Feb
11
Fifteen years ago my Mom pulled out a big box of photos and super8 films that she had saved. There were photos spanning the lives of my parents and grandparents and super8 films that documented the first 9 years of my families life. My Mom and sat down and went through all of those old photos and she shared her family history, memories of her childhood, meeting my Dad and raising my Brother and Sister and I. It was a precious time capsule and a precious gift to be able to spend that time with my Mom to not only hear her stories but to see and feel her life through her eyes. I knew how important these memories where and I wanted to protect them. I know that Super8 films will eventually degrade and would be lost forever so I wanted to archive them as soon as possible as well as scanning every photo in that box to make sure they were archived and protected. Scanning such a large quantity of photos was going to take some time and I didn’t want to rush the process so I allowed one hour per day. It took a few weeks but eventually all of the images were archived. For the Super8 films and video, I found a reputable local lab and brought the film canisters and video cassettes in to be digitized and put on a DVD. (This was 15 years ago and DVD’s were cutting edge). A few months later, my entire family history had been digitized and preserved and I had DVD’s made for each family member. When my parents had their 50th wedding anniversary I created a book for them to celebrate the first 50 years of their life. I was able to recall all of my Mom and Dads stories, their journey from their first words to each other to their lives as grandparents. It was a labor of love made easier because I already had every family photo archived and ready to use.
I want to share a personal experience and why my decision to digitally archive all of my families memories was so important. On January 3rd, 2020 my Mom passed away after a two year bout with Cancer. For anyone who’s lost a parent or a spouse I don’t have to explain the gravity of that loss. We all pitched in with the funeral arrangements and because I am a photographer/videographer, it fell on me to take care of all of the media, large prints of my Mom and a short film that chronicled her life to be shown at the service. I had a week to complete everything; photo prep, retouching and printing in addition to creating and editing the short film. It was a gut wrenching emotional week and one of the hardest projects I’ve ever had to do but it was also cathartic to be able to spend that time honoring my beautiful Mom. The project would not have been possible if I didn’t have the forethought to digitize my family history. It would not have been possible if I didn’t have the amazing gift of sharing stories and family history with my Mom and Dad. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about my Mom, but I have an entire archive of precious memories at my fingertips and a film to watch when I need to feel and remember her.
One day, you may want to create a beautiful photo album for your family. And one day, those family members may no longer be with us but your memories, in photos and film, can last forever. It’s worth the time! So here are some tips to get you started in archiving your own family memories.
Scanning photos into digital files:
- Handle the images with care. If you have lint-free cloth gloves use them. If not, hold the images on the edges.
- Make sure the glass on your scanner is clean and dust free each time you start scanning for the day.
- Use a lint free fiber cloth to gently remove the dust from your photos before you place them on the scanner.
- Make sure you scan at the highest resolution (300dpi) which is a print quality file. One day you may want to reprint that image our use it in a digitally printed family photo album.
- If you don’t have a scanner or the time or energy to put into scanning a large quantity of photos then there are local business who specialize in exactly that.
Naming and organize your files:
Decide on how you’d like to organize and name the photos. One suggestion is to break them down and name them using the year, family members and event or location. Use either an “underscore” or “hyphen” to break up the words. Naming them this way will give you 3 or 4 key words to use when you search for a specific photo and make your life SO much easier.
1960_Kids_pool
1965_mom_dad_wedding
1984_mikes_first_car
- You can also separate your images into “albums” in iPhoto.
- If you don’t have iPhoto or a comparable windows photo program you can create folders directly in your files to organize them.
- If you’re using iPhoto, Adobe Bridge or Lightroom to organize and view your photos, use “keywords’ like – Mom, Dad, Kids, Vacation, Mexico, Wedding etc. when you upload your photos. This allows you to narrow your search and easily find images that you want to use in your projects.
Transferring your super8 movies or Video to digital files:
Unless you are an expert this is best left to the professionals.
A simple Google search: “transferring super8 to digital” will give you local businesses in your area that provide this service. Even if it’s slightly more expensive, I HIGHLY recommend that you do this locally and in person rather than shipping or mailing your precious original films to an online lab and risking them becoming lost or damaged in the process.
DVD players are almost as irrelevant as VCR’s so consider which format is best for you to be able to view and enjoy your movies. I recommend that you get your memories transferred first as simple digital MP4 files so you can store, view and if you are computer savvy, edit them on your computer. After that, If you and your family still have DVD players then you can get additional copies of playable DVD’s that you can show on your home TV.
Back up EVERYTHING. Hard drives fail eventually and when they do, so do all of your photos and hard work in archiving them. Back them up on at least two hard drives. If you have the time and resources, give an additional hard drive to another family member so it’s in a different location in case of fire.
I can tell you this from experience: This may seem like a daunting task but if you break it up over a few weeks or a month, you won’t feel that overwhelm and you will NEVER regret spending the time to protect those memories.
Sep
30
“The missing link between your social media goals and the actual content”
The need for social media content has never been more necessary than it is today. Over 40% of the worlds advertising is done online. In 2018, global online advertising and social media has eclipsed TV ads by over 100 billion dollars!
To be consistent with social media posts and advertising you must constantly be creating content. This can be a daunting task unless you have a full time staff to create that content for you. If you’re a small to a medium sized business and you’ve been vowing to be better at building and targeting your social media audience but you just don’t have the budget to hire a full time person(s) to organize and generate that content for you, what are your options?
The Challenge: You’re too busy running your business to be consistent about posting or advertising on social media.
The Solution: Hire the right people to create that content for you. When you’re ready to get organized with your social media posts – there are a few ways to go depending on your budget and on how much you’d prefer to do yourself.
Social Media Manager:
If you have the budget and have frequent events, sales or products to promote then you should look into hiring a Social Media Manager. This is a freelance contractor who takes on several clients and is responsible for consulting and outlining monthly schedules for all of their social media posts and then posting them on multiple platforms such as; Facebook and Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. Think of them as a marketing manager. The average cost: $250-1,200 per month for medium to large business.
For small businesses, the down side of going this route: There is a “missing link” between planning and creating the content. You would still be responsible for either hiring a graphic artist or creating it yourself. The average cost of a good graphic artist: $50-$75 per hour.
For smaller businesses there is another option:
For those small to medium sized businesses that only post on social media a few times per week and cant justify the expense of a Social Media Manager plus a graphic artist there’s a simpler way to go. It will require some discipline and getting in the habit of pre-planning your posts.
- First, there are “free social media calendars” online. Download one that works for your business.
- Sit down and look at the messaging you want to post each week for the next few months. Look at your event or product schedule and get ahead of it. Holidays are also a good reason to create your posts or ads.
- Hire a good graphic artist and photographer “as needed” to create that content for you so you’ll have it ready to coincide with your schedule.
How I can help.
Photography: As a professional photographer, I’ve worked with many local businesses to create dynamic images they can use to promote their brands. While most of those shoots are large in scope, I’ve also designed scaled-down shoots to help them expand photo assets for all of their social media posts. If you hire me to shoot assets for you, we start with a free consultation to see what kind of events, images or products you’re promoting. We determine which images you already have in your library or which ones you can create yourself. From there we determine where you would benefit from more professional photos. Once we’re organized and ready to shoot, I keep it as low key and low impact as possible so we don’t disrupt your workplace. The shoots include all of the post processing needed to take this simple shoot to a truly professional level.
Graphic design and content creation: This is the “missing link” between your ideas and seeing them come to life on social media. Having extensive graphic design experience allows me to craft your social media messages in any format you need. I’ll go over your calendar and make sure we have all of the information and assets we need to create all of your posts and I stay in close contact with you through out the process. Whether you’re providing me with images you’ve taken or we use images that I have shot for you, I’ll make sure any photo we use will pop on the screen.
I can design multiple photo/slides for instagram and Facebook stories, animated posts, animated gifs, video editing and video posts. One of my strengths is to offer you options and tailor the posts to your brand.
