Family, Fun and Fireworks

Although it may not be the first holiday that comes to mind when we think of family get-togethers, our national holiday, July 1st in Canada and July 4th in the USA are definitely a time of family memory-making moments! Celebrated with parades, barbecues, fireworks and family reunions, Independence Day is  definitely one of the most beloved American holidays. Canada Day is feted too across our broad nation.

At Memoirs we believe that it’s also a day that lends itself to storytelling. From the patriotic re-telling of the creation of the Declaration of Independence, to reminiscing about past Fourth of July celebrations, these stories become family favorites over the years and help draw us together both around the picnic table and in our hearts.

fourth of july

The heritage we share goes beyond family ties. It is also linked to our communities and cultural past which served to create this opportunity for us to get together and come to a better understanding of who we are as a family and a nation.

This year, we invite you to bring technology into the mix! You can share your digital photos and stories on social media using hashtags such as #IndependenceDay or #FourthOfJuly. You can also save the memories by picking your favorite photos and creating a photobook. Try an app like PastBook and invite friends and family members to contribute their own photos, which can be imported from camera phones and social networks. Don’t forget to pull it out next year to the delight of everyone you will share it with!

Happy Canada Day and Fourth of July! Enjoy the hotdogs and fireworks while sharing this fun-filled time with family and friends.

Be well, go safely!

Children, Emails and Ethical Wills – Oh My!

In celebration of May being Personal History Month, we’d like to propose a wonderful idea to easily collect anecdotes, virtual mementos and digital files as your child (or grandchild) grows up: set up their very own email address to preserve them all in one place!

Many parents and grandparents admit they print few, if any, of their digital photographs. Keeping the most important photos and videos organized and annotated in a separate email account for each child is a wonderful way to archive these memories.

This system is great for saving all kinds of life’s important (and some not so important) moments. It can also serve as a creative writing space for parents and grandparents where they can record their feelings about the child and surrounding life events, at that particular time.

When used consistently, a permanent archive of stories, both visual and written, is created. Think of the treasure trove you will have saved for your child (or grandchild) for the age when they are ready to tell their stories and begin the work on their ethical will!

Funny quotes or conversations, important milestones, written words and short videos capturing life events are all valuable memorabilia to remind your child of the way things were.

We consider handing over the account password as the equivalent to handing over the key to a virtual treasure chest.  Make sure to fill it up consistently with “treasure-worthy” photos and tales of your (grand)child’s journey from childhood to adulthood. The rewards for both parent (grandparent) and (grand)child are priceless as it really is a gift that’s a “lifetime” in the making.

We suggest that when you set up the email account you save the username and password in a secure location, as this account will not be accessed on a regular basis. As each email is date and time stamped devise a system using keywords to easily locate the memorabilia your looking for.

Would you prefer an app-based archiving solution? Check out Notabli and 23snaps. Both allow you to upload, find and organize your child’s images with the added benefit of being able to privately share them with friends and family. The apps also include a “hands on” option of developing a printable photo album you may one day give to your child.

Please don’t wait…Start today!

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Producing a WHITE PAPER: Preserving OUR Legacy

It has been fifteen years since the founding of Memoirs Productions. And just as we encourage all of our clients (and indeed everyone!) to take stock when reaching an important milestone, we too have taken this opportunity to reminisce about our journey and reflect on both where we have come from and where we are going.

Reflecting on Collecting

Putting together a collection of Memoirs’ printed materials was a complete surprise as to the sheer volume of works and the related wisdom gained throughout the years. We discovered that  through knowledge and personal growth, we have refined and evolved our process of delivering our broadcast-quality productions with heart. It is now known to be our “blueprint for success” in the domain of preserving legacy.

As a result, we wanted to share the sum of our fifteen years experience with those who are like-minded. As part of the process of researching and writing our White Paper we collected our data from various sources. We gathered stories from the families, philanthropists and businesses we have worked with to use as case studies. We culled from our featured articles and columns (online and in print) relating to legacy while incorporating our speaking presentation materials. We reflected on the awards and professional acknowledgments we have been nominated for and/or received.

It was overwhelming, affirming and gratifying to see the sum of a life’s work assembled in one publication, organized and distilled. We had produced Memoirs Productions’ own Corporate Ethical Will~Legacy of Values, and are proud of it.

Looking forward

It has been our pleasure to work with visionary early adopters of our video ethical will process. They are the ones who have identified early on that the incomparable value that comes from the this form of communication with their next-gens, is highly complementary to their financial wills and personal legacies.

As ethical wills are being featured more and more in the mainstream press, our dream is that this trend continues so that everyone, both families and businesses, understands the value of and produce their own ethical wills, whichever way suits them best.

page 1Our gift to you

At its core, the classic concept of creating an Ethical Will~Legacy of Values informs and affects lives. In celebration of our fifteenth year, we have transformed our own Corporate Legacy of Values into our White Paper, Preserving Your Legacy of Values, so that we might share the gift of our wisdom, knowledge and stories with those who are interested. We invite you to download your own copy by following this link.

 

Thank you for sharing our special journey with us to date.

Stay tuned, the best is yet to come!

Tech Time!

Tech Time is the third instalment in our 3 part mini-series on creating a digital photo/video archive. Kindly follow these links for part 1, A Life in Photos: Preserving our Legacy as it Happens and part 2, Photo Synthesis.


 

How nice would it be to get your photo and video collections under control and make it shareable with the rest of the family. Here are some basic tools to keep in mind to manage these collections, and hopefully will help you avoid some mistakes that eat up precious time.

 

STEP 1: PROJECT SETUP

Old photos and photo equipmentBefore digitizing it is essential to do a manual sort of all the images you own. This includes your digital photograph and video collections as well as your online images. You might find it easier to start with your digital media before proceeding to the hardcopies.

As discussed in our previous blog post, this is the prime opportunity to cull duplicates including “bad” photos (blink, red eye), landscape and scenery shots. You may start by dividing them chronologically and then by group, subject or family.

 

STEP 2: SCANNING

The next step will move your printed photos, negatives and slides into the digital era. This ensures that their quality is preserved, unlimited duplicates are accessible to family members, and provides the security of being backed up in case of loss or damage.

Photo and negative scanners are available for purchase or rent. Consider using linen gloves to avoid smudging photos or negatives with finger prints, as well as using a micro-fibre cloth or compressed air canister to remove dust from both the media and the scanner.

Ensure that your scanning output is at the highest quality i.e. scanned at a minimum 300 dpi (dots per inch). This means that you can make prints from these files, should you wish to have them reproduced. While 72 dpi will appear clear on a computer screen, bear in mind it will create a blurry print.

 

FILE NAMES AND CATALOGUES

Developing a file naming and cataloguing system that works and makes sense from the beginning is tremendously helpful. Do not name each photo individually (according to the people in it, for example). Rather, choose a serial number approach that captures all the essentials you can use to search for it later on. An example of this would be DATE / EVENT / NUMBER: 05052007 Karie and Flo’s Wedding – 01.

When cataloguing a folder system that includes: Year, Season/Month and Event provides a clear path as to where to save images.  Don’t go too “deep” into subfolders as it can make files increasingly difficult to locate.

Although at first it may appear unnecessary, it is useful to start cataloguing according to maternal or paternal side of the family, above YEAR in the folder hierarchy. It sets a system in place to accommodate family growth through marriage, remarriage and stepfamilies.

 

TAGGING

Whether you’re working on a PC or a Mac, offline or online, photo-tagging options are available and simple to use. A Google search can help you find these resources.

With thousands or tens of thousands of images to work with, consider integrating a standard for your tags and captions into your workflow. “Uncle Ken (Grenkow), fishing at Lake Wanapasaki CT, 1976.” This image could be tagged with the words: Ken, Grenkow, Fishing, Wanapasaki, CT, 1976.

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Searching for the keyword KEN for example, will pull up all this Uncle Ken’s photos in your collection, along with anyone else named Ken. You can refine your search using more than one keyword to narrow your results. Think of the time saved in future searches if all photos have been properly tagged!

If you’re stuck for particular details in a photo, consider using online photo platform – such as Google+ Photos (AKA as Picasa) or social media to “kin crowd-source” the missing info. To use this method, post photos to a private album and ask family members if they know who is in the photo, what year it was taken, who is sitting beside whom, etc. It can be a fun way to go down memory lane together and can also generate excitement and participation for your project.

As this task can be long and feel tedious at times, a great suggestion is to use speech-to-text software and dictate right to the file.

 

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BACKING UP AND ARCHIVING

A backup is a duplicate copy (on an external hard drive or on the Cloud), which serves to prevent loss due to issues like computer failure or theft.

An archive, on the other hand, is a copy kept in safe storage. At least one archival copy should be stored off-site (away from home) and should be accessible offline. The Library of Congress suggests putting this copy with your important papers.

Remember, as your backup is updated every time you save new media you must periodically update your archival copy as well. This archival copy should be checked at least once a year to make sure the files are legible and new copies created every five years or so to avoid potential data loss.

THE ICING ON THE CAKE

The true joy of this project is in the accomplishment of what often is a large daunting task (don’t we all have thousands of photos by now?). Then once completed, gifting a hard drive or memory key copy to loved ones will be a unique and cherished heirloom.

Sorting, editing and archiving your family photos is truly a great journey to undertake. We wish you all a bon voyage on this digital adventure!

 

NB: An organized archive can be a blessing in disguise! One day when you’re ready to undertake your video biography, imagine how simple it will be to find exactly the right photographs to include with your life’s storytelling. Easy-peasy!
Happy Easter and Passover to all (and please don’t forget to get your elders storytelling around the table)!

Photo Synthesis

 

As soon as you hit click on that camera, it’s as if you’ve outsourced your memory. Anytime we kind of count on these external memory devices, we’re taking away from the kind of mental cognitive processing that might help us actually remember that stuff on our own.” – Dr. Linda Henkel, cognitive psychologist

It’s official. Smartphones are now the most popular cameras. Gone are the days when we needed to remind ourselves to bring the camera along. It is now simply always at our fingertips. We are also no longer restricted to rolls of film and a preset amount of frames. We now accumulate thousands, if not tens of thousands of photo images every year. But how often do we think about archiving all these photos? For most, the idea of sorting through this digital burden seems overwhelming, and so we tend to procrastinate.

How to Get Started

Although it is understandably hard to part with any of our photographic treasures, refusing to make choices and keeping everything amounts to nothing less than an uncontrollable mess. If you’re not sure where to start on your own images,  imagine how future generations who will inherit them will feel. Odds are, the bigger the mess, the bigger the chance your images will just be ignored or trashed.

Editing for Now – and the Future

If you’ve ever had the experience of sifting through the photographic memories of dearly departed ones, you’ve come across this harsh truth: no one is ever going to want ALL your photos. That’s why, as discussed in our previous post, it’s important to think about your intent WHILE you are taking the photos.

To help you cut through your photo clutter resulting in a manageable archive, i.e. a meaningful collection,  we propose the following suggestions.

© Jessy Hodge

© Jessy Hodge

Technical

(Do the following in camera/phone whenever possible. This will save you a lot of screen time later).

1) Delete (or throw out, in the case of hard copies) the worst images. These include: blurry, dark and blown out images as well as those of the back of people’s heads.  If you can’t decide: toss it. Indecision IS the decision when it comes to photos.

2) Eliminate duplicates. When you have a series, chose the best of the best and delete the rest. There is NO NEED for 15 photos of a bouquet toss at your niece’s wedding. Pick the one that resonates the most with you, and then send the rest to the trashcan.

Sentimental Editing

If you’re editing printed photos, AGE and SCARCITY are the number one priorities to consider. The older and more rare the image, the more sentimental value it holds. Therefore, it is highly advised that it be preserved using archival quality methods as well as storing it digitally and backing it up. You can however, offer what remains to family members and close friends, or share your own digital copy.

When you start your editing process, try and be objective. If these pictures belonged to your Uncle Ron, which ones would you most likely want to keep?

1)   People photos: Eliminate photos of buildings, landscapes and unidentified people. Let’s face it, unless people you backpacked with 40 years ago became life-long friends, your grandchildren won’t want photos of people they don’t know.

Remember our rule of thumb: When in doubt, toss it out.

2)   Sentimentality: Help out your heirs by editing your collection down to your favorites. They will never be able to guess which photos are the most meaningful if they have to sort through tens of thousands.

3)   Bonus points: The real treasure lies in passing on WHY these were your favorites. Dating and annotating digital files, writing notes on printed photos or tagging albums will increase the value of your images for years to come.

Final Thoughts

If you absolutely cannot bear to throw any images away, realize that someone will. If you STILL can’t get over it make two piles: EDITED and EVERYTHING. That way at least you’ve identified which ones of your collection are truly meaningful ones. After you have your two piles, make a third one, MEMOIRS, using images from your EDITED pile. This will be an even smaller collection that helps tell your full life story. Too many, and you run the risk of your family losing interest in your selection.

The reason for preserving your photos for generations to come is to enable family members, present and future, to get to know and understand you better. Dusting off boxes and/or external hard drives that hold pictures and memories is difficult for most to do. Get and keep your collection under control with ongoing editing.  I promise you will experience more satisfaction and joy by perusing your well-edited collection of photos with your loved ones. And just remember, keep smiling!

Our next blog post will explore different mediums in which to preserve your collection as an archive and share it.

A Life in Photos: Preserving our Legacy as it Happens

Until modern times, storytelling either verbal or written, has been the only way to pass down family history and lore. The inventions of audio recording, still cameras, film and video technologies in the 19th and 20th centuries have allowed us to tell, record and share with our own voice and likeness. These methods have revolutionized not only the way the stories are told, but also how they are shared and how they can be preserved.

Fast forward to the early 2000’s with the advent of digital technology and mobile devices. We now hold in the palm of our hand the ability to preserve history and personal stories as they unfold, and share them immediately with the whole world, or at the very least with Grandma on the other side of the country.

What are you preserving?

For each of us, the answer will be as different as we are unique.  In broad strokes however, we all preserve more or less the same things. They include milestones (weddings, births, graduations, birthdays), day-to-day (sports, activities, funny moments, get-togethers) and new to the gamut–  selfies.

Although they are fun to look at immediately and share on social media channels, it’s worth more than a moment to think about why you are preserving these moments. Years from now, how many of the tens of thousands of digital files you took will you be willing to sift through to find a memory’s defining moment? Do you have storage and filing systems that will enable you to find what you’re looking for? Will scrolling through hundreds upon hundreds of thumbnails become the future equivalent to Uncle Bernie’s slideshows of the 80’s?

© Lisa Tower

© Lisa Tower

Setting Your Intent

It’s great to take numerous photos all the time, but it’s more manageable if you set an intention for each group of images. Take the time to promptly choose a folder name to properly archive  the event and the people in the shot. This will leave a rich photo and video legacy for your children and grandchildren, to jog the memory and act as story aids to explain who was there and what it was like.

Set up a Successful Photographic Legacy

Ever been puzzled or frustrated because you came across a series of old photographs in which you knew only one, or maybe none of the people in the image? Or perhaps there is a date or name but no details? Imagine your heir scrolling through (if they can make it through) all of your numerous digital images not knowing anything about them. Be mindful of every time you dump your CF and SD cards into a hard drive, or on the “cloud”.

Taking the time to print your photos, label them digitally or on the back, and file them in an album or within a digital system. This will not only help you out when you’re looking to pull out the ‘Karen having a bath in the sink’ image for her wedding montage, it will also help you build the story of your family to share with future generations.

Our next blog post will provide suggestions on how to set up a successful photo and video legacy.

 

New Year’s Day is the WRITE TIME: A Legacy Letter to Our Children and Grandchildren

The end of a year and beginning of a New Year is a perfect opportunity to reflect on the past and plan for the future. While we generally focus on planning for our personal and professional goals, we must not forget to think about how our children and grandchildren fit into “the big picture” of our lives.

Writing a legacy letter to (grand)children is an exercise that appears easy enough: write a few stories, some values and beliefs, lessons learned, and most importantly communicate how much you love them. It’s so surprising that most people tend to put it off…Someday we’ll find the time and in the meantime our (grand)kids can rest assured that we love them!

© insEyedout

© insEyedout

Life is unpredictable. Our memories of the big and small events can and will fade. A simple way to preserve and share these stories is by writing them down in a letter or journal at this special time of year—and sharing it with loved ones.

There is no better time than the present. Once the letter is drafted, make sure to keep it safe, copied, or with technology so prevalent–back it up digitally by snapping a photo of it on a smartphone.

The value of these letters is immeasurable. When opened in the future, (grand)children will get to know more about themselves and you – as a (grand)parent and as a person.

Life can change in an instant. I invite you now to take the time to write your own legacy letter to your loved ones. For those among us who are not parents, these letters are also precious gifts for our nieces, nephews and Godchildren. Remember: your letter is like a permanent hug.

Grab a pen, paper or keyboard – get it in writing and share it soon!

Happy New Year to you and yours! Be well, go safely.

To view Iris Wagner’s full-length article Finding the Words: A Legacy Letter to our (Grand) Children, which appeared December 30, 2014 Love Your Overwhelm.com, kindly click here.

 

Personal History Coach’s Corner – Thanksgiving Edition

Laura Mclure of Ideas.TED.com posted this online recently for discussion at the Thanksgiving table. We at Memoirs challenge you to record the answers of your elders this holiday season.

Photo: Martin Cathrae

Photo: Martin Cathrae

  1. What are you grateful for?

  2. What are you proudest of?

  3. What’s been the happiest moment of your life so far?

  4. What’s been the hardest moment of your life, and how did you get through it?

  5. What are the most important lessons you’ve learned in life?

  6. How would you describe yourself as a child? Were you happy?

  7. Who has been kindest to you?

  8. How do you want to be remembered?

  9. If your great great grandchildren could listen to this years from now: is there any wisdom you’d want to pass on to them? What would you want them to know?

  10. If you could honor one person in your life — living or dead — by listening to their story, who would that be, what would you ask them and why?

Happy Hallowe’en!

Halloween

It’s that time of year again! Ghosts, goblins and princesses are set to roam the streets tonight in search of candy loot.

A special time for both family and community, Halloween is a one-of-a-kind holiday when it comes to memory making. Children have the opportunity to dress in costume, stay up late, be outside in the dark, and counting, sorting and indulging in fistfuls of candy. Yum!

Halloween is a time when costumed kids (and some adults!) are captured in photos to preserve the special memory of that ritual. These precious pictures will bring us right back to where we were at that moment in time. The sounds, smells, sights and frights, everything will makes us smile at the fun of it all.

For all the sweet tooths out there and for the sweet memories in the making, Happy Halloween!

Be well, go safely (and don’t forget your flashlights!)