Does LA Need Photo Help?

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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.

Our booth at the conference

Here’s what stands out . . .

  1. 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.
  2. 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.”
  3. 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!

Darla DeMarrow, HeartWork Organizing and Melinda Hartman Hollis, Out of the Box, joined us in helping to talk about saving photos.

 

 

 

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

Follow us on Facebook: Facebook.com/pixologie

 

Three Reasons Why You Should Make a Photo Slideshow

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Here’s mine from Mother’s Day . . .Okay, now if you’ve watched the simple two minute video above, you have seen me, my sister, my dad and my mom in all our glory in our younger years! Well, we’ve had some rather dramatic changes in the thirty years since our childhood photos. (Let’s just say, I’m so not that thin anymore, and my sister who was thin, gained weight and now is thin again!)

Every family celebrates their moments in their own way. For my mom, just watching the video was all she could do, commenting upon the photos that played.

Photo slideshows are relatively easy today, especially if you simply use the digital photos you already have. Here’s three reasons why you should make a photo slideshow.

  1. You CAN do it yourself with a computer or smartphone – and the simple software is either free or inexpensive. (PC – Photo Gallery, Windows MovieMaker; Mac – Photos, iPhoto; Smartphones – search the App Store – there are lots of choices.)
  2. You ARE taking time to reminisce about the good times with your family and friends. We are so busy in the moment these days, sometimes we forget to celebrate days gone by . . . and those who are no longer with us. Yes, for some of us, kleenix is definitely recommended. When you add some music to the photo flow, its easy to become emotional.
  3. You DO see the world runs differently today than it did years ago. If we don’t reflect back on the years we grew up, where we experienced our family’s traditions and a society that seemed to get along better – it’s going to fade away. Who knows what our children’s children will have to look back at?
  4. BONUS Reason – other people enjoy watching your photo slideshows which can be shared in a whole number of places!

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Using Photos amazing slideshow feature, the video I made above, took me about fifteen minutes. (Yes, I waited til the last minute to put it together before going to my parent’s on Sunday!) Here’s our Challenge because we know you can do it too. Make a photo slideshow and post it to our Facebook update for this blog. We may use it in a future post!

Connect on Facebook

Find us at www.pixologieinc.com

Email: contact@pixologieinc.com

Phone: 414-731-1881

Three Fun Photo Ideas on a Family Road Trip

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Pixologie is on the road this week . . . traveling down to Florida where the Association of Personal Photo Organizers is having their national conference. Ann flew while Rosie and I drove the 18+ hours down to Orlando. I love road trips . . . and will jump at the chance to hit the open road.

One of the road trips I went on was with my friend and our two 10 year old daughters . . . we drove for a week from Wisconsin all the way around the East Coast – with the goal of seeing twenty states and two provinces. Ask me to see the scrapbook sometime, 3300 miles in seven days . . . it was an unbelievable adventure (name the landmark, we most probably were there!)

There are three things that I love having photos of when I’ve been on a road trip.

ONE – Sleeping child – the stressors goes with taking children on a road trip are many (food, bathroom stops, “are we there yet,” and on). But there is something special about looking back at my kid sleeping that tugs at my heart strings and brings some peace. Definitely take a photo of that moment if possible – you’ll know what matters when you look back at the memories of the trip.

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TWO – Unusual rest stops. . . You may not be lucky enough to find a rest stop that has something unique about it, so if another decidedly “different” stop catches your eye, snap a photo. You’ll better remember the story that goes along with it. I really wouldn’t have remembered this bathroom we stopped at in West Virginia – but the two toilets reminded me of the gas station. Not only could you stock up on snacks, bait, guns, ammo, camo and much more, there was a stuffed version of every type of animal that could be hunted mounted around the store. (Kind of like Cabela’s but in a rural, tiny town in the hills way.)

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THREE – Take a photo where it looks like your son or daughter is holding the monument. Okay, it does take some manuevering to position your child’s hands right where they should be, but the fun of driving your kids nuts with something might be worth it. You can see I got better one year to the next, thank goodness, my daughter is a great sport!

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Those are my thoughts about some photos to take on a road trip. I wonder what photos you might have from those vacations you took with your family on the road. If you haven’t looked in awhile, it is time to pull the photos out of boxes and off of memory cards and computers – and enjoy the memories!

Need help with sorting and saving your photos? Let us know!

www.pixologieinc.com

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!

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:

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

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

 

Photo Mess Resolutions? 4 Steps to Start Fixing It Now!

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Got photos in your Near Year’s resolutions this year? This blog is definitely geared for anyone who has piles, boxes, envelopes, old albums and more of photos, slides and negatives that need some work. And, it is geared for anyone who has camera cards, smart phone picture libraries, tablets, computers, social media full of photos that need to be saved. If you have photos in both print and digital chaos, here are three steps to start fixing it now.

STEP ONE – Traditional printed photos, slides & negatives – Start collecting all of your pictures into one place in your home. Having all of your photos, etc. in one area will help you figure out what you are dealing with and making a priority list.

STEP TWO – Digital photos – Create a folder on your computer with a name you’ll remember (My Favorite Pictures, Super Special Pictures Collection or Smith Family Photos). Start saving all of your photos to this one folder including downloading them from emails, social media and more. You can create subfolders for each date, event, etc. We recommend the naming convention of YYYY-MM-DD Description – which will help your folders display in date order properly. For example:

  • 2014-12-10 Christmas Concert
  • 2014-12 December Phone Photos
  • 2014 – Social Media Downloaded Photos

STEP THREE – Be consistent with working on your photos – always put your printed photos you are given or photos that you find with the other photos you have organized. For your digital photos, each week take time to download photos to your Picture Folder, transfer photos from your devices to that folder.

STEP FOUR – Plan the time and a location to work on bringing it all together. Some of our clients at Pixologie have had over 15,000 printed photos, 200,000 digital photos or over 100 years worth of photo mess. An average photo collection of our clients includes 12,000 to 16,000 moments and memories. If you are in a similar situation, you will not get this done in a day at home.

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Get out of the house on a photo retreat for a weekend or come to Pixologie for a workshop and ongoing studio time to get motivation, tips, ongoing cheerleading and inspiration to continue on getting your photos out of chaos and back into life to be celebrated and shared.

Here’s Pixologie’s offering of services, products and workshops to help you get started.

We’d love to you help you with a plan – don’t hesitate to call, email or Facebook us if you have questions on how to get started with your New Year’s photo resolutions!

web: www.pixologieinc.com

email: contact@pixologieinc.com

phone: 414-731-1881

Don’t Make This Mistake – Holiday Lights Tour!!!

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Two Caveats to This Holiday Lights Post:

  1. Rosie Hartmann is the photographer of all these holiday light photos.
  2. I would have used my iPhone photos – her photos just look better! :  )

Fellow Pixologie gal Rosie and I hit the road on Wednesday night with my thirteen year old daughter Hannah to see the best holiday lights of Racine. And did we see some great light shows and displays!

Here’s a photo from the Jamestown Lights – one local couple who put on this show every year – and the holiday music they had on their “radio station” was fun. And, they have a view across a pond which makes it even more beautiful to watch.

10392434_757201394327270_6438302903027805729_n-2Here it comes the mistake I made. We had such a fun time, and I always try to take a photo with me or Rosie and my daughter when we go out together. And I forgot.

Then, two hours later, I made my husband get in the car with my eight years old son Alex, and we went to see it again! The photo of dad and son enjoying the light show? Doesn’t exist, because I forgot.

The moral of the story?

  1. The photos of the lights will never actually capture the full experience of seeing them in person.
  2. The best parts of the night were time spent with Rosie, Hannah, my husband and Alex. Unless I write the stories down from the evening, I will not remember them.
  3. Don’t forget to even take just one photo with your family when you are out doing something fun and taking photos of holiday lights!

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Racine County Zoo Light Displays were beautiful and several blocks long – no photo of my daughter who loved all of it!

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Jellystone Campground Christmas Celebration Light Show – over 15 million lights!!! We were blown away by all the magical things they did with lights. The photo above is just a snippet of an amazing half hour car tour through the grounds. Photo of my daughter, Rosie or I – who oohed and aahed the whole way through? Doesn’t exist!

Too often, as we help people sort through their photos, we see way too many pictures of scenery and too few of the family in the scenery. Our clients aren’t saving the majority of their scenery photographs. They want the photos of the people they were with.

So – I am thinking, okay, this weekend, we’ll get back in the car and I’ll get that photo of Hannah or Alex going to see the lights. (Yes, I know, it probably won’t even be a great one, in the dark with a flash, but I’ll have a photo of this new family tradition we started!)