Does LA Need Photo Help?

Posted on September 26, 2016 by pixologie

This past week, I had the opportunity to take Pixologie on the road to LA for Craig Duswalt’s Rockstar Marketing Bootcamp. We love talking about photo organizing and thanks to seeing Craig at our national conference back in March, Pixologie produced its first book, A Simple Guide to Organizing Your Family Photos (more about the book in another post!) We thought we would have a blast attending his full conference.

Here’s what stands out . . .

Visiting with a statistician on our plane ride to LA – Susan explained that she really didn’t think she cared about saving her photos, wanting to look forward instead of back. Our conversation led us to a description of her antique family scrapbook albums from the late 1800s. When we described how we would save the photos that mattered (identifiable people, situations, etc.), she was horrified at the thought of disassembling the album. She admitted she cared more than she thought.
Meeting a woman who lived not far away from our conference – her house had recently burned down in the wildfires that plague California. Fortunately, her family is safe, having been evacuated from the area prior to the fires getting to her home. However, the evacuation process was fast and allowed for no time other than getting the family and dog out safe. She said, “We were given 30 seconds to grab what we could. Taking the photo albums was not an option.”
Considering our host, Craig Duswalt’s own story of lost photos from decades ago. As the Personal Assistant to Axl Rose and touring with Guns N Roses, Craig experienced a world we can only imagine. He was fortunate enough to attend an event where he could get pictures with musical legends . . . but he accidentally left his camera at a restaurant with all of those amazing moments gone forever. Now, back then, the camera was loaded with film, but we know how it feels in today’s digital world what it is like to lose priceless photos.

We thought this would be a fun time and it was! And, yes, the people we met while in Los Angeles have photos they need to sort and get back into their lives – as do people everywhere we go!

Do you need help with a place to start organizing your photos? Give us a call (414) 731-1881 or email us here – contact@pixologieinc.com . . . we’ll send you our QuickPix Guide to Organizing Your Photos & Media!

Pixologie – www.pixologieinc.com

Feel the Memories Coming Back . . .

Posted on August 21, 2015 by pixologie

And Grab a Kleenex!

We had two of our clients cry this week . . . the emotions of really looking back at their photos caused tears to well up and overflow. Kleenex anyone?

I can empathize . . . See the photo up above – that’s me, my dad, sister, mom and Grandma along with the family dog – Duchess. I honestly don’t even remember this day but we were having some fun! To see us all from over thirty years ago, young, alive together makes me want to grab my own kleenex and blow my nose.

Amazing the power of looking back. Here’s the low down on the client tears this week:

a 70 something grandma watching a digitized 8mm film from 1962 – when she saw her dad walking her two-year-old on the computer screen, she put her hand to her mouth, sucked in her breath and her eyes glistened. Long, long gone memories instantly bringing about feelings and emotion.
a 30s mom with her two little children in the studio – scanning photos for a project for her husband’s 40th birthday and then editing them for a Pinterest project. . . just saying “he’s not going to believe I did this” and she teared up as she looked at the memories in their photos.

What photos bring tears to your eyes? It’s natural to have these feelings, after all, photos connect generations and celebrate life. When you haven’t seen those memories in years, sometimes, decades, the photos can have a powerful effect on you. Don’t let a mess of photos stop you from looking back. We would be happy to help get you a starting point for your memories.

More of my own reminiscing – see the photo below – that’s my dad sending our lab down a slide. Thank goodness Duchess seems to make it down without flipping over the side!

Lastly, a couple more photos from the few taken that fall day in the park with our grandma. . . For many reasons, I’ll take those tissues again!

Like Taking a Picture of the Mountains

Posted on January 9, 2015 by pixologie

Client empties her photo closet and takes a picture to show her own chaos

Our dear friend Lori has her own successful business helping her clients create beautiful scrapbooks and digital photo books – a calling that she loves. But, something in Lori’s house was also calling her – a photo closet full of over 20,000+ (our eyeball guesstimate) printed photos that needed to be scanned before she could create her own scrapbooks of her family’s heritage.

Psychologically, her chaos of photos might as well have been the mountains, so overwhelming it was.

She wrote to us – “Not only do I have decades of old photos, and take hundreds/thousands of photos each year, but I also acquired heritage photos from my Dad, Pat’s parents, and Pat’s grandmother dating into the 1800’s” Here’s what she catalogued in her collection:

Her father’s photo albums (back row on table) – 15+
Sort boxes with 2400 photos in each of them – 6
Banker’s boxes stuffed full of developed photos and memorabilia – 8
CDs of photos
Files and additional boxes filled with photos – 4+
And many more not in the photos above

Frustratingly, Lori stopped scrapbooking because she wanted to back up the only copy of these photos digitally before she put them into albums. With the process being tedious and time consuming on her flatbed scanner, she was getting further and further behind.

Lori attempted to bring the six sort boxes to Pixologie to rent our high speed scanner in the studio – but this work didn’t even touch the volume of photos she needed to digitize. She then made the decision to rent our scanner in her home for an extended period of time. Here’s photos of when we stopped by her home to set the scanner up. She really did have a whole “photo closet.”

Now with the Kodak Alaris Picture Saver Scanning System at her house, Lori can get to work at her pace in the comfort of her own home. She said “Approaching this project methodically has been helpful. It is not only fine tuning the photo sorting process, it’s also helping me get Historian (photo organizing and editing software) more organized and entering circa dates and info.” And below you can see how methodical she is with her work station set up in her office.

Now that these photos are getting scanned quickly, Lori can start giving her photos a home in a family album so she and others can enjoy the memories.

Our high speed scanning rental includes a computer which has a very simple interface to use to get your scanning done. Click here for more details.

Please do not postpone or procrastinate on your photo chaos any longer – your family memories are just waiting to be rediscovered, waiting to tell the stories of your traditions, faith and growing up. We have solutions that will get your photos out of chaos and back into life to be celebrated and shared.

Our website: www.pixologieinc.com

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Get the Old Family Photos In Order

Posted on December 6, 2014 by pixologie

You just gotta take action!

Eileen and Sue (my mother-in-law and cousin!) came to our Open Studio Time to get a move on a family photo project we’ve all been talking about for nearly five years now. The project is to create a family history photo book on the Bartelt/Kroenig side of our family.

It was great to see them at work beginning the sorting process of the old photos and lots of smiles and laughs as they dug into the bin full of photos. We set the gals up at a table with some paper to make sorting easier.

Taking action on photos is MUCH easier when you don’t do it at home – where you’ll be interrupted by the phone, other household items, family and more. Check out the video below to see what happens when you can finally look at those photos you’ve been overwhelmed with!

Our Open Studio Time is $15 for three hours and includes the use of our flatbed scanner and Flip Pal scanner and much more. Plus we are there to give you tips and ideas on how to tackle your photo chaos! Ask us about our Photo Chaos Tamer Card!

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I can’t do it. I just can’t.

Posted on December 1, 2014 by pixologie

Confessions from professional photographer, artist and our business consultant, Rosie

NOTE: Photo taken by someone who is NOT a professional photographer!

Original at: http://www.rosiehartmann.com

Photo organization, I can’t do it. It is really funny actually. Most artists do not like the business side of working within the different avenues of the art world. They find it horrifying. They can look at their pictures and get them tagged, filed and findable. With the software today like Picasa, where you can easily use the face finder function and tag people it has gotten so much easier.

Me? I would rather work on the business side then organize and tag pictures. You may as well just apply the most de-motivated poster to me. It’s ironic that the business I do the most consulting for is a photo organization business.

It is also humorous that I choose the water drop oldie but goodie picture for yesterday. One week I shot over 1,500 pictures a day in search of the perfect method to get water drop pictures. I was obsessed. Yet, I could not even spend 3 hours on organizing all of those shots yesterday.

I can’t organize this mess. I have over 115,000 shots in my library. That number is where I stopped counting. I have filled almost a terabyte of space with pictures. So in the spirit of giving up, I am going to go paint my kitchen cabinets black now. If I am lucky, while I am doing that my sister will come over and take control of my photo mess.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Pixologie to the rescue, hang tight, don’t despair – Rosie! We’ve got your back – and anyone else who needs help with their photo chaos!

Call us at 414-731-1881

Email at contact@pixologieinc.com

Check out our website: http://www.pixologieinc.com.

Let the Holidays Begin, Tell Some Stories!

Posted on November 24, 2014 by pixologie

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

Embed from Getty Images

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

Posted on November 17, 2014 by pixologie

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!

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.

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?

Four Things You Should Do With Your Antique Photos

Posted on November 11, 2014 by pixologie

What’s the oldest photo or album you have?

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.

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

Gather all of them into one place for safe storage
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.
Scan your photos with a flatbed scanner, and the backs of the photos if there is identifying names and dates.
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)

Posted on November 8, 2014 by pixologie

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.

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:

Convert a few movies to DVDs; share as Christmas gifts to watch on the big television or computer
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.
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

Who Knew We Could Scan 60,000 Photos in 10 Days!

Posted on October 1, 2014 by pixologie

To celebrate International Save Your Photos Day 2014, Pixologie committed to an audacious goal of scanning 100,000 photos in the run-up to Saturday, September 27. Here’s what we actually achieved:

61,000 photos scanned with our Kodak Picture Saver high speed scanners and preserved for over twenty individuals and families
Another 50,000 approximately on our docket to be scanned throughout October for an additional six families

Lessons Learned

With our Save Your Photos Day goal and event, our clients felt a call to action. Most of our clients want to get their photos organized, but many needed that extra motivation to start. With the extra attention to saving photos, people understood that flooding, tornados, hard drive crashes, etc. are a real threat to their family memories. The devastation of losing photos in a disaster or to time was more apparent because of this special day.

However, we found that our clients had been waiting for the day to be organized before bringing their photos in for scanning services. Our goal was impacted by the fact that we had to physically remove most of the photos from the albums brought in. We did not just want numbers, we wanted our clients to have a usable digital archive of their photos.

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Here’s a story of a great couple whom we’ve known for over three years and who have not been ready to get their photos out of a chaotic situation in their closet.

Over 50 Years of Memories Too Overwhelming to Even Look At

Stephen and Mary had fifty-five diverse photo albums, all different sizes, types and levels of deterioration along with hundreds of photo envelopes – overloading the shelves in their bedroom closet and never brought out to be shared. Even though most of the photos were in albums, the memories spanned over 50 years of marriage and were so overwhelming that the escapades of their eight children growing up, celebrations, travel around the world, and their annual mission work were hidden away. We picked up their photo album collection, took out all the photos from the albums and scanned the pictures.

After the scanning process, we tagged their digital files with relevant keywords so they could search their photos for events and important topics. We will return their photos in elegant Legacy Boxes along with DVDs of their photos.

Our next steps are to help them create digital photo books by picking out the best of their photos on topics such as their mission work with an orphanage in Honduras which spans many years and their family “yearbook” featuring and celebrating their traditions and faith.

Because of Save Your Photos Day and the relationship we had developed with them over the years, Stephen and Mary have taken their photos out of their closet and are bringing their memories and stories back into life to be celebrated and shared.

Consider Scanning a First Step to Getting Your Photos Organized

As mentioned before, we found that many of our SYPD clients were waiting until they organized their photos to bring them in for scanning. Unfortunately, that day doesn’t usually come when you have time to organize your photos, and instead, you are rushing around creating further photo chaos trying to find needed pictures for a special event.

Some Ways We Can Help

Bring your albums and boxes of photos to Pixologie for Open Studio Time. We’ll get you started on preparing your photos for scanning.
Have a lot of photos to scan? Consider renting our Kodak PS50 to scan your photos at home. It comes with a laptop, so scanning is super easy and super fast at up to 50 photos per minute.
Still too overwhelmed? Give us a call. We’d be happy to talk with you and help you make a plan to get your photos out of chaos and back into life to be celebrated and shared!

In the end, we were humbled that our clients embraced our goal for Save Your Photos Day and feel so blessed to be a part of making sure their stories were recovered, shared and preserved!

Please feel free to contact us with any questions!

Email: mollieandann@pixologieinc.com

Telephone: 414-690-0791

About the Save Your Photos Alliance Pixologie is a member of the Save Your Photos Alliance, a group committed to being the world’s premier organization for the SAFEGUARDING, RECOVERING, RESTORING, and REUNITING of photos and treasured memorabilia before and after disasters occur.

Learn more about the Alliance at: www.saveyourphotos.org

Learn more about the National Disaster Photo Rescue organization: http://nationaldisasterphotorescue.org/

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Category Archives: Client Stories