Save Your Photos #12 of 30 - Techno-fruit!

We live in the information age.  It is wonderfully overwhelming.  Yes, that is an oxymoron and I meant it!

I have always loved technology.  The earliest PC in the Smithsonian (A Digital Equipment Corporation machine) is the exact same one I brought home to my apartment to log-in to their intranet (internal network) and work from home on a 96 baud modem or some such - before the world wide web existed.  I have been obsessed with computers and technology ever since.

I also still love non-technological information like newspapers and books.

There is so much information available to us in any one given day that we would not EVER in one single day be able to absorb it all - not even close!!!

As much as I love all of the technology and information I have at my fingertips, it also overwhelms me.  Just to keep up with the daily newspaper (which I still read and love in paper form), magazines, TV news, late night shows, internet news, local newspapers, the mail, social media websites and blogs, ideas on pinterest and ravelry, texts on my cell phone, my paper and phone calendars, etc etc etc is absolutely an impossible task.  This in some ways makes me sad - I'm missing so much! But I also feel overwhelmed... there is too much to know.

I think it's the same with photos - we have cameras and iphones and ipads and PCs, blogs, apps, external hard drives, cloud storage, photo albums, framed prints, digital albums, instagram, twitter, snapchat, facebook, flickr, dropbox, Forever, Mylio, Shutterfly, and on and on and too many more to even mention.  That entire list offers someplace to do something with your photos.

I find that for most people, the whole process is so overwhelming and their photos are backed up and stored and shared and saved and snapped in so many places and on so many devices that it's simply impossible to think about knocking the whole collection into place, to organize it, pare it down, treat it with care, enjoy it, savor it, share it - it's just too much already!!!!! AHHHHHH! Help!

By the time people contact me for help - they are about ready to pull out their hair when they think of their photo collections jumbled all about in their lives.  I get it - I understand - I feel your pain - but mostly I want to help.

I can help you take tiny bites out of all your photo woes until the entire fruit is consumed and you are happy and sated and with a belly full of delicious photo calories...  it was much easier when Apple and Blackberry were just fruits - but our world is more complex now - and I am here to help you sort it all out.  Feeling overwhelmed?  Contact a personal photo organizer today.  Tame your fruit.

Save Your Photos #11 of 30 - Sept 11 tribute

Those who were born after Sept 11, 2001, or were very young at that time might ask, "Where were you when the planes crashed into the twin towers in NYC?"  In the same way, we may have asked our relatives where they were when Kennedy was shot or when Pearl Harbor was attacked.  I have been asked where I was during the Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster.  It's hard for people who weren't around during a major event in human history to imagine what it was like for those who were.

There are loads of photos from that day - planes crashing into buildings, smoke pouring from the windows of the towers, people running through streets covered with ash.  Even though I live only 1.5 hours from NYC, 2 hours from the Pentagon and 4 hours from the crash of Flight 93, I don't have photos from those events or even from that day.

However, I have a picture of that day permanently painted in my thoughts.  I have a clear memory of how I felt as it was all developing, of how surreal it was to see in real-time what was so horrible and unbelievable and scary.  It was so strange to think that things were unfolding as I watched - LIVE.  In the afternoon, when my children had returned home from school, I sat down and wrote.  What I wrote is forever captured in my mind as a picture. 

Later, I saw that the Philadelphia Inquirer was looking for submissions from people in the area about their experience that day - and so, I submitted what I had written and strangely enough - it was printed.

My article describes the picture that will ever be etched in my mind when I remember September 11th.  It is a picture of innocence in a world that was experiencing horror and the divergence between the innocent and the horror cannot be erased from my thoughts about that day.

Here is the brief submission that was printed in the Philadelphia Inquirer those 14 years ago:

Horror on a Beautiful Day

Yesterday was September 11, 2001.  It was a beautiful day.  The sky was a vivid blue.  Birds sang, crickets buzzed.  Trees swayed gently in the cool breeze.  It was a day to delight in the experience of ordinary beauty.

I'm a stay-at-home mom.  After my last child left for school, I sat down with coffee and the newspaper - just like every day.  The phone rang.  My husband said, "Turn on the news."

The TV is never on during the day but yesterday, I stood in front of TV-news the entire day.  I felt numb.  The crash into the Pentagon made it personal.  My dad sometimes worked there and my brothers in law work across the street.  An hour of dead lines and fast busy signals to my dad's cell caused me to panic.  "Dad, get out of there!" I shouted when he finally answered.  I could barely register his reply, "I'm at home; I didn't go in today." A dead car battery had delayed him.

My dad's chances of being in a meeting at the Pentagon were real but not certain.  Eerily, I tried to perceive the hundreds who knew their relatives were on hijacked planes.  I attempted to fathom the families of thousands who work in or around the twin towers.  My panic was minuscule compared to the horrified knowledge and consuming dread of those whose lives would be imprinted in ways I cannot comprehend.

At kindergarten pick-up, the day's devastation seemed unreal.  The tree-lined walkway fronting the school was calm.  Perfect, white, puffy clouds floated above.  Children were cheerful, smiling; running to their parents armed with Tempra-painted pictures and juggling brightly colored backpacks.

Overcome by innocence, we grasped the open hands of children, holding them tighter, noticing the slippery wetness between our palms.  Leaving school, I felt the breeze, noted the sky.  It was a beautiful day.

Save Your Photos #10 of 30!

In honor of Save Your Photos Day, I have been posting a little bit of photo organizing inspiration and other little snippets every day this month.  Today marks exactly 1/3 of the way through the month and so far, not a day missed.  I hope the posts have been inspirational and given you new things to think about with respect to your own photos.

We have established that we take A LOT of photos these days - it's so easy - why not.  But, having a huge volume of photos to process, edit, name, tag, organize, backup, archive, print, display etc can be more than overwhelming.  So - let me offer a few ways to lighten your load, simplify your photo collection.

1.  TOSS - Did you know you can throw away photos?  Yes, you can.  Back in the film-develop-print days we often printed doubles.  But because we couldn't see a photo until we got the film developed, we took LOTS of photos of the same thing to assure that we captured a perfect moment.  And then we took our rolls of film in for development and got doubles.  It's okay to throw away some or many of those photos... I mean if you really don't want to that's okay too - but right here and now I give you permission to put a photo in the trash...  Likewise, with digital cameras, we don't have to worry about using up film so again, we take a ton of photos to guarantee success.  Throwing a digital photo in the trash requires a delete button - on photo apps it often looks like a little trash can.  It's there for a reason - you are allowed to use it.

2. A-Quality photos.  I do a lot (I mean a whole lot) of scanning for people.  Meaning, I take their print photos that are their ONLY copy of a photo and I run it through a scanner to make a duplicate or digital copy of that photo.  That way, if something happens to the original, there is another copy - and it can be used to create a new print copy of the photo as well.  The digital copy can be duplicated and stored in several places to assure its safety.  So, the question always arises before I begin a scanning job for a client - what do you want me to scan?  Usually, a client chooses either their A-Photos only - or the A&B photos.

A - stands for Album.  The very best of your photos.  The ones you'd want to print or include in an album.  A-one, top quality.  Sometimes clients can't afford to have me scan every photo they own.  This is where designating A-quality photos is important.  We opt to scan only the best ones.

Again, in the digital world, photo organizing packages often allow you to rate your photos - assign them a grade or enable you to indicate your favorites.  Many of my clients - especially ones who pay for their backup storage spaces - put only their A-quality photos up in their permanent cloud storage.  I do.  I don't want my family to have to dredge through all the photos to find the best ones, I put the very best ones in my most permanent and secure location.

B - stands for Box.  A photo that you don't want to delete but it's not your very best might just get to stay in your photo box but you don't want to pay someone to scan it and you don't want to pay for it to be stored in the cloud.  These are B photos.  Some clients like me to scan all the A photos and all the B photos - it's your choice - but just know it's a choice.

3.  Time.  Consider how much time you have to organize and backup and name and tag and use your photos.  Fewer photos means it takes you less time.

All of this adds up to simplification.  Simplify your photos - simplify your life - simplify the time and energy it takes to manage your photo collection.  The more you simplify, the more time you have to spend time on the photos that matter the most - not to mention the time it allows you to spend living your life rather than organizing your photos.

I spend a lot of time helping clients to SIMPLIFY their photo collections - I can help you too!

Save Your Photos #9 of 30!

How often have you used your phone camera to snap a bit of information?  I do it all the time.  I take photos of wine bottle labels and beers that I want to remember once I realize I love the taste of some new brew I've tried. I snap photos of clothes or product labels to remember them for style or price.  I photograph signs - on the street, in museums, on historic buildings etc.. so I can remember what I heard, learned or saw.

These INFO photos get deleted if they were meant to be temporary informational bits but often they get cataloged along with the rest of my photos and even added to albums if they assist in the storytelling process, or offer unique details.

I've taken these "informational photos" throughout my life and especially when traveling. I even took information photos with my "regular camera" and yes, I developed the pictures, and added them to albums and journals.  

However, in places I wouldn't necessarily carry my DSLR (like a dinner table, a dressing room or a store), I almost ALWAYS have my iphone.  Not having to keep all the details of my travels or shopping in my head, frees me from the minutiae I used to attempt to stuff into my brain.  I no longer have to lug home heavy and voluminous paper travel guides and brochures that I hauled around when I traveled just so I could bring them home and cut them apart to add to a scrapbook or re-read to remind myself of details of my trip I'd forgotten..

The save button icon I added to the quote depicts my immediate reaction to the sentiment in the picture above -  that a picture can preserve information that used to only be included in text documents.  Now my photos serve to capture both documents (text) and images... and both can be valuable.

Remember to choose a safe service to which your phone photos can be constantly backed up into a cloud service, especially when traveling.  If your phone is lost or stolen or falls in a lake or something, at least the memories will remain in the world wide web.

Need to learn more about how to select a cloud service so your phone photos will automatically backup without you having to do anything?  Contact a personal photo organizer.

Save Your Photos #8 of 30!

A tale of two families (as told by a professional organizer):

Family #1:  Two brothers and one sister met with a professional home organizer to discuss how to go about clearing their parents' home for sale.  The mom had been a widow and had passed away leaving a family home filled with treasures and belongings.  When reviewing the boxed items in the attic, the family came across two huge photo albums.  The albums were large, over-sized, old.  The pages were black but peeling and flaking away with age.  Some photos had slipped from their corner mountings.  The albums contained lots of writing as did the backs of many photos.  The text was in the creator's original handwriting which had begun to fade but was still legible.  The siblings had never seen the albums or the photos before.

Looking through the albums, they realized that it was photos and stories about all of their father's relatives.  The handwritten text listed the names of the people in the photos,  it explained where the photos were taken and often told stories or included quotes or memories.  The family was shocked and astounded by what they had found.  Though tattered and clearly at risk of falling apart, the fragile album was seen as a family treasure.  Unsure how to divide up the two albums between the three siblings, tense conversations occurred. Who would keep these heirlooms? Would they be separated or kept together? How would they pass them down?

Luckily, the organizer knew a photo organizer who specialized in digitization and could re-create the album offering the family as many copies of the digital version of the album as they wanted.  The digital copies contained scanned photos and even preserved the text, much of it in the original handwriting.  The family was blown away - and the presentation of the albums brought forth tears of joy.  No one cared who ended up with the originals once they knew that all family members could have a copy of the valuable keepsake.  The memories were priceless.

Family #2:  The only son lived on the other side of the country from his dad who was moving into a nursing home having been struck with Alzheimer's.  When clearing out his dad's stuff with the help of the same professional organizer who had helped family #1, two plastic bins of photos were discovered by the organizer.  The organizer was excited by the discovery and hurried to share the boxes with her client.  The client looked through the photos - some of them dating to the 1800s.  Most of them quite old.

The organizer related the story of family #1 - at least to explain how the photos could be made into an album and shared with other relatives.  The client picked up a few handfuls of photos and said, "I have no idea who these people are."  The photos had no writing on the back, very few had dates.  There were no written descriptions.  The client showed the photos to his dad but his dad just stared at them blankly, too far encumbered by memory loss to make identifications.

The organizer asked about other family members who might know how to identify the photos.  The client said something to the effect of: I don't really know who I'd ask.  These photos are kind of worthless to me.  You can throw them away or sell them if you think the old ones are worth anything.

The moral of the stories is that the photos found by family members and identified with stories and names and dates were viewed as priceless... the ones just thrown in a box with no written documentation were deemed trash.  What will be the fate of your photos?  Are they treasures or are they trash?  When you are not around to identify, organize and label them - will they matter to anyone?  If someone finds them with identification and stories attached will that change their value?  Think about it - decide if it's time to preserve your family photos now.

Personal photo organizers can help.  Leave treasured memories for you family - make your photos matter.

Sher Your Scraps #7 of 30!

The multitude of ways we share photos these days is mind boggling.  All judgement aside, it's a pretty wow-ing idea if you sit and think about everything we do with social media these days.  Can we even remember back to the days when social media photo sharing didn't exist? I'm over 50 and it's even hard for an old gal like me to remember when it wasn't a thing.

The downside - or upside depending on how you look at it - of sharing photos this way is both their possible permanence in the foreverland of the internet or their disappearance completely from our lives.  

My husband cannot understand the infatuation with SNAPCHAT because the photo disappears.  Unless someone screen captures it on a phone or computer while viewing - it goes away.  Two of my kids on the otherhand love the lack of permanence that SNAPCHAT brings them.  Plus it's an app that parents haven't taken over from the younger generation - yet. HAHAHA  Some of us can't stand the idea that our photos would disappear, others love it.

All that said, one thing to consider about sharing photos on social websites are the possible safety and privacy issues associated with posting your lovely mug (and those of your relatives) all over the world wide web.  Be aware of your rights to your photos once posted - each site is different.  Each site is goverened by their own set of rules about how they can use your photos- some of those policies are affected by privacy settings that they allow you to set - others don't give you any options to put stricter policies in effect.  You should however, at least be aware of such rules before you post - and be consigned to the strings that may come attached with photo-sharing social media and websites.

Until then, I'm taking your best guesses...how long before Facebook hits 10 billion uploads a month?

Save Your Photos #6 of 30!

I have been formally presenting the words above to everyone who would hear me since 2001.

In an effort to assist my french exchange student, Marion, to tell the story of the year she lived with us in the USA, I wanted to help her create a photo album.  I wanted more than just a regular album with photos. I wanted a place where she could tell her stories and include non-photo memorabilia to illustrate everything she experienced while she was here.  In my effort to find just the right materials for her to create such an album I discovered Creative Memories.

Though I found Creative Memories as part of a product search, I was much more influenced by the mission behind their products - encouraging people to create memorable photo albums full of stories.

For 12 years I shared the statement in the photo above with everyone who would listen.  And a lot of people listened.  I cannot count how many people heard what I had to say, took those words to heart and put them into practice.  I have been honored for over a decade to be able to guide, encourage and teach so many people about preserving their photo memories.  My time spent with Creative Memories birthed the eternal Memory Preservationist in me.

Though the original Creative Memories - from whom I quote - has since gone out of business, (a new Creative Memories has taken its place), the act of creating photo albums to preserve, enrich and inspire never did.  Preservation Pix, the business I founded, is a direct result of all I learned to love about helping people preserve their photos and stories.  As a "memory preservationist" or "photo solutions specialist" I was practicing the duties of what the industry now refers to as a personal photo organizer.  Today - as this industry has expanded, I offer a great deal more services than I did in 2001 but ultimately the core mission of my job is still the same.

Every day - with every client - I still get to help people preserve, enrich and inspire.  And I couldn't be happier doing it.

Save Your Photos #5 of 30!

The amount of photos we take these days astounds me.  It's cool - but it's crazy to think about.  I love this photo of ancient intimates hanging on a line.  I'm not even sure it's real - it's probably staged to look old, but it reminds me of how photos can capture everyday things, mundane items, regular stuff...

We use our cameras-phones to freeze time! Groovy right?  We are capturing pictures of things that tell the story of everything in our lives.

When I watch old movies, I always look at what's in the scene behind the actors - what's sitting around on the tables, what technology is in the frame, what clothes people are wearing, what the cars and houses and city streets look like, what's on the billboards and the signs.  Likewise, when I'm helping clients to organize older photos from decades past, I love to peek into the backgrounds of the photos - to look beyond the smiling faces and the posed groups - to see what stories the every day world has to tell.

When I look back through my own family photos - the ones from when I was little, I search for the things I remember from the houses I used to visit - like seeing my grandmother's canisters lined up on the kitchen counter where I remember baking cookies with my aunt, like seeing a toy I remember playing with piled on a bookshelf in the background of a photo of my brother or seeing the car I helped my grandfather wash in the driveway of their house.

There are so many memories in the backgrounds of photos - in the simple objects that weren't the intended subjects of the photos.  I love the history they tell and the decades they document - even if it was an unintentional part of the memory keeping.

Today - I love to take photos of regular things - someone mowing a yard, a letter written in cursive,  silverware lined up in a drawer - items in my refrigerator - mail sitting in a basket - buildings in my neighborhood - street signs - cars in the driveway - clothes on the line - items on my desk, etc etc  I feel like I'm documenting history for the future generations - my present day will be their past, and the stuff I use and touch every day may look strange and wonderful to them.

A few years back I made a "DAY TO DAY" album.  I took one photo every day for 365 days.  Often, the pressure of taking a photo a day meant that I took photos of very mundane things.  At first that concept bothered me, that I would waste space printing a photo of "nothing" because I hadn't taken a "real" photo that day.  But later, when the album was done and I looked back, I love that the album is a blend of  "planned" photos and every day objects.  I like the idea that my album is a history of one year in my life - one regular, every day year and once I realized I was capturing unique images that depict the very real and regular bits of mylife, the album was more special.

So since we snap as many photos every two minutes as were taken during an entire century, realize that we are capturing a unique part of our culture and history every 120 seconds and snap away!

Save Your Photos #4 of 30

Getting your photo collection under control can seem like an overwhelming process.  Start with a master plan.  A personal photo organizer can help you to create a master plan that you can work from.  Any good plan can be broken down into steps. Decide which steps you plan to tackle personally, or work together with a photo organizers.  If you would rather offer direction and have someone else do the work, a photo organizer can take the entire job off your hands.

As a photo organizer, when I work with clients to help them organize print photos or present them with an organized photo box full of their memories or a custom designed photo album, they are often so happy they cry!

Photos invoke powerful memories of family, friends, events, etc... 

Clients have called me letting me know they are losing sleep because their photos are so scattered they don't know what to do.  Helping them bring control the chaos and to get their photo collection into order allows them not only peace of mind and restful nights, but also joy from seeing photos that were so long hidden away.

Want to get started putting your photos in order? Hire a personal photo organizer.   Work one-on-one with an organizer so you have someone to guide you while you are working.  Or, hire the organizer to complete the steps in the that you don't feel comfortable doing yourself.

When you see one of your kids grabbing a photo album and sitting down with it, pointing at photos, re-living memories and laughing at childhood antics, you will be glad you took the steps to preserve your memories.  I'm not saying it will be easy, but it will DEFINITELY be worth it.

Need help finding an organizer in your area, consult the Association of Personal Photo Organizers.  If you are in the Baltimore or Philadelphia areas, contact Preservation Pix.

Save Your Photos #3 of 30

In honor of Save Your Photos Day (at the end of this month), Sher Your Scraps Blog and Preservation Pix Photo Organizing Services is sharing a bit of photo encouragement every day in September!

Today's photo encouragement is inspired by this photo:

So often, I don't hear from clients until they are ready to move or downsize. Their photos are scattered all over their homes, residing in drawers, hidden in shoe boxes under the bed, or relegated to bins in the attic.  Clients who are relocating worry about losing or damaging their photos during the move. Clients who are downsizing, often when they hit retirement age, worry about their family members having to organize and identify photos that they leave behind in a jumbled mess.

Photos hold family stories and family history that is begging to be told.  Whether you are the narrator of these photos stories or the relative who would love to hear the stories that the older generation has to tell - don't wait!

Pull out all those boxes and bins and get going!

If it seems too overwhelming and you have no idea where to start, what to do or how to do it, contact a personal photo organizer.  An organizer works with you and your family to help you gather, weed through, identify, categorize, organize and containerize your photos.  They can also assist you with digitizing (scanning print photos), backup and archive systems and creating albums and displays that the entire family can enjoy.

A photo organizer can teach you the safest places to store and share your photos, educate you about cloud storage, help you select and use organizing software and more.  They can provide photo-safe boxes, perfect for long-time preservation of your precious originals, scan print photos to digital format and even tackle your memorabilia and children's art work.

Whether you need the assistance of a professional or you just need tips and advice to get started, contact Preservation Pix (Philadelphia and Baltimore metropolitan areas, remote clients accepted) or contact APPO, the Association of Personal Photo Organizers to locate a photo organizer near you.

Save Your Photos Day Post #2 of 30

In honor of Save Your Photos Day at the end of the month, find a little photo inspiration below.

So often, parents who never owned a film camera and who raised (are raising) their children entirely in this digital age, find that they don't have a single photograph of their kids in print form. Their kids photos can be found all over facebook and instagram, they have tweeted and snap chatted baby fingers and toes all over cyberspace, but those babies photos mostly live INSIDE some piece of technology.

In my job as a photo organizer, I often get panicked calls from parents who need photos of their kids for school projects and they have no idea how to send a print copy into the classroom.  Or, parents realize their photos are trapped on websites like Shutterfly or Snap Fish that promise to store all their photos but aren't so friendly when it comes to getting them back into said parents' possession.  Sometimes worried mom's tell me their photos are stored on so many different websites that they have no idea how to find and gather them all.

Digital cameras, and now phone cameras make snapping photos of baby's every moment a real breeze, but gathering up those photos and corralling them into a structure that one can manage mean sometimes relying on some of our old photo tricks from the past.

Don't trap your babies inside jpg files - print photos, frame photos, decorate  your house with those chubby cheeks and smiling faces.  Make an album and print it!  You'll love how easy it is to enjoy all those fabulous pictures you took right from a digital photo book.  Go old school! PRINT.

September is SAVE YOUR PHOTOS MONTH!

In honor of SAVE YOUR PHOTOS DAY – an annual event sponsored by the SAVE YOUR PHOTOS ALLIANCE, I will feature a post about photos every day during the month of September!

I am the owner of Preservation Pix photo organizing services.  I am an APPO-certified personal photo organizer. I hope that my September posts will encourage you to preserve your photo collection.

As a member of the alliance, Preservation Pix is offering a special event on Friday, September 26th, 2015 from 10am - 4pm.  During that time, you will be able to call in to receive FREE one-on-one advice and information about preserving your personal photo collection.  Stay tuned for more details and contact information for this event.

Preservation Pix is also offering a three week course "ABCs of Photo Organizing." Contact the Haverford Township Adult School to register.

FREE CONTENT and Digital Scrapbook Art Kits Sale!

Hey There Digi-Scrappers...

Do you use Panstoria's Artisan Scrapbook Design software to create your digital albums?  Well, if so... you will definitely want to take a look at the Panstoria store and grab up all the FREE CONTENT offered there!



There are FREE KITS!


Free ALBUM DESIGNED PAGES

In fact, there are 49 products available to download for FREE and use with your Artisan (may also work with Storybook Creator software for those of you who haven't yet upgraded).

You will really want to check out all the offerings!

CLICK THIS LINK to purchase digital artwork from Panstoria - note, the link I provided is my personal affiliate link - thanks for supporting me by using this link.

If you don't already use Panstoria Artisan or you would like to upgrade to Artisan from Storybook Creator, CLICK THIS LINK to purchase Artisan at my affiliate site.

If you do purchase anything from Panstoria - please let me know, it's always a good idea for me to double check that your order was properly associated with my affiliate link so that I can support you with these products going forward.

BONUS!!!!  Panstoria now permanently OWNS all of Creative Memories digital art kits AND in celebration - they've put all their digital content on SALE - a really big SALE... .use the artwork link I provided above and SHOP TIL YOU DROP on these great digital artwork deals!

Valentine's Coversets - limited time

Do you need to have one of these beautiful Valentine's coversets - limited edition?  These are for a traditional scrapbook album.

CLICK HERE or click on the photo to buy one.

Snow Photos - Get it WHITE!

DOES YOUR SNOW LOOK GREY? in your photos or white?

grey snow and dull whites

 

white snow and brighter whites

Do you have some reliable sources for basic photo taking tips?  I do.  One of them is Nick Kelsh.  Here's a bit about Nick as printed on his blog I first met him when he was the keynote speaker at a Creative Memories conference:

Nick Kelsh is the author/photographer of nine book including How to Photograph Your Baby and How to Photograph Your Life. He also produced a new set of photographs to illustrate Rachel Carson’s classic The Sense of Wonder. His award-winning work has appeared in such high-profile publications as Time, Life, and National Geographic, as well as on several covers in the well-known Day in the Life book series. He has appeared multiple times on Oprah and The Today Show.

You can follow Nick here:  FOLLOW NICK

I also follow the Forever Blog - Forever is a long-term photo storage site.  It's different from other sites because it does not data mine and your photos are owned totally by you - not by Forever.

Today's lesson on the Forever blog was written by Nick Kelsh.  It's a little tip about how your camera reads the brightness of white snow when you have your dial turned to automatic.  Of course, you can correct your photos AFTER you take them, but if you would wish to learn a simple trick for taking the photos right the first time, consider the info Nick explains on the Forever blog here: https://blog.forever.com/overexpose-snow-no-seriously/

I woke up to a covering of snow this morning, so this information was pertinent and timely for me.

If you wish to learn more about Forever, you are welcome to contact me, or go HERE TO THE FOREVER WEBSITE to learn more about them.  You'll be glad you did.

PS - I'm going on a photo safari with Nick this spring.  I'm so excited!  The photo safari is a special course offered at the APPO (Association of Personal Photo Organizers) Conference this year.  Need to find a personal and professional photo organizer?  GO HERE TO APPO!

Memory Preservation Options - Digital Photo Books

You've heard of them: Digital Photo Books.  They certainly aren't new and they clearly are very popular but you have NO IDEA where to begin.  Maybe I can help.

First - consider quality.  Not all photo books are created equal.  Believe me, if a price seems too good or too low to be true, it probably is.  If you are printing a photo book that will be a permanent family legacy - one that you wish to enjoy and look at for many years, choose a high-quality digital photo book.

Second - consider how to make your book.  Are you a control freak?  Do you have an exact idea how you want every page to look, do you NOT want any limitations placed on your page design OR would you rather just drag and drop some photos into a pre-designed album page and send it off to the printer?  It's important to know what you are looking for in digital album design.

Third - consider how much of this process you'd like to perform yourself.  Are you savvy with photo editing, digital photo organizing, selecting and storing digital files, learning software, navigating photo websites?  If so, you have a lot of options.  If digital files and photo websites make your head spin, you may want some options that are super easy or allow you some assistance.

So - no worries, no matter how you answered any of these questions, there are solutions for you.

Lets begin with quality.  Photo album quality is very important.  Both the look and the construction of the digital album should be considered.  If you compare prices of photo books, you should be comparing only a company's PREMIUM photo albums to one another.  Many companies like Shutterfly, Ritz, Snapfish, Walmart etc.... offer very affordable photobooks.  However, these photo books often have inferior covers, papers, printing and binding construction.  These same companies will usually offer a premium quality book with in some cases: stitched bindings (as opposed to glued), lay-flat pages, leather covers, padded covers, high-quality paper and exemplary photo printing.  Usually, these premium books are not the ones you see the low prices for!  So - that said, buyer beware.  If you are just purchasing a photo book as a temporary gift and you don't care how long it lasts, just choose something cheap and fast - you can't go wrong.

Though there are an ENDLESS amount of in-store and on-line companies offering premium photo books, they certainly vary.  AND... often times, the only way to determine if you like what a company is offering is to create and purchase a book to give it a try.  If you wanted to review a bunch of different company's premium books, it could be EXTREMLY pricey.  So, go with what you know.  Ask around to your friends.  See who has used company's for their digital albums that they are happy with.  Go and look at their albums, in person!  And make sure you are only looking at albums that are of PREMIUM QUALITY!  Consider a company's satisfaction guarantee - if you hate the album can you get your money back?

Next - let's talk about designing your album.  Usually the first step in the process (sometimes the hardest step) is to select the photos you will use.  Do you know how to do this?  Do you have a process for selecting photos, a place you store your photos, organize your photos, edit your photos?  If not, you may wish to contact a photo organizer.  A photo organizer can help you (remotely or nearby) to organize, select and edit your photos.  You can work WITH an organizer for this process or you can simply let them complete this task for you.

Some digital album design sites will let you edit your photos once you are in the design process and other systems expect that your photos are all edited before you get to the design step.  It's important to know what your design system will do.

If you are a drag and drop person - someone who just wants to get the photos into digital frames on a page and you want to type a few captions or headlines without making too many choices, that option is always available to you.  If you are more of a design freak and have a very specific idea about how a page should look, you want to use a design process that offers you more options.

One way you can get a more advanced design is to use an online design package that give you a lot of design choices.  Usually there is a learning curve with any system's design process, so don't get frustrated - give yourself time to become familiar with their system.  Watch online tutorials or signup to get someone to give you a few lessons, or again, contact an organizer to see how they can help you with this step.

Another way to get a more advanced design is to use a design software package.  With a software package, you purchase and own a piece of software that allows you to fully design an album and/or an album page(s) and then you save your page design as one single jpg file and upload it to your chosen album printer service. 

Most album printer services will have a full-bleed, full-page or blank style of album which allows you to add your pre-designed page to their album and simply use their service to get a printed copy.  There is a HUGE range of digital design software packages - numerous posts could cover this topic alone.  Again, ask around, ask friends who use a certain system and ask them to show you their system.  Keep in mind, some design software comes with digital artwork (like page backgrounds, fonts, stickers, borders etc) and others expect that you will purchase digital artwork to add to your software to give you more choices.  Some online software packages offer loads of artwork included with your design price and others offer only pre-designed templates that don't allow you to customize.  Again, loads of options.

Once you have selected your photos, uploaded them to your software or an online site, perform the simple or advanced page design, review how your album will look, then simply send it off to print!

Here are some things to consider, some information about software, online services, digital printing, etc... NOTE:  The specifics I include in the rest of this post are not an exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination- in fact, I will only highlight a few specific options just so you can get an idea of what to look for.

The two main places I print digital photo albums are the Panstoria Print Shop and the Heritage Makers Print Shop.  Both of these print shops use the same digital printing processor.  They both offer high-quality albums.  They both offer premium lay-flat pages (which I prefer).  They both produce vibrant color quality.  They both have good customer service.  They both have stitched (not glued) album bindings.

In order to print at the Panstoria Print Shop you MUST create your digital projects using Panstoria's Artisan software.  Artisan is a software package that you purchase and install on your computer.  Artisan includes some digital artwork and you can create loads of additional artwork using their starter art packages, but you will also want to purchase additional artwork to use.  Panstoria has a huge amount of digital art packages you can purchase.  Using an installed software and purchasing digital artwork can be daunting for some people.  For me, I'm the control freak type of person and I love the Artisan software and I have a ton of digital artwork and I feel that I can create just about anything with it.  That said, even a beginner can love Artisan.  It has a beginner mode, pre-designed page templates and will even auto populate your album for you without forcing you to design anything at all... so most software will have an easy option and a more advanced option.

NOTE: If you own Artisan digital design software, you do NOT have to use the Panstoria Print Shop - you can save all of your Artisan projects as jpg or pdf files and upload them to any digital printer or you can print things out on your own computer as well.  Although I use Panstoria for most of my digital album printing, I love the freedom that is offered by being able to print at home or anywhere else I choose.

The Heritage Makers Print Shop is another place I print albums.  Even if I create my album and page design using the Artisan software, I can save my pages as jpg files and upload them to Heritage Makers blank templates for printing.  In order to get the best prices with Heritage Makers, I'd suggest joining one of their HM Clubs  - like Gold HM which offers you the lowest prices on your products - it's kind of a wholesale buying club.  They have this club instead of offering a bunch of coupon codes and stuff.  However, there are sales offered even on the club prices.

Heritage Makers also offers its own online design software.  In fact, when you join one of it's wholesale clubs, you get it's on-line design software as well as TONS of digital artwork - I mean TONS and pre-designed page templates to use for free!  The thing is, anything you create using HM's online software (called My Studio) MUST be printed at their digital shop.  You cannot create anything in My Studio online software and print it anywhere else.

Things I don't like about the HM software is that you MUST have a web connection to work on your projects (Artisan is resident on your computer so no internet connection needed for album design).  Another thing I don't like about the HM software is that when you see a final preview of your project, it's blurry.  HM doesn't pay enough bandwidth for a premium and clear preview of your final project and I don't like viewing it blurry and trusting that it will turn out ok - tho. it always has and if it doesn't, they'll print it again for you.  A final thing I don't like about the HM software is that you MUST edit your photos BEFORE you upload them to the HM site.  Their software doesn't offer photo editing as part of their design software.

With Panstoria's Artisan software, you have incredible photo editing tools built right into the design packages so whether you edit photos ahead or not at all, your final product will have photos that look just the way you want them to.

One thing I DO LIKE about HM's My Studio software is that you have a lot of design choices.  You can basically use their software tools to make the album page look exactly as you wish.  They also have tons of free online tutorials to help you get familiar with their My Studio software.  I do know how to use the My Studio software and I do offer workshops and one-on-one training and assistance to my photo organizing clients who make their own digital albums but who need a bit of help using the software.

Other popular photo software you may have heard of is:

My Memories, Photoshop, and Photoshop Elements.  Photoshop is for the advanced user, Elements can be learned pretty well by intermediate users and My Memories can be learned by all levels of user.  With all of these software packages, once you learn them, you can simply save your projects as jpg files and upload them to print at any site that allows you to do so.  Again, ask around, read reviews, compare features and prices and consider your level of computer expertise.

You should note that because I use and train people to use Artisan Software and Heritage Makers My Studio software, I am an affiliate with both of those companies.  As an affiliate I am able to earn a small percentage from the purchases of my clients who use those services and designate me as their affiliate.  If you'd plan to use Panstoria's Artisan software or their print shop or plan to use Heritage Makers services, please let me know and I'll tell you how to link to me as your affiliate.  I do help all of my affiliate clients with any questions or problems they have with these companies or these album projects.

Probably the two companies I get asked about most often are Shutterfly and Snapfish.  Just know - according to business reports, both of these companies have been in the news recently for being at risk for going out of business. Please DO NOT EVER! store your digital photo files on a photo website and assume they are safe, or private, or that they will be there forever.  A photo website that lets you store digital files on their site is only a temporary convenience.  You should definitely have other backup and archiving processes in place for your photo digital files!!!  I cannot stress this enough.

Shutterfly and Snapfish BOTH offer a level of premium quality albums with double thick, lay-flat pages (again, these are not the ones the advertise the low prices for).  With Shutterfly the albums can be up to 111 pages and with Snapfish 100 pages.  Both HM and Panstoria offer hardbound, lay-flat options with a max of 99 pages.

All four companies offer the books at a standard 20-page price and then you pay individually for additional pages you opt to add up to the allowable maximum.

Panstoria and HM offer discounts sometimes.  Shutterfly and Snapfish offer tons of discounts and coupons.  Panstoria and HM have expensive shipping fees and long process and ship times, Shutterfly and Snapfish often offer free and speedy shipping at lower costs.  Shutterfly discount coupons can usually be used for premium photo albums (read the fine print) but Snapfish discounts cannot.  Also - neither Shutterfly or Snapfish offer the discounts on additional pages, the discount is offered only for the first 20 pages of the album, the rest are all full price.  Sometimes Shutterfly will allow a shipping coupon and a discount coupon to be used together, sometimes they cannot - only one offer can be used at a time.  Make sure you read the fine details of all coupons and what they cover and what they don't - and if you have questions - ASK....

Shutterfly and Snapfish do not stitch their bindings! They glue them.  You might want to do some research on album construction to learn more about stitched or glued bindings. I only opt for stitched. Again, that's important to me but it might not matter to you.

Shutterfly offers a blank album which allows you to create your digital page in another design software, save it as a jpg file and print it at their site.  I assume Snapfish does as well but I struggled to find it on their site.

There are a TON of other online photo companies: Blurb, Adoramapix, Picaboo, My Publisher, etc...  Typically, when I have read reviews of these other sites, people are reviewing the design process that is offered online by these companies and rarely do they report the important quality and construction information that is more important to me.  Every time I hear that someone prints at one of these other places, I ask them about their experience and I try to get a look at their album in person.  I have also tried to find out about the construction and quality of these albums from these other websites and most of the information is VERY hard to come by.

Of course, there is also price to consider.

As of today, here is a price comparison of some hardbound, lay-flat albums offered at some of the printing companies I've mentioned:

Panstoria (premium layflat hardbound 11X8.5) $55 (first 21pgs) add'l pages $1.50ea
Panstoria (premium layflat hardbound 12X12) $85 (first 21pgs) add'l pages $1.50ea

expandable to 99 pages per album

Heritage Makers (premium laflat hardbound 11X8.5) regular $105 (first 21pgs) club $78 (first 21pgs)
Heritage Makers (premium layflat hardbound 12X12) regular $122 (first 21pgs) club $92 (first 21pg)

HM layflat albums are expandable to only 60 pages.  Additional page prices not quoted on site.
HM prices include it's software and artwork.  Lowest HM prices are only available with an HM club membership

Shutterfly (premium laflat hardbound 11X8)  $85 (first 20 pgs)  add'l pages $1.00ea
Shutterfly (premium layflat hardbound 12X12) $125 (first 20 pgs) add'l pages $1.50ea

expandable to 111pages per album

Snapfish (premium laflat hardbound 11X8) $65 (first 20) add'l pages - no info on site
Snapfish (premium layflat hardbound 12X12) $80 (first 20) add'l pages - no info on site

expandable to 100 pages per album

NOTE: Panstoria and HM albums are 11X8.5 where Shutterfly and Snapfish are 11X8

Here are some reviews from other bloggers found around the web because as many photo book companies as there are -that's how many reviews and opinions you will find!

• PhotobookGirl does a lot of reviews
• All About Images blog gives a lot of scientific tech info that I trust (beware it's very tongue & cheek)
• Here's a lengthy review  - beware tho, info changes all the time and this is a bit old
• Layflat book review

 NOTE:  I would only use a digital album company that allows me to fully design my own pages using artisan.  I have no interest in using a photo book company's online design software - with the exception of My Studio, I find the included software on the photo website to be very limited.  I don't like having any limitations placed on my design process.  However, that may not matter to you.  Again, you need to decide what you are personally looking for and then go out and find it.

If you need additional photo organization or album creation assistance, consider hiring a personal photo organizer.  I am happy to offer you help and advice or if you need to locate someone closer to your home location, visit the Association of Personal Photo organizers and look for an APPO-certified organizer near you.

Sometimes, when I'm in a big hurry and I need to print something locally: not usually albums, but other digital stuff, I have used local shops like Ritz Camera, Walmart, Costco, CVS or Walgreens.  These local services vary greatly in quality but often times I use them because I need something right away - like in one hour!  AND... there is not a shipping fee.

There are options upon options upon options for printing digital storybooks.  But, bottom line, do it! Put your photos into albums and print the albums so that you and your family can re-live and enjoy your precious memories for years to come.

Memory Preservation Options - Traditional Style

The market is loaded with options for both traditional and digital scrapbooking!  New Memory Preservation options are coming on the market every day!  It's tough to keep track of it all.

As a Personal Photo Organizer, I consider it my business to help you figure out the best place to turn for you specific photo preservation needs.  I will attempt to keep you updated on a wide variety of options and the upsides and downsides of what this niche market has to offer.

As you know, for many years I was a Creative Memories consultant.  Creative Memories went out of business but a new business called Ahni&Zoe by Creative Memories resulted from cM's closing.  I didn't care for the A&Z business so I dis-associated myself with that business.  Now, a new owner came along and bought the rights and trademarks of the cM and AZ scrapbooking products.  That new owner re-named the new business, Creative Memories.  I typically refer to it as "the new cM."

The new cM sells ONLY traditional scrapbooking products.  Many of the products you will recognize from the old cM and from AZ.  Here is a link to the current catalog for the new cM with new products being developed and added all the time: the new cM catalog. 

One of the many photo solution affiliations I have to serve your traditional scrapbook needs is with this new cM.  You can go HERE to my cM advisor page and order products.

Here is an idea of what's new at the new cM for Jan 2014:

But, the new cM is NOT the only game in town!

A while back, the founder of the original Creative Memories, Rhonda Anderson, left the offshoot company Ahni & Zoe (as did a slew of old cM and AZ consultants) and went to Heritage Makers / Youngevity.

Heritage Makers has been around for a while as a digital-only online scrapbooking company.  Heritage Makers was bought by Youngevity (YGY) and expanded it's product offerings.

I signed on with Heritage Makers very shortly after leaving the Ahni & Zoe offshoot of the old cM.  Heritage Makers has its own online (not desktop resident) digital scrapbooking program and it's own digital printing center.  Customers don't ever have to own a software package and can simply design pages and products online in HM's Studio design package and print their projects at HM's digital center.  GO HERE TO REACH MY HM AFFILIATE SITE.

When Rhonda Anderson moved to Heritage Makers, she helped to develop a line of traditional scrapbook products.  The Rhonda Anderson traditional scrapbook projects are called "Our Memories for Life."  You will see a LOT of those products look JUST LIKE the old Creative Memories products that you knew and loved.   CLICK HERE TO SEE THE OMFL CATALOG.

If you miss ABC letters, HM's OMFL line by Rhonda has a lot of options!

So you see - if you don't want to have to resort to the cheap, non-archival products in the big box stores for your scrapbooking, you have quality product options!

If you have questions about any of these products, don't hesitate to contact me.

TATA for now, Sher

PS - I will be reviewing NUMEROUS photo solution options for you this month!

Historian Software Update WOW!

Guess what folks - Panstoria's Historian software just got better

NOTE: No... your Memory Manager software will not be updated with these new features.  Although your MM software will continue to work, it will not be able to receive bug fixes, updates and new features!  But, don't despair... for just $40, you can install Historian on your computer and get all this great stuff too!!!

TO PURCHASE HISTORIAN:  Click on the icon on the right hand side of my blog that says BUY HISTORIAN SOFTWARE.  Once you are logged into your account, you can order the software and I get a little kickback discount from Panstoria for telling you about it! THANKS... (questions about how to do this, contact me)

Update 4 of the Historian software includes numerous improvements to the previous version, including:

 

1) The addition of the Perfectly Clear™ image correction technology.  (Perfectly Clear is a trademark of Athentech Imaging, Inc.)

 

2) Watermarking of images.  Custom watermarks can now be easily added to images in the vault or to the exported version of images.

 

3) Support for maintaining, organizing, and viewing PDF images in the vault.

 

4) Support for the storage and viewing of animated GIFs.

 

5) Performance improvements to the image editing process.

 

6) Numerous bug fixes.

 

All together, these will provide an even better experience in your use of the best photo management software available.

NOTE: Installing the update will not affect your current vaults or other settings.

CLICK HERE for more detailed instructions and information about the new features.

Just so you know, I have both Historian and Memory Manager and Artisan and Storybook Creator running on my computer so no matter what version you are using, I can help you!  I'd suggest upgrading to Historian ASAP to get all these great new features at a SUPER reasonable price.

No matter what digital option you choose for printing your final product (Shutterfly, Panstoria, Heritage Makers, Snapfish, Blurb etc), you still need a place to organize, backup and protect your photos on your computer and this little piece of software is packed full of features at a very low price.

AND Remember, when you upload photos to Heritage Makers Studio online scrapbooking projects, you should already have them edited and their features enhanced before you do!

IF YOU ARE BUYING HISTORIAN - DON'T forget to click through using the box on the right side of my blog- that is the only way I get credit (my credit doesn't affect your sale).

Jazz Up Your Valentines

You love to use your Photo Design software (I use Storybook Creator - now called Panstoria Artisan) to create album pages, but what about to make custom photo Valentines???

Create a custom page project, add photos and embellish your photos to your HEART'S CONTENT (pun intended).  Did you not prepare for Valentine's Day or do you find yourself snowed in under the most recenet norEastern snowmaggeden?  Well... this is something you can make without even leaving the house.

AND... if you can't get to a photo developer store because it's too much of a snowy mess to leave the house, well, post your Valentines on Facebook... (or instagram or twitter) and make your sweetie the most popular LOVER on the planet!

Here's what I posted today (Valentine's Day and 25th Anniversary) my wishes to my lovely hubby.  Because he's working from home due to the weather, I had to hide my laptop screen from him while I designed but when he hopped on facebook during a conference call, he LOVED the photo surprise waiting for him there.

Hopefully, we will shovel our way out from under the foot and a half of snow that landed on the 2foot piles of snow that were sitting around from the past kazillion snows and we will still be able to trudge into the city of Philadelphia for our planned celebration night out!   Here's hoping.

Now go and spread some LOVE!