Stefani Twyford's Blog (127)

This website link from Boston.com was recommended on a listserve that I subscribe to and I wanted to share it with my readers. I can’t believe how haunted I am by these photos.

They were taken between 1909 and 1912 by a photographer, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, who was commissioned by Czar Nicholas II to…

When my own children were young, my father suggested taking a photograph of them every month, in the same location and pose. These photographs, he explained, could later be assembled into a type of time-line of their growth and development. While I did take many photos of both of my sons, I never did manage to do that specific project, although it still think it’s a terrific idea and would have been a wonderful thing to have now.…

I was recently in China for 10 days, visiting the main cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. What I found most interesting is how different the context of their beliefs and practices are to my own. Because I am a video biographer, some of the things that I noticed have cause me to look at my field and how much I take for granted about what I do in the context of our American culture.…

My grandmother almost carried the recipe for her famous cookies to her grave. She was a marvelous cook and had several recipes that were family favorites. She loved getting the praise and glory for producing these specialties for us and could never be coaxed to share the recipes.Finally, at some point in her 80s (she passed away in 1997 at the age of 93) she beautifully typed up the recipe and gave a copy to me and a copy to my sister. I’m not…

I recently got back from a 10 day trip to China where I visited the main cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. I had a really great time although I haven’t finished organizing and tagging all my photos and hope to get that done soon before I forget all the finer details of where each photo was taken. As I go through notes and photos I’ll be adding some thoughts to this “China Diary” over the next couple of months. …

My friend Maureen Taylor, aka www.maureentaylor.com The Photo Detective, just published her newest book, “The Last Muster.”

“A remarkable work of documentary history, The Last Muster is a collection of rare nineteenth-century photographic images—primarily daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and carte des visite paper photographs—of the…

For a good part of my life, I had a tin cracker box filled with old letters. Most of these were letters sent to me by old boyfriends, away at college or otherwise separated from me and declaring their affections. There were also some letters from friends off on a big adventure somewhere and I found them so well written, the details of their experiences so juicy that I chose to save them. There were a few letters from one of my parents who…

A few weeks ago one of my clients, Dan Duncan, a well known businessman and philanthropist, passed away. His passing was unexpected and we were just days away from shooting new footage for a another tribute video on the Duncans. Both Dan and his wife Jan were chosen as the 2010 Tapestry Award recipients by Interfaith Ministries, a local non-profit whose mission is for all faiths to work together to create a more compassionate society.…

At the end of March I attended an all-day workshop on Multimedia Storytelling led by Brian Storm of MediaStorm, an award-winning company based in New York and focused on creating cinematic narratives for distribution across a variety of platforms.

The workshop was put on by FotoFest, a Houston based arts organization, as part of their 2010 Biennial.

FotoFest’s purpose “is to promote…

Aside from creating a family history so that future generations of your family will know who you are, one of the nicer gifts you can give

your family is a graphical representation of your family tree.

I recently learned about Arbor Arts, an online company that provides beautiful family trees

at a reasonable price. They have 16 tree templates to choose from that

are about…

America is riveted right now by NBC’s hit show “Who Do You Think You Are?” which, in partnership with Ancestry.com, shares the genealogical history of well known entertainment personalities Spike Lee, Brooke Shields, Susan Sarandon, Lisa Kudrow (who is also the Executive Producer), Sarah Jessica Parker & husband Matthew Broderick as well as Emmitt Smith. It airs on Fridays at 8/7 PM. You can find more information about the show including the schedule and full episodes at…

I have been working on preparing a presentation I am giving on March 2 at the Abundant Living Conference at Camp Allen. The conference spans 3 days and is billed as “Explore aging as a spiritual journey-grow mentally, socially and creatively. Come, relax, enjoy… celebrate the years!” The setting is a beautiful one, deep in the Piney Woods. I have never been to Camp Allen. In fact, it’s been many years since I’ve been to any ‘camp’ at all so I’m looking…

I am constantly amazed by the Internet. It’s not like it’s something new but I regularly find myself wowed when I’m able to find something so easily, when only a few years ago it may have required days of research and possibly a cross-continent trip.