Category: Memory Keeping

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!

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!!

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

Why There’s a FOREVER!

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: FOREVER FOUNDER SHARES HIS WHY

What’s FOREVER?

FOREVER is not yet one of those companies everybody knows about, yet I think a day will come when it will be the go-to place for all things digital-memory-keeping. Until then it’s one of my missions in life to be sure people don’t lose their memories from lack of knowing about FOREVER.

You can’t be around me very long without finding out I care about your photos and have all the tools you need to preserve them for generations to come. That’s especially true if you read this blog.

Why FOREVER?

The founder of FOREVER recently took the time to share the reasons why he has devoted the rest of his life to this company. In this short (4:40 minutes) video he tells what led him to discover the need for the company and why he feels it is such an important tool for anyone and everyone to use.

No one could be more eloquent on this subject, so today, instead of writing a few more hundreds of words, I’m sharing this video. Please take the time to watch it. I think you’ll agree with me, the time has come for FOREVER.

Glen Meakem, Founder & CEO of FOREVER shares his why

So, what do you think? Are you ready to make FOREVER your memories’ home?

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

Get Ready for FOREVER Valet

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: THINK OF IT AS A RED CARPET FOR YOUR PHOTOS

What Do You Have & Where Do You Want It?

When I ask this question, most people have only the vaguest idea of where all their memories are and they really don’t have a really good idea of where they want them to be, but together we come up with a plan to find everything and get it someplace safe for generations to come.

When the bulk of their memories are on traditional media, like photographs, slides, video and such, the answer is easy. It has to be digitized! While there are a number of ways to go about getting from a pile under the bed to organized folders on FOREVER, it’s a pretty straight forward process.

If those memories are on their phone instead, well that’s easy, too. The FOREVER app can upload everything on your phone to your FOREVER storage while you sleep. Then if you like, it will continue to do so into perpetuity, so you never have to worry about losing your photos, even if you lose your phone, it gets stolen or if somebody runs over it.

When those photos are on a computer or hard drive, getting all of that organized on FOREVER was doable, but could be a long drawn out procedure. In truth, the bigger your mess was, the easier it was to transfer. If everything was carefully organized, there was not really any way to transfer all of that organization to FOREVER without doing it all over again. BUT NO MORE!

Valet Is Here!

Valet is a magic carpet ride for your photos. Thousands and thousands of photos can be moved from your hard drive, computer or laptop, with a few clicks of a button. If your photos are nothing but a great big mess, that’s great news! With Valet, they can arrive in FOREVER in nice neat folders, sorted by year and date, with all the duplicates pulled out. However, if your photos and videos are already in nice neat little folders on your device, then FOREVER will just move the whole thing – organization and all into FOREVER – BAM! It’s done!!

What’s even better is that you get to decide what kind of Valet customer you want to be:

  • Free One Month Trial – If all you want to do is a one time upload from your computer to FOREVER, then this is the route for you. There is no limit to the number of photos you can upload to FOREVER (or download from FOREVER, for that matter), you just have to do it all in 30 days. You can use it to get photos off your computer, off your husband’s computer, off your parent’s computer or wherever. The Valet Trial is associated with your FOREVER account, not a particular device.
  • Yearly Subscription – If a month is not enough, then how about a year. For only $59.99 you can do all the things mentioned above, but instead of 30 days, you have a 365 of them. That’s pennies a day.
  • Professional Subscription – If for any reason you have access to more than one FOREVER account, then perhaps you’ll need the professional version. It was designed for professional organizers, but there are other applications as well – such as if you are part of a family, team or other group using FOREVER for a project. The professional subscription is $299.99.

Here’s the good news. You can use your Club Dollars to buy it and it qualifies for the Club Discount. How can you resist?

If Valet sounds like something you’d be interested in, let’s get together and talk about how it can help you. It’s a very exciting product!!

DFW Metroplex, Memory Keeping, Photography

Making Memories with SRS 2023

Jane Sadek

Memory Keeping 101: Sharing and Gifting for Your Grads

Senior Photos, Graduation Announcements, Thank You Cards and Party Invitations

Ok, those who know me know I passed on the whole parenting thing. There’s a facet of our culture I have completely missed out on, except what I see on the social media feeds of my friends. When I was a senior, I took the same senior pictures everyone else did at the local Olan Mills studio and ordered my embossed announcements through Balfour.

My how the world has changed. Booking the right photographer for your senior photo session is a daunting task and you’ve somehow got to come up with a place for the shoot that no one else in the world has ever been. Well, once you’ve booked that photographer (And if you need a referral, just call!) then you have to think about ordering your announcements. Don’t make that purchase until you’ve checked out this page.

FOREVER has just introduced some of the most beautiful Graduation cards you’re going to find on the internet and they’ve upgraded their Design & Print pages to make personalizing your choice beyond easy. Choose the number of photos to include on front and on back, choose landscape or portrait orientation, choose your cardstock, choose your colors, choose your text and automatically address your cards when you’re ordering them. Also use QR codes to provide more photos, access to a video or slideshow, even audio files with a personal invitation from your senior. There are so many options available to you.

But don’t stop there! Choose an entire suite of coordinating stationary for party invitations, thank you cards and more. And whatever you choose, don’t check-out before you go to the Deals page! Over the next months, there are going to be such deals, not just for seniors, but for brides, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

Decision Day

FOREVER graduation stationary is great for any graduate, from Kindergarten to Grade School, but high school seniors may have yet another important event to commemorate – Decision Day. Just as new parents throw big parties to announce the sex of their expected child, high school senior now make a big deal of their college or career choice. Use FOREVER to make it an even more special day.

From creating themed items for your reveal to creating the layout for your Decision Day social media post, FOREVER is there. Want a blanket for their bed, create in FOREVER. Want a dry erase board, use the FOREVER Table Top Panels. How about some coasters for Grandma and Grandpa? How about a thermal cup for your senior to sport with her university’s symbol? Want to create cards for a formal announcement. You’ve got all the FOREVER tools you have for graduation stationary. Wherever your imagination can take you, FOREVER can make it happen.

Gifts for Remembrance and Encouragement

So, maybe you don’t have a senior, but you know you’re going to be getting those announcements about graduations, parties and decision days. Yes, money and gift cards are always greatly appreciated, but in a week or so, they will be gone, gone, gone. Whether they spent it, saved it or invested it, in time names and amounts are going to get foggy. Make your graduation gift memorable with FOREVER’s AutoPrint or Design & Print gifts, slipping those dollars into a very affordable, easy, quick personalized gift your senior will treasure for years to come.

AutoPrint is a quick way to make all kinds of gifts your graduating senior will love. Personalized water bottles, coffee mugs, journals, dry erase boards and more. It’s so easy, you’ll have your gift ready to ship in moments.

With Design & Print, you can expand your choices to include blankets, frosted glasses, wall décor, puzzles and even calendars. It may take just a bit longer to complete these choices, it’s still easy peasy!

Go to FOREVER right now to choose your project and if you need any help, just let me know. You really don’t have to talk to some anonymous bot or listen to hold music. Just call or text me and I’ll walk you through it all.

If you’re looking for something really unique, why don’t you give your senior the gift of FOREVER storage. Set them on the road to memory keeping with their very own permanent storage account they’ll never have to make payments on, never have to upgrade to a different format, that will never be compressed or deleted or mined for advertising. What’s more, they can use the free app to automatically save all the photos they take with their phone or post to Facebook to their permanent storage, so even if they drop their phone into the punch bowl, lose it at a concert or whatever, those precious photos of their college days will be there. As they live their lives, they can add more GB’s and services, but they’ll never forget who set them on the Memory Keeping Road.

Be Generous and Thrifty!

Never ever buy anything from FOREVER without checking the Deals Page. If you don’t see any deals you like, then call me. I always have the inside track on what bargains will be coming out during a month. There’s always a deal at FOREVER and I don’t want you to miss the one you want.

If giving personalized gifts is something you like to do for all kinds of occasions, then you’ll be interested in The Club. No, The Club is not some sneaky way to turn you into a FOREVER Ambassador. The Club is a way to budget your expenditures and save an extra 5% on pretty much everything you buy from FOREVER. You choose what you want to put away for gift giving on a monthly basis from $25 to whatever you want. FOREVER will charge you that amount each month and save it until you are ready to make a purchase. Your dollars never expire. Then when you do buy something, you’re using the dollars you have already put away and you’ll get that 5% discount on top of whatever deals you find on the deals page (with a very, very few exceptions). If you’re a grandma or grandpa with lots of grandkids to gift, then you’ll also want to check out Premiere Shipping – pay one time for a year of shipping, no matter how much you send.

And that’s some of the ways FOREVER can make you a hero with SRS 2023. I’d love to help you with all your Memory Keeping and Memory Sharing ideas. Let’s meet over coffee and talk about it!

Keep coming back for travel stories, a run down on local attractions and my favorite – Memory Keeping.