Category: ART

Museums, Gardens and other cultural sites

ART, DFW Metroplex, Libraries, Memory Keeping, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography, Scrapbooking

Can FOREVER Save That?

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: THE FORMATS FOREVER CAN STORE

What Do You Have and What Do You Want?

There is one question I ask a lot and this is it! It applies to many steps in the Memory Keeping process, but in our digital world, wondering what formats can be saved on FOREVER is a pretty important one.

If you are a general consumer with photos, video and audio on your devices and computer, then FOREVER is going to save pretty much anything you want it to. Here’s a list of all the things FOREVER will save.

As you can see, this is a pretty comprehensive list. In fact, I don’t even know what some of those formats do. However, there are things FOREVER can’t save (yet), so let’s talk about those.

Raw Files

Many pro and hobbyist photographers take photos in Raw. This is a a generalized category which creates huge files for the purpose of file manipulation. When we were in the real estate photography business, our photographers would take their shots in raw on the HDR setting. This meant the files were huge and that basically they were in parts. Our guys would take multiple shots in a variety of exposures for each image, which would then be processed to create one data rich file for editing. The purpose was to manipulate light, so that we could take a picture of a room with the curtains open and get everything in the room and everything outside with perfect lighting. Various photographers use a variety of other methods to do the same thing, but this is the method we used and a lot of other photographers do, too.

The difficulty with this is that different cameras take different types of raw photos. Our Canon camera took .cr2 and the DGI drone took .dng. Your Nikon takes something else and other cameras will take another format. And this is why FOREVER has not yet embraced RAW in it’s suite of supported files, yet.

While FOREVER will not save all these raw files, most of the time the raw state is just a temporary destination for files which will become jpg’s. That’s what we did. General consumers don’t want to handle or store the huge, unedited files. We always converted our raw files to jpg’s as we processed the files for delivery. While FOREVER doesn’t store raw files, yet, it does realize that for some photographers, this capability is a high priority.

I have spoken with Dr. Nathan Bowers, the VP in charge of R&D and supporting these files is on the short list of development with FOREVER, but there are technical challenges associated with it. Nathan would have been happy to explain these details to me, but I wouldn’t have understood. If you would, then perhaps you should call him, but for the time being, suffice to say, FOREVER can’t store Raw files, but we’re working on it.

HEIC

Those who use and are familiar with Apple know they sort of like to be unique. If you have an Apple phone, then this is the format your photos are taken in. Not to worry! While FOREVER will not store your photos in HEIC, it will automatically convert them to .jpg as you upload them. For 99% of the population, that’s fine. They actually don’t care what extension is attached to their files, they just want to save them. There are some proponents of HEIC who want to keep their files in that format and unfortunately, at this time, FOREVER cannot save these files. I say “at this time,” because an ongoing desire at FOREVER is to never say no to any format. At this time it is not possible to store .heic on FOREVER, but that won’t be the answer forever.

Various Documents

Let me start this part of the conversation here. You can save PDF files on FOREVER. The document files on your computer are much like the raw files from a camera, because the type of file created depends on a variety of factors. That’s why PDF was created in the first place.

PDF stands for Portable Document Format. It was designed to make your files portable, whatever format they were created in. Converting most files to PDF is easy. You just change the extension to .pdf and viola, you have a PDF which can be stored on FOREVER.

So, will FOREVER store your documents? Absolutely! Just save them as jpg’s and upload.

APPS

When one of my friends bought FOREVER storage, the first thing they wanted to do was save everything on their Quickbooks. Well, for one thing, Quickbooks is already saved and backed up. Perhaps not to the extent of FOREVER, but certainly safer than the photos on your phone or the VHS tapes sitting on a shelf.

After a little discussion, I discovered that what she really needed was not the whole app, but the reconciliation she created each month. Easy peasy! The reconciliation was a PDF doc. Now she saves those to FOREVER and is perfectly happy.

The point is that while you cannot save a whole app, probably what you want to save is some document which is already in a format FOREVER can save.

Specialized Formats

The items I have covered so far in this post are the most common questions I hear, however the longer I do this, the more formats I discover. Did you know quilters have a specific format for saving their quilt patterns and genealogist have their own format? The list goes on.

If you have a specialty format that you’d like to save on FOREVER, please let them know. The development team prioritizes projects based on need and demand. I know quilters and genealogists have their own formats, because I’ve been on ZOOM calls where Dr. Bowers has mentioned these formats as items on his development list.

In the meantime, many of these formats can be converted to something like jpg or pdf, which can be saved. Or you can take a picture of the file and save the picture. It may not be the complete digital file, but it’s better than nothing, until it can be saved on FOREVER.

Summing Up

While FOREVER cannot save every type of file in the world, the list of things they can save is very comprehensive and most files can be saved with a simple conversion to PDF. FOREVER was designed for the specific purpose of memory keeping and it does that very well for the vast majority of formats in which people have captured their memories. If you have something in particular you need to save that isn’t on the list above, let’s talk. You might be closer than you realize to keeping your memories on FOREVER.

Architecture, ART, Attractions, Decorative Arts, DESTINATIONS, Libraries, Museums, Presidential, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

The William J. Clinton Presidential Library

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE – ANOTHER PRIMARILY PRESIDENTIAL DESTINATION

If you follow my tags, you’ll find 19 posts about Primarily Presidential Destinations. I’ve got at least that many more on my wish list. The William J. Clinton Presidential Library was not on that list, but that’s only because I hadn’t really thought about it. I’d never been much of a fan and Little Rock was not someplace I was dying to go.

With Little Rock being about halfway between DFW and St. Louis it was a perfect stop over and I knew we’d have a few hours there on Thursday morning before we had to get on the road. I googled “Visit Little Rock” and the Library was one of the first attractions to come up. Then there was no question about it, fan or not, if it was a presidential library I was going.

Little Rock is a city under construction, but Wayz knew about it and threaded us through the detour signs. We arrived a few minutes before opening and caught up with our email and social media.

As I watched people park and head toward the building it wasn’t clear to me exactly where we were supposed to enter, because it’s one of those modern buildings where the entrance is fairly non-descript. In fact, you have to go under the building to enter it.


Women’s Voices, Women’s Votes, Women’s Rights

The ground floor is dominated by a glass-walled gift shop. You had to go through it to get to the special exhibition on the other side. The special exhibition was a series of quilts focused on women’s suffrage and and women’s rights.

The thought process of having a quilt exhibition was quite good. Quilting has always been a very female thing to do and in America women have used the quilts to document everything from family trees to stops on the Underground Railway. Quilts filled both the downstairs exhibition space and another gallery upstairs.

I found myself more interested in the modern process of quilts than I was their message. I guess I haven’t been paying enough attention at the State Fair of Texas Crafts Building. These weren’t the patchwork quilts I’ve admired during the rest of my life. Pictures were printed on the cloth and then over-sewn by machine. I’m not doubting the creativity and skill of the women who crafted these quilts, I’m just gonna be honest and say I like old-school quilts better.

Deb, the conversation starter, mentioned to someone we were headed to a women’s conference. Her new friend perked right up and wanted to know more. That was until Deb told her it was a Christian conference. Then all the perk deflated out and we were told to enjoy the exhibit. They’d obviously wished we were headed out to wear vagina caps or beat up some right to life advocates. In another gallery of the special exhibition Deb engaged the guards with a description of Allsopp & Chappele. They followed us around the gallery capturing information about the restaurant on their phones.

Touring the Permanent Exhibits

Even though I wasn’t a big fan of Bill, I was impressed by his Library. There’s all the usual obligatory Presidential Library stuff – memorabilia from his presidential campaigns, a replica of his Oval Office and an orientation theater. I was surprised to learn in the film how important his saxophone was to him and that it was almost the career path he chose. Would the world be a better place if Bill Clinton had been a professional sax player? In the film he said political activism won out over the saxophone, but I have a sneaky feeling that was due more to Hillary Rodham, who he met about that time, than it did the actual political activity.

One of my favorite parts was a timeline that dominated the second floor. It combined important achievements of his presidency with world events, so you are reminded of their historical setting. Around the timeline were alcoves focused on various themes of his presidency and letters from famous people were displayed, sometimes with Bill’s reply.

In comparison, in the George W. Bush Library, the first two galleries are given over to “No Child Left Behind” and 9-11. While Bush sees the education agenda as his crowning glory, I see it as his biggest failure. Any reminder of 9-11 is upsetting to those of us who lived through it. So by the time I get to the rest of the exhibits I’m not in the mood to celebrate his other successes. Points go to Mr. Clinton.

I will admit, Clinton accomplished many of his goals. My problem with him is that I see a direct correlation between what he “accomplished” and many of the troubles we have today. I believe his intentions were good and sincere, but like many good and sincere people, he didn’t look down the road and consider what the results of his good intentions would be.

And then there’s Monica Lewinski. I wondered if they’d even address it in the Library and I have to give them kudos for having the guts to do so. However, I found humor in the way they chose to present it. It wasn’t Bill admitting he’d sinned, it was some commentary over whether his actions were actually impeachable or not. Evasive into perpetuity. He’s not the only bad boy in the presidential line-up, but will any of us ever forget “I did not have sex with that woman,” and the blue dress. Oh, and the meditation on what the word “is” might actually mean.

The primary reason I am not a fan of Bill is that I disagreed with what he was trying to accomplish – no surprise! He’s a Democrat and I am a Republican. But the whole Sex in the Oval Office thing was an embarrassment to our nation and as always, the coverup was worse than the sin. When are our leaders going to learn to step up, confess their sins and move on. Instead we have to have months/years of investigations, which in the end just spend money we don’t have to promote the political careers of the incumbents. I am so tired of it!

The third floor was like dessert, because it contained the gifts to the Clintons from other world leaders and countries. The presidential gifts are always my very favorite thing to see. There was a table setting from one of their state dinners, something the libraries always seem to have and one of the Frist Lady’s evening gowns, another presidential library staple.

And speaking of the First Lady, I was very impressed by the low key role she played in the library. Of course she was there, including her efforts to fix health care, but her presence was not overpowering. I jokingly call Ronald Reagan’s library the Nancy Reagan Library, because I left knowing more about her than I did him. Her stamp is on every single exhibit. Not so with Hillary Rodham Clinton, who actually played a larger role in her husband’s career than Ms. Nancy did. Points go to Mrs. Clinton.

So, I enjoyed my visit to the William J. Clinton Presidential Library. I heartily recommend that you visit when you can – and of course, that you eat at Allsopp & Chapple, but don’t stay at Day’s End.

There are other activities on the campus of the Library, but we needed to get on down the road. The Love Life Conference would start that evening, so we needed to be in St. Louis in time to attend. Come back next week and we’ll be on the road again to St. Louis.

DFW Metroplex, Memory Keeping, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography, Scrapbooking

How to Get Your $20

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: A LITTLE INCENTIVE TO GET STARTED

The $20 Welcome Coupon from FOREVER

I want you to discover FOREVER! I know I rave about it all the time, but I’m not sure you know how easy it is to get started. I probably also fail to tell you FOREVER has $20 waiting for you to sweeten the pot. Here’s how it works!

It Starts With My Link

FOREVER has assigned me a unique and specific link. They want you to sign up with an Ambassador you know. Someone who you feel comfortable with. They do not want to be an anonymous website like so many of web-based companies out there which assign you a number and talk to you through bots. They have a wonderful Customer Service staff and a great help page, but they want you to have a real live Ambassador of your very own.

This is my link: https://www.forever.com/ambassador/jane-sadek

If you prefer QR Codes, here you go:

That link takes you to FOREVER. According to the device you use, you may immediately be asked to provide your email and create a password. It’s OK, it’s free. If it just takes you to the Home Page, click on Log In in the upper right hand corner and then under the green Log In button, there’s a link “Need an Account? Sign Up Free”. Click that and you will go here.

Fill it in and hit the Sign Up button. That’s it! Welcome to the wonderful world of FOREVER, but don’t stop there, because you need to claim your $20.

FOREVER Will Send You an Email

When your sign up is through, go to your email. If you don’t see an email from FOREVER then check all those spam folders. Confirm your email address and then FOREVER will send you your Welcome Coupon.

Twenty dollars is waiting for you. When you open the Welcome Coupon email I suggest you either print it out and/or save it someplace where you can find it again.

Near the bottom of that email is a code. That’s your $20. You’re going to want that when you make your first order. Many clients are ready to buy when they join. They cut and paste their code into their order and they are done. But I also have clients who aren’t ready to buy from the get go. That’s why I want you to print it out or save it somewhere you’ll be able to find it later.

In Fact, FOREVER Will Send You a Lot of Emails

So, one of the reasons FOREVER wants you to verify your email address is because like everyone else, they want to send you all their stuff – and that’s why you have an Ambassador. FOREVER stuff is great if you are about to start a bunch of projects, because the emails will keep you informed of all the great promotions which are going on. If you’re just sticking your toe in the water and aren’t interested in the stuff, when you get your first promo email, go to the bottom and click either “update your preferences” or “unsubscribe from this list.” Then you can tell them thanks, but no thanks – but wait until after you get your $20 coupon!!! I don’t want you to miss that.

Use That Coupon!!

First of all, you have 60 days to use that coupon. On Day 61, it will no longer be valid. So please find a way to use it within 60 days of signing up. The coupon will work with most things on FOREVER, with a few exceptions – gift cards, events, FOREVER Club memberships etc., but for merchandise, it’s all good.

Stack your deals!! Many, many, many companies are quick to send you a coupon, but then trying to use it is almost impossible, because you can’t use it with any other offers. That’s not so with FOREVER, except in very, very rare cases, which will be clearly marked. You can stack your $20 welcome coupon with all the deals on the Deals page, as well as with The FOREVER Club discount, which I would be happy to explain to you.

Get the best price! At the first of every month, FOREVER informs its Ambassadors about all the deals for the month. When you know what you want to buy, just give me a shout before you hit the buy button. I can let you know if you can get a better price by waiting a day or a week.

And that’s it! Twenty dollars towards your Memory Keeping project. You can also get $20 for referrals, but we’ll talk about that and The FOREVER Club another day!

DFW Metroplex, Memory Keeping, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography, Scrapbooking

What is FOREVER AutoPrint?

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: CREATE PROJECTS LIKE MAGIC

How to Get There QUICK

If you are one of my FOREVER clients, then just log into the FOREVER website or get on the app. Both avenues will allow you to do AutoPrint projects.

If you haven’t become a customer yet, it’s free and easy to sign up. You’ll also get a $20 Welcome coupon just for confirming your email address, so don’t forget that part. You do not need to have storage to create these AutoPrint projects. From the main page, hover over “Create & Print” and select “Autobooks from the left side.

For current customers, on FOREVER’s website >go to the Library > select your photos, >select Print in the upper right hand corner. Then follow your nose. I selected 4 photos, chose Coaster Set and in milliseconds I had a set of four gorgeous coasters. All I needed to do was hit the “Add to Cart” button. It’s that easy!

Breaking It Down a Little More

If that’s moving a little too fast for you, let’s take it a little slower. With AutoPrint, you have a wide variety of quick gifts to create:

  • AutoBooks
    • Sizes 8X8 -12X12
    • Softbound & Hardbound
    • Standard & Layflat
  • Photo Gifts
    • Coaster Sets
    • Tabletop Panels
    • Notebooks
    • Magnets
  • Drinkware
    • Water Bottles
    • Photo Mugs
  • Photo Prints
    • Glossy & Lustre
    • Sizes 4X6 – 11X14

Your first job is to select the images you want to use. While these selections can be chosen on the fly from your FOREVER Library or in a folder on your device, if you have storage, it’s easy to make an online album and collect the photos you want there. Start with the photo you want for the front and then add the rest in the order you want them to show up. A little preparation makes the actual ordering go even faster.

When you are on the website, hover over Create & Print and select “AUTOPRINT” from the drop down menu. Then select one of the four categories above. For this exercise, we’re going to make a standard 8X8 softbound AutoBook.

I selected AutoBooks and on the next page, I chose Standard. The screen moved up so I could choose an 8X8 Softbound. And here’s the Get Started Page.

When I clicked “Get Started” it gave me this screen. From here I can go to my Library, my Albums, my Tags or as you can see there is an “UPLOAD” button in the upper right hand corner.

For this project, I chose tags and selected the “Floral” Folder. This folder has 161 photos in it, but I can have up to 892 images in my 99 page book. (Artisan 6 users can have up to 199 pages!!) I used the “Select All” button to get all 161 photos and then hit the “ADD SELECTED” Button.

Before one second could pass, my book was created. I could literally hit the “Add to Cart” button and print out my album.

But wait, at this point, I have options. I can add “Photo Pages” or “Text Pages.” Or I can “Edit Pages.”

Let’s do some Editing! I added a title to the front of the book and the spine. I changed the layouts on some pages which had textboxes, because I just wanted photos. There are text boxes at the top and bottom of each page, but I left them blank, so they won’t print. I chose a pattern for all the pages and then a solid color for the cover.

It’s taken me longer to explain what I did than it did to do it.

And there we go. I hit “Add to Cart” and it was ready to order. FOREVER also added it to my project page, so I took it out of my cart and if I ever did want to order it, it would be there. I added the project to an album I have created for my completed projects, so I can share it with you: https://www.forever.com/app/users/jane-sadek–1/containers/4b1391db-884a-4733-86ec-8da5fc1637c5/8ogwkito47c7x05hru9sugzs6

Were I actually to print this photobook there is some cleaning up to do. I decided to do this particular tag folder very spontaneously and there are some duplicates. I might reorder the photos, too, but I wanted to show you just how easy it can be.

There are some changes in the works for AutoPrint, to streamline it further into Create & Print world, but FOREVER is devoted to offering the quick, easy and clean looking option, so while the navigation might change a little, the look and the ease of AutoPrint is not going anywhere.

I have to tell you, the retail price of the album was $27.15. My FOREVER Club Membership knocked it down 5% and a promo on that day knocked it down another 40%. I could have printed the photobook for $15.48 (plus tax and shipping). Who said Memory Keeping is expensive? And if you’ve been using another online vendor, because you thought they were cheaper, maybe this will give you pause.

In later posts, I’ll cover Design & Print and the Artisan 6 program, but next week we’re going to talk about how to $20 on your first order.

DFW Metroplex, Memory Keeping, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography

Let’s Talk About the Library

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: THE FOREVER LIBRARY, THAT IS

What’s a FOREVER Library?

OK, so FOREVER is a Digital Media resource that offers everything from Media Digitization to Video Streaming – but if you hang around me much, then you already know that.

The FOREVER Library is the place where all the stuff you’ve uploaded to FOREVER hangs out. It’s not the only place. You also have albums, as well as tags for sorting and finding your photos, but the library is where everything is all at the same time. You can upload directly to the library or to your albums. It doesn’t matter.

What Can It Do?

Your library can do a lot of cool things for you, so I decided to take a few minutes to introduce you to it’s features. Obviously, the great big blue “upload” button is the one you’d use for adding photos from your computer to your storage. If you want to add photos from your phone, there’s a free app for that. If your media is hard copy, we need to talk about digitization. See last week.

Next to it is a search bar. The effectiveness of your search bar is directly related to the thoroughness of your curating. The more information you have about your photos in FOREVER, the more accurately you can search. A sampling of the search terms you could use would be dates, titles and tags, but whatever you’ve got, FOREVER will try to deliver something.

At the end of the upload and search area is a box that says “All Files”, but if you click the blue area you get these choices.

Obviously, All Files is all files. Favorites are photos you have marked with a heart. You can see an example of the heart on the left corner of the photo by the blue and white selection box.

The next are three very helpful choices as you begin to curate your images: “Not in Album,” “Not Tagged” and “Neither Tagged Nor in Album.” As you get your photos organized, labeled, tagged and such, the number of photos these choices will bring up will grow smaller.

I’m proud to say all but a handful of my photos are in Albums and all of those not in albums were taken in the last few days. I have my photos automatically added from my phone, by the app, when I take them. Then I delete them or add them to albums daily or weekly, according to the day and the week.

I’m working on the “Not Tagged”. Tagging is a great tool for searching. Some day I will have all the people and places tagged in every photos, so I can search by name or location to find any photo I want. So far, I have them all tagged as either Travel, At Home, Out & About, etc., but I have a long way to go. FOREVER recommends spending 15 minutes a day on this task and it’s a great idea.

Then there are a series of “Show Only” choices. With them you can see only photos, video or audio. You can also isolate documents in the collection. Projects are cool, because FOREVER keeps a copy of all the projects they do for you – the photobooks, photo gifts, greeting cards and such. These projects do not take up your storage space, but are always available to you.

Under that selection box associated with “All Files” is a section where you can filter by both year and month. So, if you know you’re looking for the pictures of your husband’s 50th birthday, just select the year and the date of that celebration. In this image I chose 2021 for the year and have brought down the month selections.

Moving to the other side, under the “upload” button, you find the “Order By” selections. I tend to leave it on Date Taken (Oldest First) because I think in chronological order, but you can reverse it and as for (Newest First) if you are looking for something taken recently.

Sometimes you aren’t as concerned with when it was taken as you are when it was uploaded and the next choices cover that.

Other Things to do in the Library

Returning to the picture at the top, you’ll notice that each individual photo has a heart and a circle at the top. The heart, as I mentioned above, allows you to mark your favorites and you can always choose to have the Library show those to you. The circle allows you to select images for curating. Let me show you.

On the main Library page, I checked a picture and the screen above opened up, giving me new choices. I went ahead and selected all the pictures I was in, on the first date available, but I could have chosen every picture of me in the library, all the pictures on that date or even just one photo at a time to work on.

If I chose “Add to Album,” I would get this screen. It allows me to either set up a new album, add the selected photos to a top level album or with the “View Nested” arrow, I could actually add them to albums which are “nested” under the main album.

If I chose “Add Tags,” then I could add tags common to all five of those photos. Obviously, since I chose pictures of myself, I could tag them “Jane Sadek,” but you are allowed an unlimited number of tags, so people are only the beginning. And you can do more than one tag at a time, so if I had three ways of identifying all these photos, I would add all three tags. They could either be tags I had already created or I could create them using this tool.

Also from the Library you can share photos with other people. You can select as many photos as you like and then either share the link which is created or create an email or a post or message for Facebook. You can even create a QR code. How cool is that!

There’s a “Download” button next and when you click it, you’ll be linked immediately to your browser. Select where you want the photos to be saved and save. You’ll have a copy of these photos on your computer.

The “Delete” button (at the far end) will bring up a screen which asks if you want to delete photos. If you do, it will put them in your FOREVER delete bin for 60 Days.

Now this is a good one. The “Edit Info” button allows you to change the basic information on a file. You know how photos come from your camera with vague names like IMG 36 or a string of numbers. Well, you can change it to a more specific title like Jane in Dallas 2021 or whatever name would be more useful.

You can also provide a description of the photo here. You could explain who Jane was, what she was doing in Dallas, what your relationship to her is – whatever you want. In fact, while the description boxes you run into with many programs have a 25 word or 100 character limit, this description can go on for as long as you’d like it to.

You can also edit or add a date. Sometimes our devices try hard to fill in blanks and provide a Date Taken which has no basis in reality.

If you’re loading a whole bunch of photos to your storage, the Bulk Organizer could be your best friend. You could do the whole curating job in one fell swoop. You just have to remember that whatever you put here will override anything else you might have in the metadata.

You can make changes to all of these sections or just choose those you want.

One more choice. Perhaps you’d like to select a group of photos for a slideshow. Well, there’s a “Slideshow” button. It will autoplay whatever you’ve selected and you can even put it on “Loop” so you can play it continuously.

Well, there is one more thing you can do from this screen. You see that brick colored square that says “AUTOPRINT”? Well, this could be step one for your next print project. Just select all the images you want to include in a digital photobook, photogift or perhaps you’d just like to print some copies to share.

The AUTOPRINT buttons connects you directly with the various potential projects in Autoprint. That’s where FOREVER does most of the work, like magic. You select the images and the project. FOREVER will do the rest. You’ll be given the opportunity to do some minor editing, if you chose, then all you have to do is pay for it and select your delivery method and address. You can have custom projects ready in seconds!

Wrapping It All Up in the Library

Most of these same features are available in the FOREVER app, as well as on the website, as I have shown them here. You just find them in different places. Personally, I enjoy working on files in the Library when I’m at my desktop or using my laptop, but I’ve heard of people who curate their entire collection of media on their phone, sitting by the pool, drinking a cool adult beverage.

It’s up to you. If, while you are in the Library on your computer, you need a reminder about any particular images, just hover over the “i” in the bottom right of any images. A small black and white screen will pop up to show you what FOREVER knows.

And that’s all there is to it. I plan to write similar posts about Albums, Tagging and the App in the coming months, but next week we’re going to AutoPrint. Start thinking about a project you’d like to have completed quickly – like magic.

DFW Metroplex, Memory Keeping, Photography

Yes, You Can Digitize That

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: JUST IN CASE YOU’RE WONDERING WHAT WE CAN DIGITIZE

We Digitize More and Better

That gray box company that you may or may not be familiar with, which has all the advertisements on the radio and social media about digitization, says this about what video formats they digitize: “We work with many video formats including VHS tapes, VHS-C, Mini-DV, Hi8, Digital 8, MicroMV, Betamax, and PAL.”

You know what? That sounds good until you compare it to what FOREVER says, “We can digitize any and all consumer videotapes including VHS, beta, Hi8, Mini DV, DVDs, and 3/4″ U-matic.” Did you see those three little words? ANY and ALL?

And our more is more. Search around the other guys website and you’ll never see statements like these, which are just everyday jobs for FOREVER:

  • We can digitize standard 12” x 12” scrapbook album pages.
  • We can digitize photos larger than 8” x 10”, historical documents, newspaper clippings, photo albums, books, oversized scans, medium and large format slides, and medium and large format negatives.
  • We can transfer content from picture CDs and data discs, flash drives, external hard drives, 3.5″ floppy discs, flash memory cards, smartphones, and digital cameras with internal memory cards.
  • We can digitize exceptionally large orders, or orders requiring an advanced level of organization and processing.

We Offer More and Better Delivery Options

When your digitization is over, the other guys do not offer permanent storage solutions for the images you’ve just paid so much money to digitize. They want to sell you DVD/CD’s, Thumb Drives or Cloud Storage.

Well, if a DVD/CD or Thumb Drive is what you really want, FOREVER is happy to deliver, but it’s not what we recommend. Why? Because those are just Memory Disasters looking to happen. DVD/CD’s and Thumb Drives are devices – devices which can fail or become obsolete. The other guys are just setting you up for the next time you need to upgrade your technology.

Oh, the other guys will happily rent you a piece of the Cloud, but which Cloud? The one that will bill you monthly or annually for as long as you both exist. The one that can compress your images, transfer them to another company and mine for advertising. The Cloud which has forced you to sign terms and agreements which say if your photos are deleted you have no recourse. The one which has told you they will delete your photos as soon as your account is not active – as in you didn’t pay for your storage or merchanides that month? That’s not FOREVER storage.

Instead, FOREVER offers permanent storage you own rather than rent. You can pay for it with a one time payment or in 24 installments, but then it is yours and your family’s forever – seriously. You’ll never have a device which can be corrupted, fail or become obsolete. You can’t lose it or destroy it. Your online images will never be compressed or deleted. They’ll never be transferred to another company. They’ll never be mined for adverting. Your photos are guaranteed safe for your life plus 100 years, in part because they are triple backed up in diverse geographical locations and protected by a fund devoted to your storage. And the best part, instead of coming back to you when technology once again renders you obsolete, FOREVER will just upgrade you to whatever the new technology is. Doesn’t that sound a lot better?

And one other small item – we’ll send you back all your originals. You are welcome to throw them away if you like, because they are digitized and safe, but most of us would like to keep at least some of them around. But the other guys, when they’re through, so is your stuff. You never see it in the physical world again. Ouch!!

So, if you are thinking about digitizing your photos, then let’s talk 972-971-5263. I want you to have a more and better experience!

ART, Decorative Arts, DESTINATIONS, DFW Metroplex, Restaurants & Bars, Road Trips, TRAVEL

Beboppin’ to Bebo’s

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE – PILOT POINT HOTSPOT

My husband loves the internet. He lives for his Tik Tok time. He shops there. He researches there. Me not so much. I mean, I spend a whole lot of time on the internet – who doesn’t – but I like my word of mouth to come from real mouths, not Google.

Constantly, as we’re driving, he says, “Look up…” I hate that. This means I am about to get fed information via firehose and most of it I don’t want. If he really wants to drive me crazy, before I can even type in his last request, he has three other things he wants to research. I’ve tried to explain how maddening this is, but he hasn’t quite wrapped his mind around it, yet.

OK, maybe I’m exaggerating here, but I really do hate researching things on the fly. So, when we drove out of Ray Roberts Lake State Park and he said, ” Look up somewhere for us to eat,” I pulled out my phone and started typing, but I was a little nervous about it. Sure enough, the first things listed were a Subway Sandwich stop and a variety of other fast food eateries.

Scrolling down through the long list of unwanted restaurants I finally found a listing for Bebo’s and Kathy’s Cafe. It sounded like a cute place with home-cooked food, but I wasn’t sure it would suit Bill. He’s a lot pickier than I am about what to eat. His idea of home-cooked food is what his momma cooked him in Cairo. I love that, too, but I also like chicken fried steaks, fried chicken, fried okra, dumplings etc. and so forth.

I’m not sure this is the best place for Bill to have lunch, but there’s not much else nearby and he’s feeling adventurous. Google leads us right to the parking lot and we get a good laugh. Someone with a good sense of humor has worked on the setting of this establishment.

Inside it was your basic flea market decorations with a heavy focus on Elvis memorabilia. It’s not Bill’s favorite look, but we’re here and there’s a booth available, so we settle in for a meal.

Now, when I sit down to look at a menu, I think about what the specialties at this particular restaurant might be. If it’s TexMex, I don’t order a burger. If it’s a steak place, I don’t order fish. This method of food selection has proven to be successful around the world. When I travel with groups, I’m the one at the table that everyone stares at when the food is delivered. “What did you order? How did you know what it was?” and other such questions are peppered at me, as well as a lot of, “I wish I had ordered that.” It’s not unusual for people to start asking me what I will be having before they order themselves and then they frequently just say, “I’ll have what she’s having.”

Bill goes at it a little differently. First, he decides what he would like to have and then he looks over the menu and tries to find something to match his whim. He landed on a Club Sandwich. Now I love Club Sandwiches. The crisp pieces of toast separating delectable cold cuts, cheese and fresh veggies, which are then cut into delightful quarters – and if you’re lucky, they’ll put those decorated toothpicks through each quarter – and maybe there will be homemade potato chips on the side.

To me, this seemed the perfect place to order up something fried and I hadn’t had fried catfish in a long, long time. When they brought it out to me, sizzling hot, on a plate running over with fried okra and cole slaw, I was in heaven.

Then I looked over at Bill and his “Club Sandwich.” First of all there were no dainty triangles of toast with decorated toothpicks in them. Instead, it was a couple of pieces of Texas Toast (I kid you not) and the main ingredient seemed to be bacon. He was not in heaven. His sandwich was served with fries and they weren’t exactly what he’s used to getting at McDonalds.

Though I pitied his dismal food choice, I had hot, fresh catfish waiting on me, so I tucked in to eat it with relish. Bill spent a good amount of time rearranging the ingredients in his sandwich, but I don’t think he was exactly satisfied at the end of the meal.

Now, you may be wondering if you should put Bebo’s on your list of restaurants to check out. I would say that depended 100% on whether you are on Team Jane or Team Bill. Team Bill should stick to Subway sandwiches. Team Jane is gonna love it!!

From Bebo’s Bill and I ran a number of errands related to the sunroom we were furnishing at the time. Meanwhile, I had another trip up my sleeve. Come back next week and let’s talk about a women’s conference in St. Louis.

Accommodations, ART, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, DFW Metroplex, Gardens, Road Trips, TRAVEL

Pilot Point Getaway

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE – JUST AROUND THE CORNER

Why Pilot Point?

About fifteen years of my life was spent in the office equipment industry and most of that with AIS/IKON. There are people I knew in those days which are closer to me than some of my family. So, when I heard about a jam/reunion that was happening up in Pilot Point, I couldn’t resist going. Initially, the jam was supposed to be held in someone’s house, but the attendee list got so long they decided to move it to the Point Bank Community Center. It was also recommended that attendees book a room at the Lone Star Lodge and Marina. Too busy to do much more than let them know I was coming and making a reservation at the Lodge, I wasn’t too sure what I was getting Bill and I into. On the appointed day, Bill and I loaded up the car and headed to Pilot Point, about an hour and a half from our home on the eastern side of DFW.

Lone Star Lodge and Marina

I cannot say enough good things about this little lodge. It isn’t swanky or luxurious, but it was delightful. Most of the rooms are on the ground floor and at least half of them look out into the woods or have a lake view. The rooms are a bit rustic with a western flair – no frills, but nothing to complain about. For $114 we had a great place to stay and beautiful grounds to explore.

Check-in was a breeze. We ran into friends on the parking lot and let them know we would be on our way to the jam, right behind them. We moved into our room, freshened up a little and them headed off to the jam.

Point Bank Community Center and the Jam

If you ever need some place to have an event in the Pilot Point vicinity, I recommend you check this venue out. It’s nothing fancy, but really is nice. There’s a big community room, restrooms and a kitchen, as well as a storeroom. It did a great job as a venue for this jam/reunion.

I had been warned this wasn’t a reunion in the traditional sense, just the outgrowth of something a group of them used to do – get together and play music. I was also warned some of my best friends from those days weren’t able to come, but I still thought it would be worth it – and it was.

Bill and I walked in just as the band was beginning to play. The band was an odd assortment of people playing drums, guitar and keyboard, but I won’t try to convince you they were good. As I adjusted to the light of the room, I began to see faces I recognized, but even more which were unfamiliar to me. We took our beverages to the kitchen, served ourselves and looked for a place to light.

I was soon up again, going around the room to get some hugs from those familiar to me and was introduced to others. I checked back in with Bill and he was ready to go. He knew virtually no one and those he did know were only slight acquaintances. The music was loud, so starting up a conversation was difficult. I thought the music was fun, but mostly because I knew and loved those who were playing. I excused him from further torture and told him I’d either come back to the lodge with friends or call him when I was ready to go.

I enjoyed visiting with those I knew, but with the loud music, it was hard to chat. The performances were not intimidating in the least and guest musicians took over various instruments from time to time. My friend Tammy and I decided that under those circumstances, we should probably contribute to the jam by singing. The picture above highlights our performance which was nothing to write home about, but a lot of fun.

Having hugged all the necks I needed to hug and contributing musically to the jam, there really wasn’t much more to do, since there was really no way to talk to the people I had come to see. I eventually called Bill to come get me. When he stuck his head in to let me know he was there, laughter, cat calls and innuendo bounced around the room.

Back at the Lodge

We had a good night’s sleep and then headed out of our room to explore more of the Lodge. I can see it being a great place for a wedding , reunion or other event.

As you can see, the scenery is beautiful and the grounds are well kept. There’s a nice ballroom, the gazebo and even several levels of patios. The lobby area is attractive, also.

The lake you see is Lake Ray Roberts and the Lodge is a part of Ray Roberts Lake State Park. We had our morning caffeine and a snack as we enjoyed the beauty of the place.

Then we went back to room, got ready for the day and packed up to go. We visited with some of my friends who were also enjoying their stay at the Lodge as we went to turn in our key.

Ray Roberts Lake State Park

Before heading home, we decided to check out Ray Roberts Lake State Park. It was lovely. Deer gazed out at us from the edges of the wood. It was very, very quiet – perhaps because school had just started. We turned off the main road and went to a picnic area. There we parked and walked around the shore of the lake. It was a great way to spend a morning.

It was time to head back home, but first we needed lunch. Come back next week and find out about a great little restaurant you can enjoy if you decide to visit Pilot Point.

Accommodations, DESTINATIONS, Photography, Real Estate Photography, Restaurants & Bars, TRAVEL, United States

Mornings at Sandpiper Bay

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE – YOGA AND WORK

One of the things I did like about our stay at Sandpiper Bay was the morning yoga. Since I always wake up long before Bill, I am at loose ends until he does. Reading is always a great way to spend my time, but if there’s a gym, I will take advantage of it. What is a hassle at home is a pleasant distraction on the road.

Yes they had a very nice gym at Sandpiper Bay, one of the very best facilities offered there, but they also had morning yoga at the Zen pool. That was my cup of tea. I’d go by the dining room, eat my breakfast bar from home and get a little caffeine to start my day, and then head to the Zen pool.

The instructors were contractors who came and stayed at the resort. Part of their compensation was their room and board. I lucked out the week I was there. Our yoga lady was a pleasant grandmotherly sort who gave us a very pleasant, easy going workout without all the nasty down dogs. I really enjoyed it. Then it was time to go back to the room and work a little.

Time to Work

If the wi-fi is working, my morning tasks for our business are easy. Download the images from the editors, format them for our clients and let Bill inspect them. If anything needed touch-ups or enhancements, he’d do them. Then I upload them and email them off. Easy peasy!

When we’d gone to Club Med Punta Cana, our business had been much smaller and Bill was our only photographer, so we just shut down for a few days. Having to work on vacation is a sign of our success and we are grateful for it, so we don’t like to complain, but I can complain about Sandpiper Bay’s free wi-fi.

Because we were having such a busy season, these tasks were taking up a little more of my mornings than usual, but it was no big deal – if the internet is working. At Sandpiper Bay, the internet was never quite robust enough for downloading and uploading images.

Each day, I’d start the job and it would look as if this time it was going to work, until it didn’t. Then we’d call the office, they’d apologize and tell us they were having technical problems. Then they’d tell us to come down to the desk and pick up a code for the premium internet – which always worked.

Why didn’t we just pay for the premium internet? Why would we pay for premium internet? Wi-fi was supposed to be a part of our package. A Club Med vacation is no bargain. With sub-par food and entertainment that was a joke, why would we want to give them more money? A better question is this, since the regular internet never worked, why didn’t they offer everyone premium internet or at least hook us up until the end of our stay? Nope, that wasn’t the way it worked.

Tricky Timing

We guarantee 24 hour turn around to our clients and usually deliver hours before that. We can do that because our editors are on the other side of the world. We send off the photos at the end of our day, which is the beginning of theirs and they send back the finished product at the beginning of our day. Only those times are based on our activities at home.

To complicate matters, you might remember we’d just lost our favorite editors earlier in the month. They were good editors, but I loved them because they delivered to me very early in the morning. When I hit my office between 5 & 6 AM, they edited photos were always in my inbox. The new editors promised our images by 9:30 and with luck we’d get them an hour or so before that.

On Florida time, everything was running an hour behind and Sandpiper Bay shut breakfast down at 9:30. Crazy right? I’d come back to the room from yoga and crank up my email waiting for the photos to arrive. When they got there, we’d fight the battle of the internet and try to get the images delivered before we started our vacation day, but it was a tight squeeze.

Breakfast is probably Bill’s favorite meal of the day, but he likes it best at say, 11, especially on vacation. At Sandpiper Bay lunch started at 11, so breakfast was truncated. In truth, their breakfast offerings were always mediocre anyway, so I was glad I had my breakfast bar before yoga. Poor Bill was newly disappointed every morning as we ran in at the last minute from all the uploading and downloading.

While I’m on the subject of work, the other end of the day was easier. The photographers email me a link and I email it on to the editors. I could do that from my phone by the pool. There were still phone calls and texts to answer, problems to solve and such, but for the most part, if the darned internet had worked, then handling our business remotely would have been a breeze.

With work done and breakfast behind us, it was time to enjoy the activities offered around the pools and lagoon of Sandpiper Bay. Come back next week and I’ll share some highlights.

DFW Metroplex, Memory Keeping, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography, Scrapbooking

Coming Attractions

Jane Sadek
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

MEMORY KEEPING 101: WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS!

No More Spot On Images

Last week, on Facebook and other social media channels, I made a big announcement. My husband and I sold our real estate photography business. This had been so, on paper, for about a month, but last week we drew open the curtain for everyone to see. Though I am working hard to offload all my Spot On Images duties on the new owner, we’re not quite there, yet – but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel is not the headlamp of an oncoming train.

Spot On Images was the brainchild of my husband. I was only along for the ride. I remember when Bill pitched the idea. I was not exactly enthusiastic and it hurt his feelings, but we’d been married for almost a quarter of a century by then and I knew the routine. He has great money-making ideas, but his visionary capabilities fail to embrace the drudgery and hysteria of supporting said enterprises. Though he realized it would take more than a camera and a website to make the dream a reality, he really had no clue what would be necessary.

There was a division of labor. He did the photography and managed the money. I did everything else. Everything else was not the fun part. I’ll leave it at that. A couple of years ago I hit a brick wall. Like the rest of the world I was sick and tired of masks, Zoom meetings, vaccines and social distancing. The world was beginning to open back up and I wasn’t looking forward to going back to the grind. I introduced the idea of my memory keeping side gig and Jane Sadek – Memory Keeper was born.

A Juggling Act

Perhaps starting a new business when I already had plenty to do in the one we had might not have been the smartest thing I ever did. My new business had all the growing pains of any new venture and initially I actually had more success than I could handle. That was not good for my marriage, but it didn’t hurt Spot On Images one bit. We’d created a snowball and it was barreling down the mountainside.

At that point, other people might have quit, but Memory Keeping is not just business venture for me. It is my passion. So, while I severely dialed back my Memory Keeping activities, I did just enough to keep the embers warm.

Then we arrived at a crossroad. Spot On Images had outgrown the two-man job we’d created for ourselves. Oh, we’d already hired editors and more photographers, but the company was on a trajectory that needed a five year growth plan, more personnel and more headaches. This wasn’t what we’d signed up for, so we decided to sell.

On the Other Side

As this post is being published this Thursday morning, I will be loading the trunk of our car with luggage. We’re going on a trip. Just a five day jaunt to the Detroit area for a family event, but a world of difference from a couple of years ago. That time I stayed up over night before we left, to nurse the editors through our rush jobs, so I could deliver photos by 4:30 AM and catch our flight. During that trip I missed the opportunity to enjoy one of the top picks on my itinerary, because we ran into a hiccup on an important job.

As far as I know, there’s never been a Memory Keeping emergency, which is one of the best things about my new career. A hallmark of any business related to real estate is drama. In photography we were once removed from the insanity I endured as an agent, but because we cared about our clientele, their drama our emergencies. If someone has a Memory Keeping emergency, then I’m not their Memory Keeper. I am out of the emergency business.

While I will need to support the new SOI owner during the weeks to come, my primary focus will be Memory Keeping. I have so many exciting plans. I’m in the middle of a huge sorting job for one client and will be picking up my next scrapbooking project when I get home. I’m going to offload the SOI archive out of my FOREVER account and fill it up with my personal photos and then set up my demo account to share with potential clients. There’s so much training available with FOREVER that I could spend the next year on that, but I will have to restrain myself or I won’t have time for working on my projects or getting the word out that there’s hope for your Memory Messes.

In the future, look for online training, office hours for customer support, a Memory Keeping coaching program and that’s just the beginning of the list of things I want to offer to those of you who want to tackle your Memory Mess. I am so excited, but to make this work, I’m going to need your support. Whenever you hear a friend or family member bemoan their own Memory Messes, I hope you’ll send them to me. I can fix that!!