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Welcome to the world of home videography. It's an exciting place where you have the power to record your family, your precious moments for a lifetime of viewing pleasure. While consumer-level camcorders are nothing new, advances in technology have allowed manufacturers to stuff more features into smaller packagesat a price most families can afford.

So you've got your new camera and all its accessories unpacked and out of the box. You know that you want to make great home movies that can be shown off to relatives and friends. And by good, that means not the average home movie with tons of camera shake, lightening-fast zoom ins and outs, and 45 boring minutes of the same old scene (ok, so maybe the first two minutes or so weren't that bad!). You're probably asking yourself at this point, "Where do I begin?"

Well, your first step is to carefully read over your camera's instruction manual. Chances are there's a quick-start guide that can give you the basics on loading recording media (if necessary), charging the battery, and so on. Probably now is a good time to find that helpful little piece of information and start charging up the battery. In the mean time, you need to read, or at least skim, the owner's manual. I know how incredibly boring this can be. I've been there before. I can also tell you that the way I've gotten the most satisfying use out of several cameras that I've owned was by initially reading the owner's manual. The manual will explain to you the specifics for your model of camera. How to navigate the menus, adjust white balance, activate night shooting (if equipped), use the zoomall this and so much more will be covered in the manual. Once you've at least glance at some of the manual and feel you have an idea of how to use your new toy, turn it on and start to practice. You'll learn best by doing, not just reading, so actually practice some of the things you've read up on in your owner's manual.

Besides telling you what buttons to press and how to navigate your new camcorder, the manual may also give you some tips for taking good video. While these hints are excellent advice, if you really want to shoot like the pros, consider checking out a videography book from your local library. If you can't find anything on videography, look for photography. Many of the rules for shot composition, white balance, lighting, etc. that apply to photography can be directly applied to your videojust think of it as photography that is moving in real time.

If you're

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