Jackie Lyals, Author at Save Your Photos

Sep 23 2016

Why Print Your Photos?

This is a Guest Contribution by Chari Pack, Founder of PersnicketyPrints, who believes you should print you photos.

We are taking more photos than ever before, but what about preserving them? What happens when today’s high-tech data storage systems become tomorrow’s floppy discs?

In today's digital world, do you print your #photos? #saveyourphotos Click To Tweet

Entering A Digital Dark Age

Vint Cerf, Google VP and Father of the Internet, warned us last year of a “digital dark age”.

Why Print Your Photos? | SaveYourPhotos.org — “If we don’t find a solution our 21st Century will be an information black hole. We think about digitizing things because we think we will preserve them, but what we don’t understand is that unless we take other steps, those digital versions may not be any better, and may even be worse, than the artifacts that we digitized.”

Image Credit : http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/13/google-boss-warns-forgotten-century-email-photos-vint-cerf

The Library of Congress expresses the same concern with Digital Preservation when it comes to digital memories and provides the following Archiving Tips:

Identify where you have digital photos
Decide which photos are most important
Organize the selected photos
Make copies and store them in different places

Not only should we be printing our most treasured moments, we should also be aware of preservation. Will that inkjet printer you have next to the laundry room process images that will actually last?

Print Your Photos To Preserve Them

We live in a time of instant gratification. We want it now. At Persnickety Prints, we understand this; however, when it comes to printing, archival longevity is just as important. All Persnickety orders are processed in-house and shipped within 12 hours. Lab techs look at every single image as it’s printed and again once it’s completed. At Persnickety Prints, we still use a dark room. No ink. Silver Halide printing is still the most archival, fade and water resistant printing medium available.

How do YOU print your photos? Or do you?

We also invite you to visit our sister blog The Photo Organizers for more tips and in-depth knowledge from some of the top photo organizing industry professionals. To find a photo organizer near you, visit the Association of Personal Photo Organizers.

After a long search for high quality affordable printing, Chari saw a need and created her own; Persnickety Prints.
Completely bootstrapped, Chari went from zero to hero and continues to grow each year without funding or investors. She is passionate about the customer, striving to educate and serve each one in this new digital age.
Before founding Persnickety Prints, Chari helped numerous organizations increase their online presence and revenue through her creative services. Chari graduated top of her class & received a Business Management degree from UVU. Her hands on retail knowledge and expertise comes from over 10 years of service at the retail industry giant, GAP.
When Chari is not working on the next innovative business idea, she is calling a customer about their low resolution image, driving one of her 3 boys to a soccer game, or racing her mountain bike.

Chari is Persnickety in all things.

Sep 22 2016

No Picture? No Proof? Photos Capture The Stories of Our Lives

This is a Guest Contribution by Lori Krause, Photo Life Manager, and member of the Association of Personal Photo Organizers.

No Picture? No Proof?

Now that’s a loaded statement! And can be interpreted a couple of different ways. But we’ll get back to that in a minute. First, let’s talk about why we take pictures.

Or why I take pictures.

I am not a professional photographer, far from it! I don’t know my aperture from my aspect ratio, much less anything about shutter speed. What I do know is that I’ve always enjoyed capturing important people and moments in my life through photography. But until about 6 years ago, I didn’t realize that I was also capturing proof.

The 50th Wedding Anniversary

In 2010, my in-laws were celebrating their 50^th wedding anniversary. I was asked to scan their family pictures and slides so the siblings could put together a video for the celebration party. While I was at it, I also scanned all of my pictures as well. How many times have you found a picture and thought, “Oh my goodness, I had forgotten all about . . . ?” I had a lot of those moments!

Like, “Oh, wow! There’s my husband heading to a fishing tournament in a sweatshirt he printed with one of the first color printers!”

or “Look, there’s the picture of my goofy son who won first place in a baby contest.”

But it wasn’t enough for me to remember those moments, I wanted the ability to find those pictures and share the moments with others. So, while I was scanning, I also set up a system in my computer to organize, the now thousands, of photographs. I can pretty much find any picture within a couple of minutes.

OK, so I can find the pictures quickly, but what stories do they tell? What are the memories and how can I share them today?

If there is no picture, is there no proof? #saveyourphotos Click To Tweet

Yesterday’s Memories Shared Today

When that sweatshirt (the one mentioned above) was found and my college daughter quickly declared it was hers, I could show her the picture of her dad wearing it almost 30 years prior. As my son was moving out and came across a little trophy, I could show him the picture that helped him claim that trophy 25 years ago.

krause-1 — *The “sweatshirt resurrected!”*

I also have recently captured memories as well.

krause-4 — *Sitting in the last row (who knew there was a row ZZ?) for the 2012 MLB All Star Game.*

Remember that 50^th Anniversary party that started it all? Over 100 friends and family came from all over the country for a surprise dinner to celebrate them. I made my in-laws a photo book to commemorate the weekend. (I’ve since made a photo book for almost every family vacation and holiday as well.) When my daughter graduated high school and wanted certain pictures for her page in the yearbook, I was able to find them easily. For Christmas gifts each year, I make calendars for my parents highlighting pictures of the grandkids, and they love them! It’s important to organize those pictures so you can find and relive those memories captured on film.

I’ve heard it said that a birth certificate proves you were born and a death certificate proves you died but a photograph proves you lived. So, no picture, no proof!

My name is Lori Krause. I live in a suburb of Kansas City with my husband of 28 years and a recently adopted dog who keeps me on my toes. We have 2 amazing human kids: one working on becoming a certified cicerone (beer expert) and one in college studying sports marketing.

I’m a non-practicing registered nurse. I’ve been in some sort of nursing since 1981. I love nursing, but healthcare is changing. I also love taking and organizing pictures. I had no clue I could transition careers so easily! As a nurse, I looked at the whole patient and evaluated what I could do to help and care for the patient. As a Photo Life Manager and member of APPO, I evaluate all of the client’s needs and help them care for their photographs.

Sep 21 2016

Leaving Your Family Legacy

Every person has a story to tell and a family legacy to share. Marianne Behler of Lifetime Photo Solutions believes every person (children especially) should have a book to hold that tells how important they are, their history with pictures and stories of their life.

Family Legacy: Who Gets the Pictures? Who Tells the Stories?

Every person has a story to tell and a family legacy to share. Every person (children especially) should have a book to hold that tells how important they are, their history with pictures and stories of their life.

Have your heard the saying, “It’s never urgent until it’s too late?” I encourage people to take the steps needed to preserve their pictures and tell their stories before it’s too late. Our pictures, our story, impacts the lives of others: the people who care about us, our children, our family and future generations. There is a window of opportunity to get this done. This window is before we get ready to move into a retirement facility. Definitely before we start needing assistance from others.

I recently assisted two families in creating their family history books. Both almost missed that window of opportunity. One person developed Dementia during the process which led to Alzheimer’s. She started exhibiting signs of memory loss when we were working to identify the people and to record the stories of her life. The other, a gentleman who lived to see is book completed, died just three weeks later from an advanced stage of Parkinson’s.

Getting started means creating a plan to guide you through the process.

Start Now and Allow Time

A collection of pictures and stories that spans several generations will take time to assess and curate (organize and digitize). A collection may include both printed and digital photos, photo albums, framed photos, photo books, movies and more.

Create a Vision and a Plan

Envision completion. A Photo Organizer will assist you in all phases of planning and completing a Legacy photo book, a slide show, celebration poster boards and digital storage systems that will allow you to keep your memories while eliminating the clutter.

Involve Your Family

Who wants your photos? Many families decide to create a photo book with copies for each of their children and grandchildren as a gift to celebrate milestone events: weddings, anniversaries, retirement and/or significant birthdays.

Keep the Memories, Not the Clutter

A DVD can be created of your BEST photos. Celebration of life posters, canvas prints, and important photos [framed] can become your wall art for you to share and for everyone to see. Photos taken of your collections and significant treasured possessions can be incorporated.

Hire a Professional

A professional brings energy, is not overwhelmed, is objective and can assist you in making decisions about each picture, each piece of memorabilia and the telling of your story. Create a budget to complete your project. If you have a 50-year collection of photos and accompanying items, it will take time consisting of several stages of work for a photo organizer to complete your project. Find a photo organizer near you at APPO.org.

Would you like to tell your story and leave your legacy? #saveyourphotos Click To Tweet

Leaving A Family Legacy

After giving a presentation at a local retirement facility, a woman approached me saying that she wanted to have a legacy photo book completed of her most important pictures, stories and her family treasures. She was widowed, did not have children to leave her pictures and stories to, but wanted to complete it for herself and her family. We took pictures of her significant family treasures and featured both the pictures and stories in her book.

Here are two pages from her Family Legacy book:

Would you like to tell your story and leave your legacy for your children, grandchildren and future generations? Please consider getting started today. This could be the most important gift that you can give your family.

“Photos will only keep your memories alive when they have been arranged so that you can enjoy them whenever you like.” – Filing Fairies

Marianne Behler of Lifetime Photo Solutions resides in Jackson, Michigan. Lifetime Photo Solutions specializes in helping people with a lifetime of photos get organized, digitize their collection and create legacy photo books.

Sep 19 2016

4 Reasons to Hire a Professional Photo Organiser

Mara Morrison of The Filing Fairies wants you to get past the reasons you aren’t organizing your photos and consider hiring a professional photo organiser.

In our line of work we hear things like:

“I could do this myself”

“I know I could do this on my own but I just can’t motivate myself to get started” or

“There are too many options I don’t know which one is right for me”.

Because many people believe they have the skills to complete a task themselves, there is also an associated sense of guilt. They are thinking “I should be able to get this project done”. They are embarrassed that they long to hire someone to do it for them. I remember the first time I hired a cleaner for the house. You should have heard the song and dance I made about how busy I was and how I really COULD clean the house myself, how apologetic I was about my Joe Average house hold mess. I won’t even get started on the wife/mother guilt that I laid on myself. I will tell you though about the relief once I gave myself permission to let that responsibility go, the sweet release of the burden that would allow me to focus my energy on my growing family and a business I loved, was uplifting.

You hire a landscape gardener to advise on planting or design and help keep the lawns in check, or a tutor to unravel complicated math problems with the kids. There is no shame in engaging a professional photo organiser to help you with your photo life management. Most people are unable to put a monetary value on their life’s memories so why not invest in getting help to ensure that they are used, enjoyed and protected.

4 reasons to hire a professional photo organiser #saveyourphotos Click To Tweet

4 reasons why you should hire a Professional Photo Organiser

You are busy.

Life is chaotic! We are all at different stages of life and everyone one of those stages comes with high demands on your time. It is perfectly reasonable to not get through the basic household chores and errands, let alone a special project (no matter how important it might be). How often do you have a basket of washing to put away? A Professional Photo Organizer is dedicated to helping and is working hard to provide solutions you can use.

You are overwhelmed and scared.

The elephant just seems so huge and you don’t know where to start eating it. Metaphorically you are scared that eating such a large elephant will make you full to bursting and you are scared that trying to work on a large project will crush you. A Photo Organiser can help identify a clear process to suit your unique needs and put you on the path to freedom.

You are confused by choice.

You know the old saying a Jack of all trades the Master of none. When there are too many options or solutions you become confused by what might be right for you and of course you can’t be expected to be skilled in all areas. Plus you recognise that you don’t really want and unskilled indecisive ‘Jack’ to be held responsible for your priceless memories. A Photo Organizer can demystify all the solutions and ascertain what is right for your individual needs.

You need accountability.

Similar to engaging a trainer or coach to motivate you to achieve fitness and sporting goals, a professional photo organiser can hold you accountable for your organising goals.

Your story matters. Your photo collection tells that story. Don’t let guilt or fears prevent you from doing something to preserve and protect your precious memories. Check out our Resources Page and download our eBook or other checklists.

We make it our business to make your wishes come true.

Mara Morrison

The Filing Fairies is a partnership between friends Mara Morrison and Jo Myers, who met working for an event management company. It was there that they discovered their shared passion for order, lists and getting things done. In 2008 as part of a 150th Anniversary Tour for NAB they organised close to 200 events over an 8 month period. It was during that time they recognised their excellence as a team. Now as The Filing Fairies they hope to realise a vision of giving you peace of mind by helping you to organise your photo collection so you can utilise and enjoy it. The Filing Fairies are certified members of the Association of Personal Photo Organizers.

Sep 15 2016

Save Your Film and Videos Too!

Don’t forget to preserver your family’s home movies and videos too, says Vanessa Boucher of EverPresent Online.

We love reading through all the great advice on this blog and on the APPO blog about saving your photos. However, we think video tapes deserve just as much attention. Oftentimes the footage captured on video is every bit as sentimental and important as that which is captured in photo form. Much of the advice about preserving and organizing photos is applicable to video as well, but there are a few nuances when dealing with film reels and video tapes.

Digitize Your Videos and Film Reels

It’s much easier to share digital videos with loved friends and family.

Your old home movies are filled with special moments (see a sample of one of our favorite, cherished videos here). From the laughter of a child, to footage of wedding vows, to someone’s first steps or first words captured on tape or film, videos can be just as special as old family photos or school portraits, and they merit just as much emphasis when it comes to preserving and sharing with loved ones.

Old videos are much harder to share than photos because they require additional equipment. VCRs are breaking down and getting harder to find, camcorders require charging clunky batteries and hardly anyone has a film reel projector anymore. The best option for sharing home movies is to preserve them in a digital format that can be easily shared with friends and family.

Both videotapes and film reels can be digitized into files whose quality is equivalent to the original formats. Once digital, there are many cloud platforms that make it easy to share almost instantly once your videos are digital: Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, iCloud and Youtube are just some of the many options available.

Don't let your family videos fade away. Time to save them too! #saveyourphotos Click To Tweet

Consolidate and Backup Your Videos

Consolidate all of your digital videos in one place. Create a backup of your files for extra security.

Once all of your videos are digital, the best thing to do is get them all into one place, alongside your videos that were captured digitally. Typically there are a few different devices with that may have videos: computers, phones, tablets and cameras are a good place to start. Consolidating videos to a single place on a computer or external hard drive will make it easier to manage your video collection going forward. Organization of videos can be done much the same way as photos. Here is a great post about organizing printed photos . All of the information on sorting and prioritizing can be applied to your video collection as well.

Once you have everything in one place, and groomed to your liking, creating a high quality backup of the videos should be a priority. For best practices, keep a copy off-site, such as on a hard drive in a safety deposit box or uploaded to the cloud long term.

Proper Video Storage is Key

Nothing is wrong with keeping your old tapes and film reels, but make sure they are stored properly.

*This is an example of POORLY stored film reels. The reels have gotten rusty and the film itself is moldy.*

Videotapes and film reels can carry sentimental value in a way that digital files can’t quite capture. Maybe there are special labels written on each tape by a relative or maybe you want to keep your dad’s film collection to pass along to your kids one day. Whatever the reason for hanging on to these original materials, it’s important to do so properly.

Storing your film reels and tapes somewhere cool and dry should be the biggest priority. Nothing will deteriorate these formats faster than water, which can cause mold and irreparable damage to both videotapes and film reels that will affect the quality of the playback image. Pack your family memories in watertight bins and make sure to pack them tightly. If the items are packed too loosely, they can shift around and the hard plastic video cartridges can crack or break. Keep in mind that even when stored properly, the years can take their toll on your videotapes and film reels. The best way to preserve them is to keep a digital copy alongside the originals.

Vanessa Boucher has personally helped over 500 families share memories and history through unique projects as a consultant at EverPresent, the nation’s leading photo organizing company. A graphic/web designer and crafting enthusiast, Vanessa’s is one of the thought leaders behind EverPresent’s innovative website and blog, where she shares best practices and tips on topics ranging from digitizing irreplaceable memorabilia to creating stunning photo books.