Let the Holidays Begin, Tell Some Stories!

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Wow, it is the week of Thanksgiving, here we go!

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The photo up above is funny and wouldn’t we love to know the story behind that turkey! Not your typical November photo.

Goodness, of all the photos we have helped people sort, it seems like the most consistent piles of photos we find – are those taken during the holidays. Year after year, we can see children and their parents grow older – at Thanksgiving with the turkey;during December with Santa photos, at Christmas opening gifts and during New Year’s celebrations!

We have something special to think about related to stories, family and blessings.

Last week, we heard about a man who was blind and who would tell his family when they traveled to take lots of pictures. When asked why this was so important to him, he replied, “I may not be able to see the photos, but when you all look at the photos and talk about what you did – I love hearing the stories you tell about what happened on your trip.”

Photos do matter, they tell stories that we might not otherwise remember.

During the holidays is the best time to haul out some old photos and albums or family videos and reminisce about things that have been long forgotten!

WSO Athlete Surprised to See Himself in a Slideshow

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Recently, we had a booth at the Wisconsin Senior Olympics – Annual Senior Celebration and Wellness Fair. What fun to talk to athletes who, in some cases, were twice as old as me, but still running marathons!

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As a board member and donor to the WSO, I love their mission of helping seniors keep active in a social atmosphere with some competition! See below for a quick slideshow of photos I put together for them – memories and moments from an organization that is over 35 years old!

While we were at the Fair, a couple stopped by our table and watched the video for a bit. And then, the gentleman said, “Hey that’s me!” He was wearing his medals in the photo. We had fun talking with him about what the Senior Olympics has meant to him.

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And it was great to see that he was touched by seeing a photo of himself.

What photo do you have that would delight someone to see the memory again?

Photo Restoration – Guest Blogger

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We are lucky to have a guest blogger who happens to be a local Milwaukee artist right here . . . enjoy this blog reposted from Rosie Hartmann – who does Pixologie’s photo restoration!
photo restoration blog

I was so absorbed reading this book about photo restoration that I kinda took my picture of the day (POD) late and it was of the book. I get obsessive, I admit it.  With the dabbling I have been doing in photo restoration I find a peace and tranquility.  I can’t explain how soothing I find it to work on the restorations. I never expected that.

I do not like clinical things with my art or photography.  Restoring old photos is very clinical. It started out with wondering if I could do a restoration. Now, it is turning into something more. I thought about this a bit. I wondered why I would like this kind of work so much. Moreover I wondered why I found some peace doing it.

This is what I came up with; It’s kind of like rebuilding and restoring yourself. You need to be careful to keep the integrity of the original picture just as I need to keep the core parts of what makes me, me. I think with any trials and tribulations we have seeing ourselves get repaired is often not a peaceful process yet there is peace in it.

For more information about Rosie, her own blog & her art website, go to: http://www.rosiehartmann.com

Four Things You Should Do With Your Antique Photos

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What’s the oldest photo or album you have?

Antique Photo Album

One of our clients gave us a truly historic antique book filled with heritage portraits to scan. He knew that all of the photos were of his mother’s family . . . and he knew the names of a couple of the people in the book.

Just look at how beautiful and fragile this album is.  We gingerly opened it and used our Flip Pal scanner to gently scan the photos. The album was made to slide the portraits into slots and we couldn’t remove them due to the risk of tearing the pages.

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Here’s four things you should do with your antique photos as soon as you can!

  1. Gather all of them into one place for safe storage
  2. Sit down with your family’s historian or oldest living relative and start identifying who is in the old photos. Use a post it on the back of the photo temporarily. Enjoy the reminiscing.
  3. Scan your photos with a flatbed scanner, and the backs of the photos if there is identifying names and dates.
  4. Tag the photos digitally with the name of the relative or use other photo organizing software to document the story behind the portrait.

Save the photos, portraits and save the stories!

My mom had a photo of her Uncle Barnny – and he was quite the character. I still have the photos and the stories of how he set their house on fire with his moonshine operation in the basement. Maybe I’ll write about that in another blog!

Let us know if you need any help with preserving the old family portraits, albums and photos – we’d be glad to teach you how, do it with you or do it for you!

www.pixologieinc.com

414-731-1881

Fun with the Videos Teenagers Make! (Also: Holiday Gift Idea #7)

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This video made us smile a LOT and laugh – the boys were so charming in making a music video in Spanish and funny with their antics. Do you know any kids who made videos with camcorders back in the day (not so very long ago?) Of course, today anyone can make and share a video.

But what about ten, fifteen, twenty years ago and more? There are millions and millions of fun family moments caught and trapped on film and videotape.

These clips are off a MiniDV tape we converted to a digital file for one of our clients who graciously agreed to let us share the video with our followers. She has brought us over 40 of her family VHS, MiniDV, and 8mm tapes to convert to digital files so she can view them, edit them and share the memories. They have just loved reliving those memories that really were long ago and forgotten.

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So . . . this is Holiday Gift Idea #7 – (Don’t worry, I am going out of order, if you want a full list of our gift ideas at Pixologie, just email us at contact@pixologieinc.com! : )  Here’s how movie conversions can be a great gift idea:

  1. Convert a few movies to DVDs; share as Christmas gifts to watch on the big television or computer
  2. Convert some of your VHS tapes to digital files that you can edit, clip and pull together a movie of family memories to share at your holiday gift gatherings.
  3. Purchase gift certificates from Pixologie to give to family members who you know have movies they need to get digitized.

Videos are so much more powerful than photos – we can see our family and friends (some of whom may not even be with us anymore) living, having fun, talking and making memories. Let us know how we can help!

Find us at http://www.pixologieinc.com or call 414-731-1881