The Newborn Years

Upon arrival, your little bundle of joy will be the center of attention, not just from its proud parents but from most everyone around. Here’s when things start to get challenging for the videographer, especially if you’re also a parent. By this time, you should be quite familiar with your HD Handycam® and its controls. When taking footage of babies, the rule of thumb is: always expect the unexpected. A newborn will not follow any script or storyboard, and, while a parent may try to coax a performance out of the baby through cooing and silly gestures, chances are the videographer will have to play it smart and quick. Some hospitals will allow you to take video during the birthing procedure. Find out if you can be there during the actual birth for an intimate look at one of life’s greatest mysteries. Do remember to find an angle that is neither obtrusive nor embarrassing for the mother. It also helps to have a strong stomach.

Be Patient!

You don’t need to be a keen observer of human behavior to know that babies spend most of their time sleeping, and taking video of someone sleeping, even a baby, isn’t terribly interesting. For you to take great baby footage, the most important skill you have to learn is patience. Learn to anticipate when something interesting will happen, be ready with your HD Handycam®, and you’ll be rewarded for your efforts.

Babies rely on their instincts and sometimes, getting up close and personal may scare or distract them. In this case, it may be better to take footage from a distance using the zoom function – it’s also amusing from the audience’s viewpoint. The HDR-SR12’s Zoom Mic feature will help with the sound, amplifiying it to capture minute details, even from a distance.

Keep it Short and Simple

While training your camcorder on your baby and taking endless footage seems the easiest thing to do when you’re a new parent, it often results in a lot of unusable footage. Do remember to keep your shots short, simple and sweet. Concentrate on the subject matter or imagery: your baby smiling, a mother’s kiss, the changing of a diaper. The HDR-SR12 packs in the revolutionary Zoom Mic feature, which amplifies the sound as the zoom is used, giving an extremely natural impression of the space and position of ambient objects within the sound of your videos.

Shoot High Resolution Still Photos

While video has immense versatility and creative potential, some moments are best preserved as a still photograph. With Sony’s HD Handycam®, you can easily take care of both. Dual Rec is a feature that allows you to capture 7.6 megapixels high-resolution still images directly to the HDR-SR12’s hard disk or Memory Stick™ while recording in high definition, and 10.2 megapixel images when in ‘Photo’ mode.