The Secret to Organizing Your Photos While Exercising!

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Oh the joy of killing two birds with one stone!

I really hate that analogy because I have never willingly killed a bird (just accidentally with the car.) Okay – on with what has to be one of the first times ever someone has organized her digital photos while exercising!

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Seriously, this is me this morning with my iPhone 5 and my trusty elliptical. (Sorry you aren’t getting a photo of me running on the elliptical organizing my photos – lol – I have some dignity!)

About a month ago we started testing a new photo organizing solution called Mylio.

Mylio is a photo management software system that works both on the desktop and as an app on phones and tablets. Mylio helps you gather, organize and access all of your photos across all your devices, anytime, anywhere. Mylio is available via annual subscription

I have Mylio installed on several of my devices including my laptop and my iPhone with an account dedicated to our Pixologie photos from our studio and our events. This means all my Pixologie photos are synced between my devices. When I make a change on one, it will update on my other devices. I needed to do some catch up sorting photos from the last month which I hadn’t gotten to yet.

While I was running on my elliptical this morning and playing my Bonnie Tyler Pandora station, I thought, how am I going to get through the next half hour of boring exercise? Then it it hit me, I could organize those photos waiting for me. I picked up the iPhone started up my Mylio app and sorted over 200 photos and deleted ones I didn’t need. The time flew by!

Then, when I went to my laptop sitting on my kitchen table, I could see that my updates from my phone had already synced to my laptop. See the screenshot below.

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This is my Pixologie Mylio account with 1800 photos in it. My personal Mylio account has 17,000+ photos in it.

Unbelievable! Two tasks that sometimes seem like a chore (exercising and photo sorting) – when combined was amazing, beautiful, wonderful!

If you have photos on multiple computers, tablets and/or iPhones, you might want to learn more about Mylio. We are excited to be offering it in person at our studio and online at our Pixologie Store. For clients who purchase it through us, we offer a complimentary Open Studio Time to get you up and running comfortably with it!

Want to learn more about Mylio? Check out their website at www.mylio.com.

Happy exercising & photo sorting!

Three Photo Tactics to Get Through Your Daughter’s Teen Years

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Wow. . . my thirteen year old (going on 30) daughter really has mastered the art of the attitude. It has been a real surprise for us because she literally reached 10 before she ever talked back to us. But, now the attitude is with our family every day, maybe not 100% of the time, but every day.

PLEASE NOTE: I love my daughter who is a straight A student and fantastic girl when the attitude is hiding!

Last night, my husband asked her to help make spaghetti so she sporadically stirred the noodles with her headphones on. When he realized the spaghetti sauce was sizzling, he asked her to turn the heat down. Hannah replied, “How many things do you expect me to do at once?” He asked what she meant and she said, “I’m stirring the noodles, listening to my music and daydreaming.” When he laughed, she was offended in the way a teen can only be.

Hannah told me this morning I was disrespecting her when I asked her about it, perceiving me to be teasing her. Sigh.

Here’s what I know, in order to get through these tough teen years, I am going to have to rely on cherishing the good moments, celebrating memories and planting seeds for her future.

Here’s my mom advice on how to get through these teen years using your photos:

  1. Pull out the photos of when your daughter was younger and oh so adorable . . . and didn’t know what sarcasm was. Even better, share those photos with your daughter to laugh together about some of the things she did when she was young.
  2. Take a photo of your daughter or several – selfies do not count here. Really think about the background and enjoy a few moments with her. Then get that photo printed.
  3. Organize old photos and digital photos with your daughter. The time spent together accomplishes several things – memories are saved and celebrated, special moments without teenage friction are shared and generations are connected.
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Cute photo of Hannah on Thanksgiving Day – those years we fried a turkey in half an hour – so good. Maybe we’ll try that again this year!

And I am not alone in seeing the value of photos as a parenting tool. The Association of Personal Photo Organizers reports in their Insiders Guide to Photo Organizing:

Studies show that photos have a positive impact on families by connecting generations and reinforcing positive values. In fact, many experts agree that photos have a significant impact on the emotional wellbeing of children. Parenting and youth development expert, Doctor G (Deborah Gilboa, MD) says that “organizing and displaying photographs connects children to our families, our values and our life goals for them.”

Here’s some resources for you in this journey of watching our children grow up!

Doctor G – Parenting Expert – For parenting help!

Pixologie, Inc. – For help with photo organizing!

Growing Up Photos Will Be A Hit at Your Wedding Reception

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When my husband and I got married back in 1996, digital photography was barely even hitting our radar. We had film cameras, our photographer had film cameras and we had some disposable cameras floating around. Funny to look back.

But I did know that I wanted to have some of our growing up photos on a board for people to look at and enjoy the memories. And, my friend, Jenny who was an engineer created the Precious Moments poster for us also – featuring both my husband and myself at the age of two – my husband in lederhosen and me with my hand knit hat from my Grandma Hartmann.

Here’s why you need to have your growing up photos at your wedding reception:

  1. Your guests will love looking at how little you both were – and possibly seeing some fun moments your families have had through the years.
  2. Family traditions will inevitably be captured in those photos – sharing and celebrating them helps ensure they will be passed down to next generations.
  3. Great conversations come out of looking back at memories, the joy and laughter will add to the blessings of your wedding day!

Whether playing in a dynamic photo slideshow or displayed on fun posters, your photos will be a hit!  At Pixologie, we have helped create poster boards and slideshows of photos and would love to help you with yours!

This Friday night, we will be at Elegance Salon & Spa for A Bridal Soiree and we are offering FREE SCANNING of your growing up photos for your wedding. One lucky couple will be drawn for a free photo slideshow (value of $300!)

Hope to see you there!!

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A Bridal Soiree Details: http://www.elegancesalonandspa.com/soiree.html

Or come and see us at Pixologie!

9803 South 13th Street, Oak Creek, WI  53154

414-731-1881 ~ contact@pixologieinc.com

A Running Photo that Inspired Me!

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These photos are of David Hoffman, 80 years old, who just just returned from Bermuda after competing in the Bermuda Half Marathon and Bermuda Triangle Challenge – that is THREE races in one weekend! His wife, 72 years old, did the 10K! He sent me the photo taken of him running in one of the most beautiful places on the planet, in my opinion!

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As an aside, I serve on the Wisconsin Senior Olympics (WSO) Board, have for the last three years and I hear about great benefits of well-being, fitness and being active. However, being fit is not what would be used to describe me. David brought his medals, t-shirts and other fun stuff to our last meeting and I snapped that photo at the top of this blog, thinking it would inspire our WSO athletes. (See a link below, David has run a marathon in every state and on every continent – his story is great!)

But it was me that was inspired by his photo to go look at my old photos. I have had athletic achievements and fun with races . . . and I pulled these photos out to look at them again. Here’s two photos of me after completing the Danskin Mini Triathlon in 2012 – one week before I turned 40. I really did work hard for a few months to do this race. And, then proceeded to return back to my normal level of inactivity – due to a busy career and family.

Looking back, I can see I really did it and my photos make me think I could do something like this again.

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I love sharing these photos with my children so they can see the rewards of hard work and perseverance – and maybe we’ll all build a little more character as I start up exercising again and being a better, healthier role model for my children. Stay tuned!

Blog by Mollie Bartelt

Do you have any photos from races you have completed? We’d love to see them – post them on our Facebook Page – www.facebook.com/pixologie.

Want to know more about David’s experience with running?

http://www.aarp.org/giving-back/volunteering/info-03-2011/runners-drive-infuses-aarp-volunteerism-wi.html

Want to know more about the Wisconsin Senior Olympics?

http://wiseniorolympics.com

http://www.pixologieinc.com

Helping get photos back into life to be celebrated & shared

so stories, values and traditions can be passed down to the next generation.

Growing Our Mission While Increasing Awareness for Someone Else’s

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AKA: We’ve Joined the World of Crowdfunding!

Pixologie is officially a year and a half old! Wow – what a ride the last eighteen months has been. We’ve been able to help hundreds of people sort, save and share hundreds of thousands of moments. We are passionate about our mission to help people save and tell the stories found in their photos.

However, with that kind of growth comes increasing amounts of work and need for additional resources! We are taking our business to a whole new level with a loan request through the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation (WWBIC). Not only does WWBIC offer potential loans to small businesses, their team offers relevant advice, encouragement and guidance along with an extensive list of classes and workshops. Their team members have visited with us twice and are amazing business advisors and cheerleaders.

As part of our larger work with WWBIC, they have recommended we apply for a crowdfunding type loan through Kiva Zip who provides 0% interest loans to entrepreneurs doing good things. We applied for a $5,000 loan and so far have had over 30 individuals support us with as little as a $5 loan – which we will pay back. Click on our profile graphic below to check out our profile request to see how it works.
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We just think the whole concept is outstanding and its a fun way to raise awareness about what we are doing on a global basis! Importantly to us, we are raising awareness for the missions of both WWBIC and Kiva Zip by telling our stories of working with both of these organizations.
For more information:

Three Reasons Why You Need to Bring Your Family Photos to RootsTech 2015

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Roots and Tech, two words that are so completely different in nature tell so much about what is going to happen in Salt Lake City next month. Thousands of people who have a passion for their family ancestry will come together for three days to learn the latest in technological innovations that will help them tell their family’s story.

Last year, RootsTech reports that nearly 4,000 youth ages 12-18 attended their conference classes and activities. I love that statistic because I believe that, in addition to documenting our family ancestry, we need to teach our youth about where they have come from, what values mattered to their family and how hard work builds character.

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When completing a family history, we have found that photos are integral to telling a family’s story. Photos add impact to family lineages by visually connecting generations. There is a reason children, teenagers and even adults enjoy looking at photos of their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents from “back in the day.”

Our friends at E-Z Photo Scan have been passionate about helping people digitize photos for over twenty years. They along with Kodak Alaris and FamilySearch are bringing over a dozen Scannx Photo ScanCenters to the RootsTech 2015 Conference. All attendees are invited to bring their photos to RootsTech for scanning at no charge.

Their goal is to scan 100,000 photos and treasured documents during the conference and you need to be a part of it!

Here’s three reasons why you should bring your photos with you to RootsTech 2015:

  1. This kind of scanning is easy and super fast! At a speed of up to 85 photos per minute, the scanners make quick work of digitizing your photos. (And did we mention free? Scanning photos can cost anywhere from 17 to 99 cents a photo depending upon where you go.)
  1. It’s such a relief to get it done! Many people delay scanning photos because it seems so overwhelming to start and, thereby, risk losing those photos to time, damage and other types of loss. Just get it done!
  1. Your photos have the power to strengthen your family’s story, traditions and values. We are a visual society and photos tell stories – bringing people and personality to life. We can see in our family photos how our ancestors lived, what values mattered and what life was like long before technological advances became an everyday happening. And. . . you will delight other family members when you can share the images with them as well.

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We are thrilled to hear about our colleagues’ goal to preserve 100,000 photos through the Scannnx Photo ScanCenters at RootsTech 2015. And, we are “rooting” for attendees to step up to the challenge of making their photos a priority, bringing them along for the ride to Salt Lake City and heading to Booth #1343 where family history will be saved!

For more information:

RootsTech 100,000 Photos Scanned Goal by E-Z Photo Scan

RootsTech 2015

At Pixologie, we help people get their photos out of chaos and back into life to be celebrated and shared. To learn more, visit us at www.pixologieinc.com. 

Top Three FAQs About Family Slides

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We wrote about the importance of families looking at their slides a few weeks ago. Here’s some frequently asked questions about getting slides converted at Pixologie.

Question: I have thousands of slides and have heard it is pretty expensive. How much does it cost?

Answer: We have two main options for our clients to have slides converted to a digital file.

  1. WE DO IT – Slide conversions cost 59 cents each and include color correction, dust removal and digital organizing.
  2. YOU DO IT – Our clients are welcome to come to our Open Studio Time which is $15 for three hours. You can use our simple Wolverine Converter at no extra charge and scan your slides yourself. We will be there to help answer any questions and assist with technical difficulties.

In either case, we can work with clients to prepare a quote that meets your needs while ensuring your memories are ready to digitally save and share.

Question: I think there are way too many travel scenes from my parent’s vacations with nobody in them. Do I need to save those?

Answer: We believe that the best slides are pictures of people you know – families doing things together, celebrating milestones and growing up. With that being said, we have seen that many, many slides have been taken of landscapes. We recommend perhaps saving a few of the very best landscape shots to keep with the family vacation photos.

Question: How do I save the digital files of my slides with my other photos?

Before answering this, we need to mention that we recommend saving all your digital photos on your computer in one place (free options include Pictures folder on a PC and iPhoto on a Mac). Here are some naming recommendations for your files of digital photos:

MAC – Save your slides as an event in iPhoto:

  • 1970s Slides or
  • 1960 to 1980 slides

PC – Name your folder as follows: YYYY-MM-DD Description.

Examples of this on a PC include:

  • 2010
  • 2010-01
  • 2010-02-17 Valentine’s Day

And then, so your folders will fall in date order, name your slide folders with the date first:

  • 1970s Slides
  • 1950s to 1975 Slides

If you are feeling ambitious, you can subdivide the folders into months and family events.

We’d love to help you get your slides converted now! There are too many family lessons and stories to be told from those memories to wait any longer. Here’s two ways we can help:

NUMBER ONE – COMPLIMENTARY SLIDE PICK-UP!

In February – FREE SLIDE PICKUP! We will come to your home and meet with you to pick up your slides. Please contact us to arrange this (within 100 miles of Milwaukee) at 414-731-1881 or email: contact@pixologieinc.com.

NUMBER TWO – OPEN STUDIO TIME TOOLS

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Come into our studio, for three hours, it’s only $15. Use our slide projector, slide sorter and more to figure which slides you want to save. Then you can use our Wolverine scanner to convert them yourself or have us professionally convert your slides for you!
No matter what you decide, it’s time to get those old slides out of their carousels and back into life to celebrate and share the memories!

website: www.pixologieinc.com

Three Reasons to Save Your Kid’s Kindergarten Pictures Now!

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Your Photos Can Be A Powerful Parenting Tool

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Okay, you have piles of your children’s photos in boxes, envelopes, tucked in bins in the closet – or on your computer, different camera cards, smart phones and on Facebook! We know . . . you’ll get to sorting the photos out someday. Well, we have some reasons why you might not want to wait.

If you are wanting to raise happy, well adjusted children, your photos can be one of the BEST parenting tools you have. Nationally recognized parenting expert, Deborah Gilboa, MD, (aka Doctor G), recently presented a webinar to the Association of Personal Photo Organizers on how this could be.

Gilboa believes that photos impact the three R’s of parenting. In her experience, photos:

  • Teach Respect
  • Show Responsibility
  • Build Resiliency

Here’s a quick example of how we see some kindergarten photos touching upon Doctor G’s three R’s.

1. Teaching Respect– In this photo, we see a teacher with her student. Looking back at the photo, we can help remind our children that our family does respect adults and that respect matters in life.

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2. Showing Responsibility – this photo of the student giving her baby brother a bite of desert is great. A moment was caught where she was helping her grandmother. Anytime you can point out in a photo when your child is doing something helpful or responsible, you are subconsciously helping to build their character.

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3. Building Resiliency –  The kindergarten students each had to speak in front of the large group of parents and relatives who attended their graduation. Many adults get anxious when having to do presentations. Taking time with your child to look at accomplishments like this is a great opportunity to talk about the importance of overcoming difficulties and fears.

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Imagine all of the memories throughout your photo collection that can be teachable moments for your kids. It’s time to get your photos sorted and back into life to celebrate, share and help grow strong children.

We are thrilled that Doctor G has weighed in on the importance of photos in a family’s life. Watch for future blogs about why your photos matter in raising your children.

Our website: www.pixologieinc.com

Ask Doctor G’s Website: www.askdoctorg.com

Hearts Broken in Wisconsin Today – Oh, Those Packers!

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Wow – still feeling the pain of last night’s loss to the Seahawks!

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Fox 6 Reporters Brian Kramp and Katrina Cravy show off “Chedlocks!!” the best new Packer accessory this season! Photo tweeted by Brian Kramp

Okay, we understand many people are upset when their favorite team loses. But I don’t know, it feels different here in Wisconsin and for us super Packer fans at Pixologie. We hurt in our heart today, seriously! (At least I didn’t go out and buy my own chedlocks, love them on our friend Katrina though!)

The Green Bay Packers are something else . . . sources of frustration, joy and an amazing amount of anxiety. My husband can’t event watch the games it is so stressful for him.

Check out this photo below – it is a photo from ten years ago – when my father-in-law was alive and my daughter would sit with him and watch the Packers. He loved them, took it very seriously and was a faithful listener (to the GBP radio broadcasters Larry McCarren and Wayne Larrivee) while watching the silent television!

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Then there’s my cousin Deanna and her husband Ron – so much Packer fans they actually had their wedding at Lambeau Field! Oh my – that was a thrill to be in a suite looking down at the field – even if it was empty!

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Someone high up in the sky loves the Green Bay Packers too! I mean, we don’t talk about Brett Favre anymore, but back in the day, wow! Now, we have Aaron Rodgers, holy smokes!! It’s all I can say! Check out the photo below – that’s our friend Tammy Flynn, lucky gal with Aaron!! She sells Packer’s accessories at her salon so that we can all be fashionably green and golded up!

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So. . . the Packers lost. We will recover from this. . . eventually.

But I absolutely love, love the traditions my family, friends and fellow Wisconsinites have because of this very special football team. And. . . we love seeing the memories in our photos over the years of what a big part of our lives the Packers have been.

Go Pack! Superbowl 2016 is NOT that far away!

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www.pixologieinc.com

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Yep, We Wanted a Photo Shoot!

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One week ago, co-founders Mollie Bartelt and Ann Matuszak enjoyed some time at the Pixologie Studio in Oak Creek to have a photo shoot with Rosie Hartmann. Below is her blog from our morning together! And great tips if you ever want to schedule a photographer to do your own photo shoot!

So You Want a Photo Shoot?

By Rosie Hartmann

Friday I had one of my most successful shoots ever. My sister was the “client”. She wanted a professional looking shoot for business purposes. She came prepared, there are many things that mean prepared for a shoot.

In this case she was willing, had a clear idea in her head that we discussed beforehand and she came dressed for success. She had a clear set of ideas. Last but not least she worked it.

On my part, I knew with the look she wanted I would have to shoot technically in a way I do not normally shoot. We both adapted to her needs.

I have always looked at being a photographer as it is my job to deliver what the client wants. That has always meant I needed to figure out what they want. Most clients do not have the mindset my sister did. I have never really had that before. It was magical. So if you ever want a really amazing shoot this is what I recommend.

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Like your photographer. If you do not like the photographer they are not right for you. Have a clear idea of what you are looking for i.e. portrait, business, casual, candid etc. Dress the part. If you look good you will feel good. If you feel good you will look good. That translates so well to the camera. Not all photographers are going to take instruction well.  They think they are the expert. I am no expert on you, so please speak up! That one point right there is an important thing to discuss with a photographer before you use them!

Lastly, I think everyone should do a shoot. I am no different. I set the camera and had my sister do some shots of me. One is below. I also scheduled my own professional shoot. It is March 7th. I am sure that will be a blog down the line as well.

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Rosie’s Website: www.rosiehartmann.com