We now live in the digital age. Advancements in Photography, Videography, and audio recording have paved the way for our family histories to be preserved and shared for all generations like never before. Digital storage is inexpensive and readily available. You can email it, post it, copy it, watch it and hear it in many different formats on a myriad of different media devices. Future generations will greatly thank the inventors of this age in regards to digital acquisition and archiving of historical events. It is astounding when you think about the quick leap from film to digital in just the last 10 years.

I believe video to be the most powerful of all digital mediums for several reasons:

1.Video communicates effectively because it combines both site and sound.
2. Video is very affordable and accessible to the masses. Cameras are getting smaller, cheaper, and better in quality every year.
3. Video is able to be shot, edited, archived, duplicated, shared and displayed in many ways and in many different formats. (TV, web, ipod, v-phone, tape, DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, etc) It’s everywhere.
4.The video you shoot now will be transferable as technology evolves.
5. Advancements in HD video allow for more accuracy in color, contrast, and detail providing a more realistic viewing experience. 

The important thing is that I, the viewer, can come to a better understanding of a person if I can actually hear them talk, observe their mannerisms, and see how they moved about in their world. I can view their expressions and feel their emotions. Video’s representation of movement, light, color, and sound is like looking inside a window that goes back in time. The old phrase, “If photographs could talk” is no longer a question. Video provides the ultimate viewer experience and a price that is no longer cost prohibitive.