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

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Family Portrait Early 1950s

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.

Grandparents working hard

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 Haul Out Your Slides Today!

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Back in 2004, my in-laws pulled out the slide projector and carousels of slides to go through. We had all the family over – twenty of us watching memories from the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. It was the one of the last times we were all together before my father-in-law passed away from cancer, and one of my favorite family gatherings.

Here’s my three reasons to haul out your slides today!

  1. It is the winter and a great time for family get togethers. How much fun is it to look at photos of you or your parents growing up?
  2. Reconnect with and celebrate your family traditions and memories. Today’s world operates by a different set of values, morality and norms. It does us all good to reflect on how family life has changed since the 1950s and 1960s. (See the Christmas group photo below – the whole family dressed up for the holiday, bow-ties and all!)
  3. Life flies by and before we know it, we can lose a loved one. Celebrate those memories together now when you can hear the stories aloud, instead of when it is too late. I know that Sunday afternoon, ten years ago, with my father-in-law will stand out in mind as long is I live – and I was blessed to have a photo of the event.

Slide from 1950s

Lastly, don’t just haul out the projector to watch the slides, have your slides converted to a digital file so the whole family can have a copy of these special memories to pass down to their children and grandchildren.

At Pixologie, we have scanned anywhere from five slides to thousands of slides for our clients. Let us know if we can help!

http://www.pixologieinc.com

email: contact@pixologieinc.com

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Like Taking a Picture of the Mountains

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

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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.”

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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.

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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

Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pixologie

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!
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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

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

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Graphic for Blog 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

  1. Bring your albums and boxes of photos to Pixologie for Open Studio Time. We’ll get you started on preparing your photos for scanning.
  2. 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.
  3. 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

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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/

Family Photos Deserve an Audacious Goal

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Three Things You Need to Know About International Save Your Photos Day

Craziness at Pixologie over the past week . . . since we committed to scanning 100,000 photos in honor of International Save Your Photos Day this Saturday. With our Kodak Picture Saver scanners, we have scanned anywhere from 2,000 to over 10,000 photos a day and have seen so many memories that are finally coming out of boxes, envelopes and deteriorated albums. (WARNING: DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS AT HOME, SEVERE RISK OF FRUSTRATION AND THROWING FLATBED SCANNER OUT THE WINDOW!)

Here’s three things you need to know about Save Your Photos Day and why we went out (like way out) on a limb to bring attention to this day.

ONE: There is a Save Your Photos Alliance

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We were humbled during the Association of Personal Photo Organizers’ 2014 National Conference when volunteers spoke about helping tornado and flooding victims be reunited with some of their photos.

Out of this presentation was born a group of photo organizers, non-profits and businesses who have committed to the safeguarding, recovering, restoring and reuniting of photos and treasured memorabilia before and after disasters occur.

The Save Your Photos Alliance designated Saturday, September 27 as International Save Your Photos Day. Pixologie is a proud member of the alliance and thrilled to be having a special Open House here at our studio this weekend.

TWO: The National Disaster Photo Rescue (NDPR) Group Proves Photos Matter

The online index of recovered photos

The NDPR online index of recovered photos

Located in Joplin, Missouri, the NDPR volunteers have rescued, cleaned, indexed and stored over 35,000 photos and documents that were blown from homes and businesses on May 22, 2011. Over half of these items have been returned to their owners. Here’s a link to their website.

A photo is a lifeline when disaster hits. Please take a few minutes to watch how Joplin has recovered from the horrific tornado that tore apart their town. While the video doesn’t deal with the photo recovery efforts, it definitely makes one think about all we have to be thankful for.

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THREE: You Can Help – Your Donation Will Be Matched by Pixologie Up To $1,000

Run by volunteers, the NDPR could use our help for expenses in helping these photos be saved. Donations will be used to provide mileage reimbursement and meals for volunteers who donate countless hours of service both at disaster sites as well as working with recovered photos to repair and restore them for return to the owner.

We have a challenge grant for the NDPR – we will donate matching dollars to the NDPR for every dollar we collect for Save Your Photos Day up to $1,000.

So. . . whether or not you have your own photos to save or you’d like to help someone else save their photos, please plan an hour to stop on by our Open House this Saturday.

Your photos really do matter – ask anyone who has lost their photos to a tornado or flood.

How about joining us in making your own audacious goal? 

Get your photos out of chaos and back into your life to be protected, celebrated and shared!

Save Your Photos Day at Pixologie

Saturday, September 27, 1 to 4 pm

9803 South 13th Street, Oak Creek, WI  53154

RSVP to 414-690-0791 or FACEBOOK

Stepping Out of Photos For a Moment . . . Can You Find Your Music?

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When you need motivation for getting going on your photo project, music can be extremely inspiring. One of my favorite songs about memories is by Bon Jovi . . . (Okay, it is a bit romantic, but he sings about photos!!!!)

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WATCH You Want to Make A Memory Video

SWITCHING GEARS FROM PHOTOS TO MUSIC

There is a lot of music that I love listening to while working on things that have taken me a while to get to.  I am switching gears for this blog from organizing photos to talk about your music collection. Why in the world would I do that?

  • Music matters too! It inspires, sets the mood and brings back many memories. (Calling the 80s – my childhood & Uptown Girl!)
  • Pixologie has connected with Murfie – an online music collection and store. Murfie is a partner of the Association of Personal Photo Organizers which is important to us – because it tells us that Murfie understands the significance of photos and memories and what we do.

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  • Murfie is a fellow Wisconsin business – located in Madison just an hour and a half from our Pixologie Studio in Oak Creek, WI. We had to go check them out especially when Tyler Stubbe, long time Murfie employee, told us they have over half a million CDs in their warehouse of music.

MY TOUR AT MURFIE HEADQUARTERS

Here’s what I learned during my tour in Madison. You can:

  • Stream your CD and vinyl collection eliminating the need to store hundreds and hundreds of old CD cases in your home
  • Sell your CDs and vinyl records in a personal shop
  • Purchase CDs (digitally from other Murfie members – you are buying a physical CD that Murfie stores for you.)
  • Download CD files to add to iTunes and other music playing software
  • Trade albums with other members
  • Add albums to your Wishlist, choose a price, Autobuy and much more

Okay – I couldn’t resist taking some fun photos of the Murfie team.

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The Murfie team let me ship my classic music collection in to try their services out. I loved it – thought it was supercool to hear MY music over the internet. (Literally, I was playing my CD – Murfie copies EVERY single CD that is shipped to them – per their obligations to the music industry.)

And. . . I loved to see that I could very easily sell my CDs also. And. . . I found Bon Jovi’s Lost Highway album for $3.00 – which has my very favorite “Let’s Make a Memory” song on it. 

So – it’s a THUMBS UP for our fellow Wisconsin business – Murfie Music!!!

If you are interested in Murfie, here’s a discount code for you! Send your music collection in and use discount code: PIXMSN1 for 10% off!

www.murfie.com