Tag: Jane Sadek

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

Who Has the Best Media Digitization?

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: DEFINE BEST

Searching the Web

The internet is a funny thing. We depend on it heavily and yet it has very limited capabilities – in part, because it depends mostly on numbers. Were you to ask it who offers the best media digitization available, you could get a lot of different answers, but chances are, you wouldn’t know what those results meant, because what is best? Is it the company that’s been around the longest? Is it the one with the most reviews? Is it the one with the highest rating?

One of the oldest companies offering media digitization is by far the best known, but they don’t make any of the best lists. Some rating companies point to bad reviews. Others talk about it being expensive. I hate it when people ask me if we’re like XXXXXXXXXXXX, the company they know from the ubiquitous advertising campaigns. Yes, we’re both in the same business, but what we offer is light years ahead of this company, which was once on the leading edge of this industry.

One of our competitors is making great strides, in part because they’ve convinced the rating companies that they do everything – only they don’t. Two words – Scrapbook Pages. They don’t. And their photo restoration is handled by AI, not photo restoration artists. I don’t know about you, but those things matter to me. I think they’ve done a great job of marketing, but I know they actually can’t compare to us.

In fact, when you really start to dig into it, the more you learn the crazier it gets. Bright new start-ups, mobile digitization services, the guy in a garage with an ancient scanner. In fact, the internet hides more than it reveals. If they have a shiny new website with good SEO, chances are the internet is going to love them, regardless of what they do or do not offer.

So What Does FOREVER Offer and Why Should I Use Them?

Well, for one thing, we just moved into the newest, largest, most state-of-the-art media digitization facility in the world. We’re very excited about the “newest” thing, because we literally just built it and moved in, but it’s not the most important thing on the list.

That we built it is rather relevant, because we’ve been digitizing for a while now and we’ve been in some of those older facilities like our friendly competitors. These days we’re not making do with a remodeled strip center retrofitted to meet our needs. We built our facility from the ground up with only one thing in mind – media digitization. From weatherproofed docks which allows Fed Ex to unload their trucks inside to the clean room for processing media, no stone was left unturned which would allow us to do our job better.

Largest is quite significant, because one of the reasons for our size is the number of pieces of equipment we have for digitization. That’s why when we say we digitize everything, unlike our competition who try to say the same thing, we actually do. We’ve invested in a lot of equipment, just so we can digitized anything. We’ve actually developed our own equipment for handling materials that other companies don’t touch (like scrapbook pages, newspapers, 3D items etc.)

Most state-of-the-art is a little of both of these. Our warehouse is innovative, but our clean room is amazing. Our people are pretty remarkable, too. Our hiring process is not about finding warm bodies to shove photos through a machine. We hire and train media specialist with a focus on customer satisfaction. Our mind set is not faster processing, it’s more accurate, better quality processing. And yes, we hire real live artists to handle our photo restoration projects.

Our white glove service isn’t restricted to the clean room. The entire circle of service, from the moment a box comes to our facility until the moment we load the media we’re returning to the customer for delivery (yes, we return your media back to you after it is digitized) we understand what we’re handling. Throughout the entire process, from the moment you order your box, we’re going to keep you updated with exactly where your media is in our process. It’s not media to us – it’s memories.

Beyond Our New Building and Our Boxes

The fact that we deal in memories, rather than media is what really matters. Media Digitization is the beginning of what we do. We also offer the best online solutions for storing and sharing your memories. Those other guys will allow you to download from their site, offer you equipment to store your images or try and rent storage to you.

You can download from our online box center and you can buy equipment like thumb drives and DVD’s if you want to, but that’s not what we want you to do. We know you need a permanent place to store your memories, one that is safe and will be there for generations to come, without having to pay monthly/annual fees. That’s why we have online storage you own rather than rent, protected by an ironclad guarantee you can read for yourself.

We also offer a free app for synching your phone’s photo storage with FOREVER; a computer-based program for sorting, editing and sharing photos that also has facial recognition, scanning and album planning; file migration software developed for professional photo organizers and cherished by memory keepers everywhere; the world’s most advanced and comprehensive software for designing digital scrapbooks, photo gifts and more, as well as a huge selection of digital art; private video streaming; frequent free training events for our customers, as well as an extensive library of free training videos; family research professionals for discovering your genealogy; a very active online community of digital scrapbookers with virtual crops, free giveaways and more training than you can imagine; and that’s still not all we do.

We offer an extensive line of projects you can create and print, on your own. No need to go to the local office supply store, the big box store, the pharmacy’s photo department or one of those online places that offer photobooks and gifts, but has made you sign an agreement saying they can delete, compress or mine your photos. We have Autobooks and Photobooks in a wide variety of sizes, styles and bindings. Our Photo Gifts include tabletop panels, ornaments, coasters, magnets, puzzles, blankets, drinkware and wall décor. Our stationary choices include greeting cards, notebooks, planners and calendars. And if that’s not enough, get Artisan and design anything you want. Oh, and if you want prints, from standard sized photos, to page prints to posters, yes we do that, too.

A Stream-lined One-Stop Shop for All Your Digital Memory-Keeping Needs

There’s just not anything else like FOREVER. There might not be a keyword or phrase you can plug into your search engine that will say we are the best, but after reading through this blog post, I hope you realize FOREVER is the best for you. Call or text me and let’s talk about it!

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

Monthly Deals: Your Ticket to Savings

Jane Sadek

Memory Keeping 101: Always Save Money with FOREVER Deals

There’s Always a Deal at FOREVER

It’s November, so FOREVER has Black Friday deals happening all month long, but FOREVER has deals every month. Here’s how to find out what they are!

If you’re a FOREVER customer then chances are you’ve noticed the daily emails you get from them. (You can shut them off if you want. Just go to preferences in your account.) Someone in the marketing department has run their algorithms and decided which deal will entice the most people to make a trip over to their website. That’s the first place a deal might get your attention, but if you’re like me I get so much stuff in my inbox that sometimes I don’t see these love notes until a week or two later. Besides, this is just a teaser and doesn’t cover the whole spectrum of what’s being offered at a discount.

If you follow my business pages on social media, then perhaps you’ll see my daily posts about current deals. Or then again, maybe you won’t, because social media has algorithms and while they seem as if they read your mind, they also keep you from seeing a lot of things you really might be interested in. If you’re really looking for a certain item to go on sale, then don’t count on social media to deliver the post to you.

The best way to see what’s on sale at FOREVER every day is FOREVER’s Deal Page. To begin with, FOREVER has a Deal of the Day every day. Their target is digital scrapbookers who are always hungry for new digital art. Some Pixies I know (Pixies are members of the Pixels 2 Pages Online Community of Digital Scrapbookers) start their morning ordering the Deal of the Day every day. You may not be a Digital Scrapbooker, but it doesn’t hurt to keep an eye on the daily deal, because sometimes it’s free. I love free, even when it’s not really something I want!

But that’s only the beginning of what’s offered. The day I wrote this blog there were 27 deals on the page, from a free coupon for new CLUB Memberships to 50% off Print Orders to Gift Ideas, Events and even FOREVER logo-wear. From the deals page, you can click directly to what you want to buy.

If you bypass the Deals page and just go to the merchandise you’re interested in, you don’t have to worry that you’ll miss a deal, because each item will be marked with both the retail price and the current deal. Just be sure that when you order you check to see that the deal has made it to your cart. It usually will, but it is the internet and things happen or don’t happen at the whim of a byte.

And Then There’s Me

Let’s face the facts! It really doesn’t matter how many places the deals are posted, most of us are too busy to go track deals down and because of that, there’s a chance you will miss the one you really want. And that’s why you have me!

While it’s not your job to keep up with what’s on sale at FOREVER, it is mine. I keep a list of what my clients want and when I know it’s going to be on sale, I let them know. How do I know what’s going to be on sale? Well, I’m an Ambassador, so on the first day of each month I get a spreadsheet that lays out everything that will be on sale for the month. The first thing I do with it is match it up with the deals up with my clients’ wish lists and let them know the window for getting that deal.

Even though I am an Ambassador, I am not privy to the specific deals of each month until they are announced, but I do know the rhythm of our business. I know there will be special offerings for Black Friday in both November and May. I know we have Christmas in June every year. I know the seasons when greeting cards are most affordable and when there will be a deal on calendars. So when you and I sit down and map out your Memory Keeping priorities and agenda, then I can help you base your schedule on when the best deals will be coming around.

Let’s Do Lunch or Coffee or Drinks or…

So, when you look at your Media Mess, remember you do not have to tackle it alone. I am happy to be your ally in the war against lost memories. Even if you don’t have time right now to tackle the job, let’s get together and talk about it. Learn your options, set your budget and let me help you get it done. I not only have access to the monthly deals as soon as they come out, I also know which tools will help you with your projects and how to use the CLUB to get the best deals.

Whether you’d like to chat memories over margaritas or you only have time for a quick Zoom, the first step in any project is to get started! Give me a call or at 972-971-5263 and let’s get started.

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

Voila! The Group Box

Jane Sadek

Memory Keeping 101: Togetherness for Digitization Value

Welcome to Group Box Digitization

Group Box Digitization is a great way to try out FOREVER’s Digitization Process, with less expense and risk than ordering your own FOREVER Box. Though our Digitization Process is quite easy and safe, some people are intimidated. Joining FOREVER, verifying an email address, choosing a type of box, choosing a size of box and then ordering a box. It sounds like a lot to some people and for the budget-minded or skeptical, it might seem like too much of an expense or risk. Then there’s packing the box and sending it back to FOREVER. We do it every day, but if you never have, you might feel some hesitation.

See there are all those urban legends about digitization companies, most of which may have actually happened, but have nothing in the world to do with FOREVER. We don’t do any of the awful things to your media the other guys do. Turn-around time is quick, everything gets the white glove treatment, nothing is lost, nothing is destroyed by equipment etc. etc. etc., but if all you’ve heard are horror stories from customers of other media digitization companies, sending your treasures off to strangers is scary.

With a Group Box, you don’t pay a penny until your media arrives at FOREVER. I order the box and I pay for most of the shipping. A Group Box is actually a big box with four small individual boxes inside. Your individual box is smaller than a standard FOREVER box, so you don’t feel the pressure to load up the box to get your money’s worth. Send one thing and see what happens. Or load it up and enjoy the reduced shipping fees. It’s up to you.

All you have to do with a Group Box is get signed up for FOREVER and give me your stuff. When I receive the big box, I’ll pack your media and send it back. When the Group Box containing your media arrives at FOREVER, they’ll let you know. Only then will you be invoiced for the digitization and return shipping. Then sooner than you can imagine, you’ll receive notification that your digitized media is online. You can download it or even better, you can invest in FOREVER storage and have those memories ready to share for generations to come – even generations you’ll never know.

Try It! You’ll Like It!

My first Group Box was delivered to my house just the other day. I want to return it to FOREVER before Thanksgiving, so your digitization order will earn an entry in my Crazy Turkey Day Drawing for a $50 Gift Certificate and you can share your digitized memories around the Christmas tree!

For some clients, Group Boxes become a way of life. As soon as I send off their media in one Group Box, they start gathering what they want to send in the next one. For others, sampling Digitization with a Group Box was all the encouragement they needed to order their own Box and ship into high Memory Keeping gear. Maybe, the Group box is just big enough to hold the two or three items you wanted to get done and that’s all you’ll ever need.

Whatever your situation, the Group Box might be just the thing you need next for your Memory Keeping projects. Give me a call at 972-971-5263 and let’s get sgtarted!

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

Farewell to The Pricing Roulette Game

Jane Sadek
Photo by Naim Benjelloun on Pexels.com

MEMORY KEEPING 101: SIMPLE & SURE PRICING

No More Buy It Now or Else

In my career as a FOREVER Ambassador, there was one thing I really hated and it was the way their prices were moving targets. The decision to invest in Memory Keeping is an important one and when someone decides to do it, they shouldn’t have to hurry up or wait to make their basic purchases, but the way FOREVER handled some of their pricing made me crazy.

Nobody loves a bargain better than me, so I love FOREVER print deals. I’ve always got a project on my mind and yes, I save them for the 50% off deals and Club Weekends free shipping. That just makes sense. However, some deals just didn’t.

To me, the pricing for much of the FOREVER services were counterproductive to my efforts. When I first started with FOREVER (almost 3 years ago!) the pricing for storage would fluctuate wildly. I get it – they were trying to match what the competition was doing and the competition, those fishes, flies and boxes, use slashed prices to lure in customers, but we had things the competitors didn’t, so why were we slashing those prices?

Obviously, I wasn’t alone. I was a mere newbie, what did I know? But behind the scenes the Executive Ambassadors were saying the same thing I was.

Few people buy permanent online storage or private video streaming on a whim. Most people don’t even realize it exists. They think you have to pay for storage month by month for the rest of their lives. They think their personal videos have to be posted to some social media giant to be shared. FOREVER isn’t a household name, yet.

So, Ambassadors go around letting people know they have a choice, but figuring out what that means usually takes some getting used to and some serious consideration about budget. When the price changed for those unique services week by week and day by day, trying to offer your customers the best value for their dollar was a game of chance.

It Got Better

I am not privy to everything that went on behind the scenes, but at the first of this year, they made a change to the pricing on storage. They set a price that was the price, but they weren’t quite to where I wanted to be, because the price was consistently marked down the same percentage. It wasn’t what I wanted, but at least I wouldn’t be faced with telling anyone the 50% off storage was last week and now they had to pay full price.

In recent months, they tried something with a few of our other premiere products which, like our storage and video streaming, you can’t get anywhere else. When Valet, the file migration software beloved of the professional photo organizers, was introduced, they didn’t kick it off with bargains. They said here’s this unique software and you can try it free for a month, but then this is the price. Nobody waited for a deal, because there wasn’t going to be one. They just purchased it with glee.

That went so well, FOREVER made a change with our other unique software programs, Artisan and Historian. Instead of juggling the price with deals from month to month, they announced the price was the price and that was it. Guess what, sales continued at the same rate they had before. People weren’t buying because of the deals. They were buying because they understood the value and uniqueness of what we offer.

It’s Going to Get Even Better

So, come January, the same thing is going to happen with storage and streaming. The price is going to be the price. The “deals” which have been going on all year are going away, because when something is permanently 25% off, that isn’t much of a deal. I’ve got to tell you there will be a slight (very slight) rise in the price of storage and streaming from the net price you’d pay today, but it will be the price and I am so happy.

So, if you have storage you need to buy or have been considering streaming, the price you can get it for, through the end of December, is the cheapest you are ever going to see it. Come January 1, 2024, the new prices will be announced and that’s going to be the price. The only deal you can get is the 5% off you get with The Club or the $20 off with Welcome and Referral Coupons. That’s it! My job will be easier and I believe our clients will be less confused.

While We’re on the Subject of Deals, Let’s Talk About Our Print Deals

While I think FOREVER has been a little frustrating with some of their deals, I have always been very impressed with their print deals. Just like you, I used to think my only options for photo printing were the fish and the fly. While I was always a traditional scrapbooking fan and didn’t delve into the world of digital photo books (or digitization with the box for that matter), I did go their for Holiday Cards and photo printing. I’d be all excited about a deal and then when I’d made all of my selections, I’d be aghast at the final price. It would seem awfully high.

Well, let me tell you about those slashed prices at the fish, the fly and the box. Their bargains are offered on a particular portion of the sale and then they get you on everything else. If you were buying Christmas cards, for instance, you’d get the reduced price on the basics, but if you did anything beyond that, like a different finish or shape, fees would be added which were not marked down. If you were creating a photobook, the standard number of pages would be discounted, but every page after that had a hefty per page price. And those other digitization people? Who cares if they were going to give you 60% off on the initial items, because they’d always charge you full price on the rest of them.

When FOREVER has a deal, the deal applies to the whole product. If your digitization box is 40% off, then your extra items are going to be 40% off. If your photo book is 50% off, then the extra pages, matte finishes and anything else added to that book will be 50% off. And of course, the same applies with your holiday cards. Now that’s what I call a deal.

I know Memory Keeping is a big investment, however, the returns on your investment are immeasurable. How can you put a price on creating and sharing a heritage which will reach generations you will never even know? I don’t think you can, but with FOREVER and their new pricing policies, you won’t be playing a game of roulette. The price will be the price for the basics and you’ll enjoy true savings on the rest. Call me today at 972-971-5263 to talk about your memory mess.

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

Curating Individual Images in FOREVER Part II

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: EVERY IMAGE MATTERS

Telling Every Picture’s Story

So, a couple of weeks ago, I went over the editing capabilities in the lightbox for every photo in FOREVER. It was a lot, I know, but it will always be here for you. Now I want to talk about the amazing curating tools available.

First up? Is this a favorite photo of yours, then click the heart right under “Info” and it will go red. When you are in the library (or any album), you can sort by favorites and they will all come up for you.

Next click Edit Info. This is where you get to tell the image’s story. This particular photo is brand new in my Library, so I will show you how I do it.

Before and after curating info

As you can see, I put the names of the people in the photo and the place in the title. That’s what works for me. I don’t need the date, because that was already picked up from the metadata. I can change it if I need to. However, I waxed eloquent in the description. I gave our full names, where we were and explained why we were there. I talked about what was going on around us and mentioned the location was close to our home.

You can go on for as long as you need to for the description. If there are 100 people in the photo – name them all, if you like. Tell what the occasion was, why it was special and whatever other info you think might be of interest to future generations. Naming things like cars, shops, articles of clothing and other items may have important historical information in the future. Having the description of a ceremony or family tradition might thrill someone a few generations from now.

Now, get ready for this. If you are in your app on your phone, you can use the microphone to tell the story, instead of typing it. Voice to Text technology can be a lot of fun. Imagine showing an old family photo to your grandmother, pressing the microphone and saying, “Grandma, tell me who this is and what is going on?” You’ll capture the past in your grandmother’s words. Can’t get much better than that.

I’ve talked about tagging before, so I won’t take up more of your time here. If you’d like to learn more, click this link.

Also in the lightbox, you can add the image to any album. When you click Add to Album a space will open and you can start typing. FOREVER will begin to find albums which match what you type. Your image will always reside in the library, but you can add it to as many albums as you want without it taking up more space in your storage.

And there we are! I edited the photo to keep the focus on Bill and me. I used a filter to make us look extra pretty. I chose the image as a favorite chose a name for the photo and described it, added some tags and put us in the 2023 Album. I’m done! I can click the arrow on the right side and move to the next photo.

If you need some help with any of this, you can call me, or use any of the great videos in FOREVER’s Getting Started section. Where’s that? Right on the front page of the site.

This link is always available to you right under the first image on FOREVER’s home page. When you click Get Answers, this is what you see! Enjoy!

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

Have You Ordered Your Christmas Cards Yet?

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: HOLIDAY CARDS

Christmas is My Holiday, What’s Yours?

As the aisles of your favorite shopping sites and shops fill up with holiday décor, I’m wondering what your holiday is. Do you do Christmas? Or just send Seasons Greetings and Happy Holiday cards? Or are you totally a holiday card dropout? If you’re going to send cards this season, you need to come to FOREVER.

We Have It All!

With the introduction of foiled cards, the improvement of our address book and upgrade to our Create & Print templates, allowing text, trim and finish choices, there’s no reason to go anywhere else. I couldn’t have said that last year. We had great choices, but there were reasons you might look elsewhere. Not this year.

And pricing? Forget about it. No one touches us. They may have come up with some scheme that looks like a bargain on the surface, but I assure you, when you hit the order button with FOREVER, it’s going to shame the competition. All standard cards are 50% off through October and that 50% off everything, you’re gonna love it!

With Artisan, We Have Even More

While our Create & Print Templates are gorgeous, we have something else those other guys don’t have – Artisan. If you look through all our designs and don’t see anything you like, then your card can be designed from scratch. If you’ve got the designer’s touch, get Artisan and design it yourself OR, tell me what you want and I will design it for you – free of charge.

I designed my personal Christmas card to first pay homage to the birthday of Jesus Christ and then moves on what Bill and I have been up to, but that’s my thing. The point is this, you can do whatever you want. That’s not really possible with the other guys.

So, for your Holiday Cards, whatever you want to celebrate, from Halloween to Happy New Year, come see me!

ART, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, Museums, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Detroit Institute of Art

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: THE DIA IS A FEAST FOR THE EYES

Finally, An Art Museum

I am the Museum Girl. I want to get up early, to be there when they open, and I could happily stay until they close, especially if they have cool restaurants to enjoy. While this little trip to Detroit had been lovely in a number of ways, the schedules of my top choices were not cooperating with me.

If I’d had my druthers, we’d have been to the Motown Museum, the living museum of Greenfield Village and more, but they weren’t open when we had time to see them. Some of the things I wanted to see, like the Conservatory on Belle Island were being remodeled. What I had seen was nice, but it was secondary and tertiary selections, because the family events took first place and keeping Bill happy took second.

I had one non-negotiable though. If I did nothing else, I wanted to see the Detroit Institute of Art and finally the time to do that had arrived.

Remnant of a Glorious Past

About the time they were building The Guardian Building I enjoyed so much downtown, Detroit was almost the center of the world. Americans flocked there for vacation like we go to New York, Chicago or San Fran. It’s where all the best shows were performed, the shopping was wonderful and the Detroit Institute of Art reigned the cultural world. The men went to smoky offices to discuss commerce and the women spent their money after a visit to the museum.

The DIA retains all the beauty of her former glory and she’s making a comeback in the world of museums. The city of Detroit went through some pretty tough days. It wasn’t just the Renaissance Center and the Guardian Building which seemed like a ghost town. The whole of Detroit almost disappeared and her cultural jewels could have been up for grabs, but she held on and now her art museum is back to its former glory and bragging about all the improvements they have in the works.

The DIA is a wonderful place to go if you want to see classical art in America. They were one of those museums which bought all the good stuff up before later cities could get their share. I once heard a curator at the Dallas Museum of Art answer a question about their lack of important classical pieces, “How could an important, wealthy city, like Dallas, have so few recognizable classical pieces?” The curator explained that when the DMA started collecting art, those recognizable classical pieces already had home in Europe and a few American museums – museums like the DIA.

If you ever get the opportunity to go, I hope you’ll do so and leave plenty of time, so you can see it all. My husband took about 100 pictures and then he took almost that many more of the tags that went with them. I won’t show you all 100 or the tags, but I thought you might enjoy these portraits of women.

Heading Homeward

Far too soon, it was time to go. There were a number of unfamiliar variables, so I had allowed plenty of time in my schedule for trouble. I checked on the travel time from the museum. I added a little time for traffic, for finding a gas station, for fueling the car, for returning the car, for getting transported to the terminal from the remote rental car and so on and so forth.

Well, none of that happened. There was no traffic. Bill pulled off the road at an exit, found a gas station within a block and filled up without having to wait. We returned the car in moments and the bus took us immediately. We checked our luggage without a single delay and there was no line at security. Bill wasn’t happy, because he doesn’t like to wait. I was happy! After what we went through getting to Detroit, I was happy to be all checked in and ready to board. A vast difference in priorities there.

We got home safe and sound. Come back next week and see what we got up to next.

ART, Memory Keeping, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography

Curating Individual Images in FOREVER

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: EVERY IMAGE MATTERS

Every Picture Tells a Story

A picture is worth a 1000 words, at least that’s the old saying, but if you don’t know anything about the people, the place or the occasion then that picture probably isn’t worth two cents. I’ve spent time over the last few months talking about the FOREVER Library, Albums and Tags. These are great tools, but with FOREVER, each image has a lightbox (you might call it a work page) and you can use it to make sure your images are always worth more than a couple of cents.

The Top Bar

Let’s start with the bar above the image, but skip the first few, because you’re not going to need those until you finish with the rest of the choices.

When you’re in the process of adding value to your images, you may first need to Rotate. Back in the days before digital, you could take the photo any way you wanted and then any rotation needed was done in your hand. Using smart phones, photos get shot in all sorts of angles, so to see them properly in your in your lightbox, just hit Rotate. The photo will fall to the right. To get it the way you want, you might have to use rotate several times.

Edit is next and it’s a biggie. Remember when you had film developed. You were stuck with whatever you took, but that’s not the case anymore. You have a built in editor in your lightbox and it does a lot.

Above the photo are plus and minus buttons which allow you to make the image larger and smaller in the light box. It doesn’t actually enlarge or reduce the real size of the image. However, the first button on the bottom is your Transform button and with that you can change the size of the photo.

When you press Transform the screen changes again. Now at the top are buttons which allow you to flip the photo horizontally or vertically. There are also buttons to rotate the photos to the left or the right.

Right below the photo is the Rotation selector. Instead of flipping the whole image, this bar will allow you to tilt the photo to the right or the left, so that everything can be square, even if you help the camera atilt.

At the bottom, you get to choose the size and shape of your image. Many of choices are pre-determined to help you out. You can choose square, 4:3 or 16:9. 4:3 is a sort of standard photo ratio and 16:9 is commonly known as widescreen.

The 4:3 aspect ratio describes a width of four units and a height of three units. These can be inches, lines, or pixels, depending on the object with that aspect ratio. When you divide the values, that is the width by the height, you get 1.33 (4 divided by 3 is 1.33)

https://boords.com/blog/what-is-the-4-3-aspect-ratio-definition-and-examples

But FOREVER is not through helping you. Most of you know Instagram likes squares, but if you do Facebook and have ever been frustrated trying to create a Profile Pictures, Ad, Post or Cover, here’s your solution!

If you’ve fiddled around with all the ratios and decide it was best to begin with, just choose Original. Whatever you choose, click the arrow on the bottom left to return to the lightbox and when you get there, be sure to save in the upper right hand corner.

Back in the lightbox, if you select Filter, then you’ve got a world of filters to choose from. I don’t use them much, but many people do. If you click the list icon, you’ll be able to access filters sorted by the types listed.

After Filters in the lightbox, you can choose Adjust. This is getting pretty fancy and most of us don’t get this deep, but I wanted you to know it was there. If the filters can’t fix what you think is wrong with the photo, then you have all these tools. When you click on each of them a scale will come up from -100% to +100%. Play around with them, see what they will do. You can’t mess the image up, because once you use the arrow on the left to go back to lightbox, you can say UNDO!

Next after Adjust in the lightbox is Text. Whether you want to put an X on a treasure map or just make a caption to go on your Christmas Card, here’s how to do it. When you click the Text button, you’ll see a text box. It will say, “Double Click to Edit”. You have a choice of size, font and alignment. Say what you want, change the font, change the color, change the size, change the alignment and move it where you want it. When you get back to the lightbox, you can undo or save. If you save, it create a copy. You always have your original, unless you choose to delete it.

Want stickers instead? Yes FOREVER’s got that, too. Right after the Text button is the Sticker button.

And after Sticker button is the Brush button. You can change the pixel size of the brushstroke and the color.

Do you see how I blurred out the background and put the focus on Bill and me. That would be the Focus button. There is both radial and mirrored blurring and you have a scale to select how much blurring you want.

Frames, your final editing choice lets you add a fun frame to your image. There’s this Film Frame, an Art Deco Frame, Polychrome, Wooden and more.

Back at the top in the lightbox, there’s Slideshow, which will start a slideshow and more through the album or library. When you’re done, you may decide to Delete the photo or Order Prints, but you’re more likely to want to share it.

When you click the share button this is what you get. It’s easy to share, but be careful! Know who you are sharing with, because giving them access will allow them to view, upload and download files from this album. They can’t delete anything, but if you start finding odd photos in your library, this could be the reason. All you have to do is delete them and turn off that share link.

There’s a lot more you can do in your lightbox, but I think this is enough for today. We’ll come back to the Info, Tagging and Albums sections later.

Accommodations, Architecture, ART, Attractions, Decorative Arts, DESTINATIONS, Gardens, Photography, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Detroit’s Art Deco Treasure

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: A STROLL IN DOWNTOWN DETROIT

The Guardian Building

We’d started our day in an empty world headquarters, had breakfast in ghost town food court and taken a ride on an abandoned monorail. We were beginning to wonder if anyone actually lived or worked in Detroit. Still, finding gems off the beaten path is one of my favorite things to do, so this hunt for The Guardian Building was just my cup of tea.

It was Travel Advisor which clued me in on the existence of a pristine Art Deco skyscraper in Downtown Detroit. Once we got off the People Mover I asked Google Maps to find The Guardian Building and as I thought, it was just around the corner from the monorail stop. Instead of trying to describe it, I’ll just share some of the photos we snapped.

Gorgeous, right? Like the Renaissance Center, there wasn’t much in the way of human occupation. There was a security guard behind a desk in the central lobby and up the stairs was a large open area. A barista lurked behind a coffee bar and there was a tour company office on the other side and that was it. Where were the rest of the inhabitants of Detroit?

Campus Martius Park

While the Riverfront and Greektown are obviously popular areas in Detroit, we’d be seeing those with the family later in the weekend, so I wanted to focus on things we wouldn’t see with them, which took us to this downtown park.

It was here we finally connected with humanity. As we strolled along a well landscaped path between the skyscrapers, we happened upon a beach bar. Yes, I said a beach bar. Sand, lounge chairs and drinks with fruit in them. Don’t believe me?

It would have suited me fine to take a load off and sample their wares, but Bill was not in lounging mode. He was doing his best to play tourist, but he was distracted. Not only were most of our credit cards compromised by hackers, but the market was open and we’d just turned over our real estate photography company to the new owner. We were supposed to be celebrating that last bit, but after nursing our enterprise to success for six years, we were having some separation anxiety. Was this guy going to be able to handle it? It’s not that we weren’t happy to see it go. We just didn’t want it back!

At the end of the park is One Campus Maritus, the Compuware headquarters, famous for this 14 story waterfall.

And that left one final stop along Woodward Avenue we wanted to visit, The Grand Circus. It’s not a circus with a tent, but a park in a circle. It was a much quieter venue than Campus Maritus with its beach bar and perhaps we would have skipped it altogether had we known, but it was right next to a People Mover station, so it turned out to be quite convenient.

On to our Next Accommodations

The People Mover took us back to Renaissance Center, where we claimed our rental car and headed to Pontiac/Auburn Hills. That was the location of the Residence Inn which would be our home away from home over the next few days. It was close to all the family events and had just what we wanted.

Certainly the Renaissance Center Marriott was more glamourous, but the Residence Inn offered a comfort the swanky hotel did not – a separate sitting room I could escape to each morning. I wake up so early out of habit, but Bill knows how to sleep late and I like to give him that luxury. On the way, we stopped at a grocery store to get some items to enjoy during our stay – wine, bottled water, fruit, protein bars etc.

I’m a pretty easy-going traveler. I don’t think I have ever rejected a room, even though there have been a few times I should have. Bill on the other hand is a little harder to please. He will go down to the desk and complain when he doesn’t like something. At the Residence Inn, he didn’t like the view. It’s a suburban Residence Inn, so I didn’t expect a view, but he did. We got a different room and don’t tell him, but I sort of liked the first one better. It seemed a little more convenient and not quite as dorm-like, but Bill did like the view better, so we stayed.

The Family Weekend

Over the next few days, we were involved with family. We had a get together at a local restaurant Friday night and the big Gender Reveal at a Country Club Saturday. Sunday we hung out at the Riverfront, had lunch in Greek town and a game of golf in the afternoon. On Monday, the main event was an absolute feast, fit for a Pharaoh with all our Egyptian favorites. While it was a lot of fun, it wouldn’t be of much interest to anyone outside the family. (It’s a boy by the way. Our Grand Nephew will arrive in October.)

After the feast, we went back towards Detroit and stayed at the Smithfield Westin. It was a nice hotel, but we were just there to sleep. In the morning I was finally getting to do something that had been on every version of my itinerary the Detroit Institute of Art. Come back next week and enjoy our visit.

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

VALET Your Way to Done

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101: EASY FILE MIGRATION

FOREVER for Memories

When it comes to file storage, you’ve got a lot of choices, but if those files are memories, in the form of images or audio, then you need FOREVER, because that’s where your photos will be safe now and for generations to come.

Safe, because you own it. Safe, because it’s technologically secure. Safe, because it’s guaranteed for your life plus 100 years. Safe because it’s triple backed up in a variety of geographical locations. Safe, because it’s not mined for advertising. Safe, because it won’t be deleted, compressed or transferred.

Most people have their memories spread out over three types of media. They have some things in hard copy – photos, videos, slides, movies, audio etc. The most recent memories are on their phone. And squeezed in between these two are all the places you may have digital photos other than your phone – your pc, your laptop, hard drives, thumb drives, floppy discs, CD’s, DVD’s, even camera cards.

FOREVER – a Place for Everything!

FOREVER is ready for all your memories. We have the very best digitization – bar none- in the industry (and in a few weeks will have the largest, most extensive facility) for all that hard copy media. Then every FOREVER storage account comes with it’s own free app, which will upload all your photos from your phone and continue to synch them as you take them should you desire.

All the rest can be uploaded from your devices, but in the past that could have been an obstacle for potential users. If your images were spread all over your digital life with no type of organization, then a move to FOREVER storage would protect your mess, but it would still be a mess. If your images were neatly organized in one or two places, then a move to FOREVER storage would have, once again, protected your images, but unless you took the time to carefully move them, folder by folder, you’d just have a safe mess. In either case, interested parties might hesitate to make the jump.

VALET Solves Both Problems

VALET is an app for high speed uploading and downloading, but it does more than that.

If your images are spread all over the place in a wide variety of media with no rhyme or reason, then you’ll love VALET. It will sort your images into dated albums by year and by month, as you upload them into FOREVER, and it will do it so quickly you’ll be amazed. When it’s done, all your memories will be safe and organized.

If your photos are neatly organized on your device(s), then you’ll love VALET even more. It will upload your photos into nested albums, based on the organization you have on your device and it will do it so fast you’ll barely believe it. When it’s done, all your photos will be safe and organized.

Here’s the best part! You can try out VALET for free for 30 days, even though you could probably move all your pictures in a matter of minutes or hours. Because it is a trial, it does not have the download feature available, but when moving to FOREVER, it’s all about the upload.

However, if you’re someone who moves a lot of images around or you’ve got so many photos, so many places you can’t get them all uploaded in 30 days, then VALET is only $60 a year. It was developed for use by photo professionals and professional organizers, so there is a pro level of the app which costs more, but for most of us, the standard VALET will do everything we’ll ever need it to do.

If you’re like some folks who just couldn’t face the trials and tribulations of moving your photos into FOREVER then I have to tell you, that excuse no longer holds water. If you’re still unsure about it, call me. I can either walk you through it in a ZOOM meeting or if necessary, come to your house, sit at your and do it for you!