Photos in a Shoebox...Why Digitize?

Do you have shoeboxes of photographs? Have you inherited photos? Do you have family members with photos that you would like to have copies of? If you answered yes, this blog post is a must read!

It is said that there are over 3 trillion printed photographs in the US. Most of them are sitting in shoeboxes on a dusty shelf or dark closet, sitting and decaying. If you pull out some of those old pictures you will see that the ink is starting to fade. Over time, the ink or dye used to print pictures will start to decay until it is eventually washed completely out. If you have photos that are near and dear to you and your family, you will want to have those digitized (scanned)!

Having your photos scanned will help to overcome that decaying process. The photo will still continue to fade, but the digital image will capture the photo and preserve it in it's current state. Digitizing your photos will also allow you to share them with friends and family because you won't have to worry about only having 1 copy! You can send them electronically, post them on family websites or facebook, or create beautiful photo keepsakes with them. Creative end uses for your family photos are now only limited by your imagination!

We never want to think about unforeseen disasters such as a home fire or something. But many family photos are lost forever in these circumstances. So the most important reason to digitize your photos is so that you have a back up copy in the event something should happen to the original pictures. Protect and preserve by having your photos scanned.

I know, I know...it could take up to 30 hours to scan the 1300 photos found in a typical shoebox, but I can offer you a better solution! Photo scanning at 30 pictures per minute (up to 500 per hour), local and mobile! Don't chance your precious memories being lost forever!

Sincerely,

Yolanda Ventura~The Memory Keeper's Coach

What's a Memory Keeper's Coach?

I been asked this question recently and actually I liked being asked this question because it became a conversation starter. As a direct marketer, I am always looking for conversation starters. In order to answer this question, we first define what a memory keeper is.

A memory keeper is a person to whom it is important to preserve their memories, either through journaling, scrapbooking, taking photos. A memory keeper's coach, is someone, like myself who helps a memory keeper with creative ways to preserve, document and/or display their most treasured memories.

I love what I do! Our treasured memories are invaluable, irreplaceable and typically our most prized possessions. It brings me great joy to sit with a client and their shoeboxes of photos and show them how they can share these gifts, gifts of time, gifts of ancestry, gifts of heritage, with family and friends. I recently helped an elderly woman publish the story of her ancestry, a pictorial history, not a family tree. She was so thrilled, so thankful, so gracious, when we finished that she wanted 11 more copies to give as gifts to her family this holiday season! Of course, I was happy for the orders, but I was able to share in a work of the heart with this client. I helped her record her family's history for future generations. When you are working with a project like this (family stories, history, treasured photographs), you want someone who is going to take the care and sensitivity as if it were their own.

That's what a memory keeper's coach does and that's what I am...

Yolanda Ventura~The Memory Keeper's Coach

The Memory Keeper's Coach~Unknown or Known?

"I don't want to be unknown
The little things that make me who I am
I need to share
I need to know that someone cares

That I write down my dreams
That I love when it rains
I burn candles when I'm alone
More then anything
I don't want to be unknown
More then anything
No one wants to be unknown"

This is an excerpt from one of the songs on my personal soundtrack, yes I have a personal soundtrack-more on that another time. The song is "Unknown" by Chely Wright. No one wants to be unknown. The passion of memory keeping is so that it doesn't happen to you or the heroes of your family. If you take pictures, you are probably doing so, to capture a memory of a particular moment. The concept of taking pictures is to preserve that moment so you can reflect on it at another time. But a picture only tells half the story. This song inspired me to start a scrapbook about me and the things that me who I am; the things I enjoy, my friends and activities, my thoughts, dreams and aspirations. I want my children to know the woman I was before I had brought them into the world. If you don't tell your story, who will? Who knows you better than you do? Have someone take your picture, if you don't have a recent one, look at it and then get a pen and paper and tell the future about the person in that photo.

Thank you for stopping by, please come back again soon.

Sincerely,

Yolanda Ventura~The Memory Keeper's Coach