for creating media like this and the suite of apps goes together really very well. It's a shame that Lorraine hasn't the time to learn how to do this as I'm sure that she would enjoy it, particularly as she's got the 24-inch iMac; I'm doing it on a Macbook!
The hardest part of the project was picking out the music. Lorraine did help with that.
And finally I got it uploaded to the web. I tried Vimeo this time rather than YouTube as I'm not keen on how YT compresses video. Although Vimeo seems to have done the same sort of thing. I'll perhaps try different export settings from iMovie and see if that makes a difference.
The next thing to do is the same thing for Freya's third year. For each of them their birthday spans the move from Lux to Scotland so it's an important year for us all. Once it's all done, we're going to put it all on DVD for sending to friends and family.
It's really great having all this digital media and I could see my photography improving through the year as I picked out the photos. And Lightroom really does rock, seriously.
So, without any further ado, here are the fruits of my labour. Enjoy!
So our wee boy is now 2! I managed to get out of work at five and get round the supermarket to get some shopping and bits and pieces for a birthday tea. Freya and Rachel tried making a cake this afternoon but it didn't work out very well. Hamish didn't mind though. He had fun blowing out the candle and even managed to do it all on his own and then give himself a round of applause. Well done our little man!
This is Hamish all dressed up to go down the shore on Saturday. I just love the quizzical look on his face (first time I've ever written 'quizzical' I think and I had to look up the spelling. Two zeds - who knew?). He loves going out and often brings his shoes through or puts them on himself when he wants to go out. Check out how dirty his knees got and how happy he seems to be about it. It's getting easier to interact with him now and this is where it starts to get fun. He's talking quite a bit and even said 'how are you' when I got home tonight. He's taking to the talking more quickly than Freya did. His French is apparently not too bad so I'm told (we have a French au pair).
David, a kid from Freya's crèche, wanted Freya to come to his birthday grill at a park in Belvaux yesterday so we all went along and had fun. It was a nice big park and Freya particularly enjoyed the death slide (when the bossy woman got out the way and let me put Freya on it).
He's such a photogenic wee lad.
It was a big day for Hamish today. Thank to the thieving gits that nicked his Maxi Cosy car seat, he got to move up to the bigger forward-facing seat today, which means I can put the mirror up and see him in the back now as I'm driving.
And he had his first session of Little Gym today! It was really great fun. He's a bit wobbly for his age and so it's good that he's getting out to have contact with other babies and get some gym work in. Today was all about body parts. It really took me back to when Freya first started going. She's been going since she was about 9 months I think and started as a Loupiot. Hamish is a Petit Bous (whatever that might be), so a beginner. There were about eight of us there and hardly anybody waiting outside. Freya's group on a Saturday morning is choca, so it was a refreshing change. It was also nice not to be in a rush like we always are with Freya. Hamish's class is at 2.45 pm so I pretty much go straight from dropping Freya off at crèche so that H can get a sleep on the way there.
It was great just spending some time with Hamish on my own and being able to give him my full attention. He's such a lovely little boy and it was heart-warming to watch him laughing and enjoying himself. He was as good as gold and we had a lot of fun. I remember feeling a pang of sadness as Freya moved up from being a Loupiot to Mini Pouss, as my wee girl was growing up. Sounds daft, eh? Anyway, it's nice to be going through it again with Hamish.