Creating Memories Archives - Page 3 of 5

Aug 11 2016

Photos Matter. Stories Matter. Celebrate Yours.©

This is a guest contribution by Kathy Stone of Calgary Photo Solutions

How we honor those we love is inextricably tied with our photos. Earlier this year, my Aunt passed away. The family gathered, told stories, looked at photos, laughed, and cried. My cousin succinctly captured this time in a Facebook post: “How do you begin to capture a life and tell the story of someone you love? It is through stories, memories, pictures, and reflections…Since my mom passed, I am growing even closer to those I love that knew (and loved) my mom.” This described exactly how I felt as we went through old photos and put together a slide show and the story of her life. Photos trigger memories of stories forgotten in the busyness of daily life. Sharing these stories – both good and bad – and the emotions that accompany them gave me the gift of remembering my aunt, and getting to know my cousins as the fine adults they have become.

It also got me thinking about how we celebrate the lives of those we love. We gather at Celebrations of Life, to share those stories, memories, and photos – often in videos or slide shows set to music. What struck me is that we wait until our loved one is gone to tell their story, and share how important they were to us, and the mark they left on the world. When we accumulate photos in shoe boxes, dusty old slide carousels, old format film, and thousands of jpegs, we lose the opportunity to celebrate the stories – good and bad, that tell our loved ones how we feel about them. Wouldn’t it be great to celebrate our loved ones through stories and photos while they are still with us?

Saving our photos is about more than just having 3 back-ups of all our photos stored in safe places. It is about finding ways to look at our photos, tell the stories behind the photos, and celebrate the lives depicted in those photos every day. Enjoying our photos has become both easier and harder in the digital age. We have many ways to share our photos now, but take so many that we are too overwhelmed to see them. Take advantage of technology and make a quick album or slide show of your best or favorite pictures that tell a story. Make a canvas, metal print or wall print of a photo or collage of a few photos of your grandparents. Or a day with the family that has special meaning. Sit down with a loved one and make that slide show that tells the story of his or her life. Let them tell the stories, and hear what they mean to those who love them.

Don’t just save your photos – use them to celebrate and honor your loved ones. Somehow, with that purpose in mind, the effort involved seems less overwhelming and much more rewarding.

Kathy Stone, a Certified Personal Photo Organizer, founded Calgary Photo Solutions to help people preserve their photos and stories by providing a range of photo organizing services. Kathy has been helping people organize and enjoy their printed and digital photos for over 16 years. During severe flooding in Southern Alberta in 2013, Kathy saved thousands of photos for several families. She is a Certified Adult Educator, and has presented at the Association of Personal Photo Organizers Conferences in 2014 and 2016, provided digital and print photo training to numerous groups and individuals, and has spoken to individuals and organizations about the importance of photo preservation.

Aug 01 2016

Top 10 Reasons People Don’t Organize Their Photo Collections

This is a guest contribution by Bonnie Shay of Mariposa Creative Solutions

1. They are overwhelmed with the quantity of printed photos they have.

2. They are embarrassed because they never did anything with the photos while their kids were young.

3. They expect it to be a bittersweet process seeing people who have passed away or who they used to be married to, etc.

4. They think they will get to it someday when life gets back to “normal.”

5. They don’t have the time.

6. They don’t have the computer skills to deal with digital photos.

7. They can’t remember what cloud/online sites they have their photos stored on or what their login ids and passwords are.

8. Their digital photos are scattered over all multiple computers, phones, tablets, hard drives and more.

9. They can’t choose what app or photo management software program to use.

10. They don’t know a Photo Organizer like me that can help them.

Come back next week to see Bonnie’s Top 10 Reasons why people don’t organize their [specifically] printed photo collections!

When I was a little girl, my idea of a fun activity was to organize my family’s kitchen pantry, cabinets and drawers. I discovered many years later that it wasn’t every girls’ idea of a good time. Who knew? But it planted the seed of an idea that underlies Mariposa Creative Solutions: that each of us loves and excels at different things and if we recognize that and do what we do best, we can make a difference in other people’s lives.

My clients often say that at the beginning of our work together they feel like some or all of their home is chaotic. The great filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola said, “Anything you build on a large scale or with intense passion invites chaos.” And so it goes whether you have built a family, a career, friendships or a beautiful garden, a certain amount of “chaos” has been part of the process while you’ve been living life.

And if you’re reading this, my guess is you’re not like me — one whose passion it is to make order. The important thing for you is to stop feeling bad about that. It’s about recognizing what you’re good at, what you enjoy, and how to relieve that which weighs on you.

Jul 26 2016

Get Started on Saving Your Photos

This is a guest contribution by Meaghan Kahlo of Ephemera Photo Organizing

The goal of the Save Your Photos effort is to simply get you started on saving your photos. Just taking a step in the right direction towards saving your photos from accidental loss.

One of the biggest steps that can be taken is also one of the simplest and can result in the most beneficial change for your photos.

It’s all a matter of finding where you have been stashing your photos and moving them into your living spaces. One step, one goal, find your family photos and papers and move them to a safer location.

The attic, the basement, the garage, the storage unit. These spaces are for camping gear and gardening equipment not for our valuable family archives that are made up of vulnerable media including photographs, papers, slides, negative, film and audio reels, memorabilia, and albums.

Poor storage conditions can have detrimental effects on irreplaceable family memories. Years of temperature and humidity fluctuations will have an impact on the quality and condition of your memory collections potentially causing myriad issues. Dirt and dust may collect in deteriorating storage boxes. Pests may be attracted to paper and glue. Acetate film layers can begin to degrade and break down. Paperclips, staples and film containers can rust. Tape yellows, turns to dust, and becomes difficult to remove.

The main living spaces of our homes are generally the most consistently stable since we keep it that way for our comfort. Family photo and archive collections will benefit and last much longer living with you. Plan to take action and carve out a safe space in your living room, hall closet or guest bedroom to relocate your family photos and important history.

Meaghan Kahlo, owner of Ephemera Photo Organizing in Seattle, WA, began her professional life with graduate work in museum studies focused on collections management. Her enthusiasm for photography and historical preservation combined with a passion to organize and create order are the driving forces behind her business. Meaghan helps clients transform the ephemeral nature of digital and printed images into meaningful photo solutions for loved ones today and for generations to come tomorrow.

Jul 21 2016

Enjoy Your Photos Now

This is a guest contribution by Cheryl DiFrank of My Memory File

Over the 21 years that I have known my husband, he has given me several pieces of very nice jewelry. Some of them were expensive so I diligently hide them in my underwear drawer to keep them safe, and to eventually hand down to my children, because the pieces are so special and meaningful. But I hardly ever wear them. Some of them my children have never even seen. Unfortunately, I have never gotten in the habit of wearing diamonds to a PTA meeting or when I’m working from my home office. So I just keep them safe, knowing that they will make someone very happy one day.

The question is: Why do I hide such special things away when I could be enjoying them now, sharing their stories with my kids now? Wouldn’t they be more meaningful to my husband, myself and my children if they could see me wearing them now and knew the stories of when I received them?

Does the same thing happen to your photos? We take thousands of photos every year to preserve all these wonderful memories and stories. Hopefully we organize and backup all the photos to keep them safe for our children and grandchildren. But when was the last time you actually went back and looked at the photos you took from the last birthday party, or that fantastic vacation? Did you share the photos with your kids so you could all relive it together? Or, like the jewelry, do you just make sure the photos are safe and you’ll get around to looking at them later, and handing down a photo collection of yours and your children’s lives, many of which they have never even seen?

Often the only reason we even download the photos is to regain storage space on our phone or camera memory card, a message that we inevitably get just minutes before the recital or the birthday party. So then we hurriedly download months of photos while the rest of the family is waiting in the car, heading for the next photo-worthy event. Going back and leisurely looking at the photos ends up on the to-do list right between “organize sock drawer” and “teach the dog to use the toilet.” We think: The photos will be there. I can look at them when I retire. Hopefully I’ll remember who everyone is.

Wouldn’t it be nice to enjoy the photos now? My kids love looking at photos of themselves when they were young. They love reliving old vacations and birthdays. And let’s face it, I like seeing photos of myself before the gray hairs appeared. So is there an easy way to view and enjoy your photos now? Yes! There are several! A couple that you can even do while you’re reading this. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Enjoy Your Photos

One caveat…. To really enjoy your photos (and not end up seeing 15 variations of the same shot, or all those pictures your daughter took of her brother’s tongue), the first step needs to be a certain amount of editing. If you are an average digital photographer, you cannot help but click the shutter at least three times every time you take a photo, just to make sure you got the shot, and just in case the first (or second, or third) one was out of focus. You need to edit down to the best shot of each sequence, take out the tongue photos and any other photos that are out of focus or just not worth keeping. Once you’ve gotten down to the selection of the best photos, consider your options to enjoy and share them.

Traditional Picture Frames

Traditional picture frames may seem very old-fashioned in our high-tech world. But I smile every time I walk by the photos sitting on the piano or hanging on the wall. I also like to change the photos in the frames periodically. My family notices when a photo in a frame has been changed, and they always comment on the event in the photo. Find inexpensive frames at stores like Marshalls, TJ Maxx or Home Goods and then it’s easy to print out a few photos from a fun event or from the previous year and swap out the photos in the frames.

A Computer Slideshow

There are several software and online options for making easy (or more complex) slideshows. In addition, both Mac and PC computers have resident software that allows you to make a simple slideshow in seconds. In iPhoto or Photos on a Mac, simply create an album and put all the photos you want to view into the album. Hit the play button to view your slideshow full screen. If you don’t use iPhoto or Photos, but have all your edited photos in a single folder or directory, just highlight/select all the photos you want to view in your slideshow and double-click one of them, or select File->Open to open them all in Preview, the Mac photo viewing software. Once the photos are open in Preview, select View->Slideshow to view a full-screen slideshow of the photos.

On a PC, open the folder of photos you want to view and double click on the first photo in the folder. It should open up in the resident photo viewing software on your computer (probably “Windows Viewer” or “Windows Live”). At the bottom of the screen you can use the right or left arrows to move through the photos or you can click on the small slide show icon in the bottom left, or click on the “slide show” button at the top of the screen. Both will start a full-screen slideshow. Roll your mouse down at the bottom of the screen to get a play or pause button to start or stop the show. To exit the slideshow, hit the “esc” key on your keyboard.

Digital Frame

The only downside to a slideshow on your computer is that for more than one person to view it, you need to crowd around your computer screen. A portable laptop can solve this problem but you might also consider a digital picture frame that displays a continual slideshow. There are lots of different digital frames but most can hold a memory card with over a thousand photos. There are also several wi-fi frames, where you can easily email photos from your phone to the frame without having to plug-in a memory card or camera. Place the frame where everyone can enjoy it as they walk by.

Photo book

If you have a little more time and want something that’s more tangible and permanent, a photo book is a great option. Photo books are created digitally, usually online, and then printed and sent to you. They are the current (and much improved) version of the old magnetic photo albums with the plastic overlay pages. There are seemingly endless websites to make photo books, many offering a wide variety of layouts and designs. One of my favorites is Shutterfly, which offers a number of layouts and tools that make it easy to put together a beautiful book.

Whenever you make any kind of photo album (digital photo book, or more traditional photo album) consider burning a DVD of all the photos in the book and placing the DVD in an adhesive pouch in the back of the book. (You can find plastic adhesive DVD envelopes at Staples or Amazon.) So when you or someone else are looking through the album and you find the perfect photo for Throwback Thursday, or need to collect photos for a wedding or anniversary party, you can easily find the photos on the DVD. The DVD also serves as an additional backup of the photos on your hard drive. *But always make sure to backup your photos in at least 2 places.

Warning: Please do not use Shutterfly or any other book making site as your “online/cloud” backup. It may seem like killing two birds with one stone – upload the photos to make the book and now they’re backed up on that site as well. However, most of the book printing sites do not make it easy to get your photos back if you need to. And isn’t that the point of a back up – the ability to get your photos back if your computer crashes or some other catastrophe wipes out all your photos. Do not depend on being able to get all your photos back easily from a book printing or even photo sharing site.

Photo Gifts

You’ve probably received (and most likely made) a photo holiday card. And maybe you’ve seen or purchased photo mugs and mousepads. But did you know that you can make personalized photo placemats, aprons, playing cards, blankets, shower curtains, coasters, puzzles, neckties, and much more. You can even customize a Rubik’s Cube with your photos on each side, instead of solid colors! What unique conversation pieces and fun ways to enjoy your photos every day.

Don’t forget why we take photos in the first place – to actually view and enjoy them. So enjoy them now. Make it a January tradition, or a holiday tradition, or any time, to review the photos from the last year and share them with your family. The photos will mean even more to you and your family when actually enjoying the photos becomes part of the story you are handing down.

Cheryl is the owner of My Memory File (mymemoryfile.com). Growing up with her professional photographer father, Cheryl has always known the power photos have to tell a story, to teach, to inspire and to connect people. For many years she owned a professional photo agency, managing the collections of over 400 professional photographers. When she started her own family it became even more clear how important it was to preserve her family’s story and be able to share it with her own children. Cheryl started helping individuals organize their own photo collections in order to preserve and share their own stories. She is passionate about making sure that her clients’ irreplaceable photos are organized in a way that keeps them safe and allows them to be viewed and shared, not just kept in a box or hidden on a hard drive. Whether it’s scanning the boxes of old prints in the attic, or organizing all the digital photos that are spread over computers, cameras, memory cards and phones, Cheryl can help get them all organized and in a format that is easy to access and enjoy.

Jul 19 2016

Get Your Photos into Your Life – Photo Albums

This is a guest contribution by Personal Photo Organizer Nancy Keegan

There is FOMO – Fear of Missing Out – and FOBO – Fear of Better Offers – and lots of other phobias that don’t have such clever acronyms. Sometimes I have FOGS – Fear of Getting Started – and perhaps you do as well. I know that as I am making progress in getting my photos and images safe and organized (is it ever really complete?) I also want to get them into my life and that of my family. One way to do that is to make photo albums.

You don’t have to use the same approach for a lifetime of photos and stories. While some people might have a series of albums that cover a year or few years of their family story, that prospect is daunting if you haven’t kept up. Sometimes the best thing is just to jump in and do one album.

Photo Albums

A few of my favorite albums were prompted by special occasions:

An ABC Album

Each letter of the alphabet had a double-page spread in an album I made for my elementary-school-teacher husband’s 50th birthday. Every person, place, interest and event in our family experience up to that time is depicted under its appropriate letter. An ABC book, especially one for a child, might have just one or two things shown per letter. I’ve seen books where a character trait of the recipient serves as the title of each page.

Vacations

Some special vacations warrant a book of their own. Even a special weekend could be remembered with its own small softcover photobook. I’ve also done a big album of all family vacations, each trip covered on two or more pages.

The Kids

We probably take more photos of our children – their sweet faces and their events and milestones – than just about anything else. I confess to having dropped the ball on keeping up with albums through the years when my kids were young. Several years ago, I heard of an idea from a former memory-keeping colleague, Missy Tidwell, and I am actually still working on the “Toddler to Teen” album for each of my now-grown kids. Each holiday or event gets a double-page spread. So you have one spread with photos of the first day of school through the years, another for all birthdays, all Halloweens, little league, big snow storms, and so on. Include whatever events and traditions are significant in your family.

A Heritage Photobook

My husband had collected photos of ancestors and he asked me to help him pull the story together in a photobook. Gathering the information was kind of like doing a jigsaw puzzle with no borders, but it is so much fun to have it all in one place. He took delight in presenting the finished product to his siblings, and now they each have their own copy of the book.

Hobby or Collection

One of my favorite books is called “The Stories in the Squares.” I was given a delightful friendship quilt as a wedding gift, but I recently realized that I was the only one who knew the significance of each block. I photographed each square individually and wrote something that told about the creator, their relationship to me and the explanation of what was depicted in their square. The final product actually became the story of my life and friendships up through the time of my wedding. Maybe you don’t have a quilt, but perhaps you have a special collection or a hobby that you would like to document for posterity!

A Love Letter

I had missed the occasion of our 25^th wedding anniversary, but I wanted to do something special, so I made an album for the next Valentine’s Day. Some ideas would be to use photos from every year; or a special song or poem as a theme. I simply used pairs of photos on pages entitled things like “love and marriage” “hearts and flowers” “friends and family” “cake and ice cream” (for birthday celebrations!) It was a very, very simple book. He loved it.

What kind of album?

One big decision is whether to make traditional albums using print photos, or just go directly to a photobook with your digital images. Again, you don’t have to take the same approach with every album. I confess to being partial to photobooks for several reasons. They take up less space; additional (or replacement) copies can be ordered; I love varying the sizes of the images and the number of images on a page; and I simply prefer working in that medium.

Whichever type you choose, be sure to include writing to document the who, what, where, when and even how everyone was feeling about the events you cover.

The poignant last line of the hit musical Hamilton is “who tells your story?” Will you use photo albums to help tell your story and the stories of those close to you?

Nancy Keegan (& Daughter!) — Nancy Keegan

Nancy Keegan is a member of APPO, the Association of Personal Photo Organizers. Her favorite way to help people is creating custom photobooks. She has made albums for milestone birthday celebrations including folks turning 90 and 98; and she particularly enjoys designing wedding photobooks.
This photo shows Nancy with her daughter during their trip to NYC last winter. Yes, they did see Hamilton!

You can reach Nancy at her APPO website here.