Spring Cleaning Ideas
Spring has finally sprung, even as winter attempts to make one final appearance. Spring means warmer weather, firing up the grill, watching the world come back to life and everyone’s favorite: Spring 
Cleaning. At Leave A Legacy we feel your pain, but we are here to help. So very often, we pack away our memories (VHS tapes, film, cassettes, stacks of photos…) in boxes and who knows when they will see the light of day again. As a part of our Spring Cleaning crusade we want to help you downsize and give your memories new life by digitizing them. Be sure to swing by to take advantage of this sweet deal.
Photography Tip of the Month: Sun in Your Eyes
It is time to take advantage of the warm weather and take photos outdoors! The classic conundrum is wanting your subject to be in direct sunlight and wanting their eyes open. Usually you end up with a very well lit photo of your dear one trying to smile while crying because the sun is burning their retinas.
Well I am here to tell you that you no longer have to abuse 
your subject. Do not be afraid of the shade. Find an open shade area. What is open shade? It is shade that has a reflective surface nearby that is directing light into the shaded area. These “natural” reflectors can be a sidewalk or a white wall located behind the photographer, basically anything that will bounce light onto your subject without blinding them. If you do not have any lightly colored edifices or professional photography equipment at your disposal, a properly placed white matte board will also do the trick.
What else are we excited for this month? Only the fact that graduation is just around the corner! We are positively overflowing with ideas on how to honor your Grad! Stop by our studio on more information on how we can help you celebrate that special someone. Keep up with us on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter for special deals, updates and inspiration!
Recent Interesting Projects
Helen must have had half of a room in her house filled with slides. She brought about 20 carousels at a time and had us save it to disk for her. With an extra copy saved at a different location she was able to free up a room in her home!
Deborah is having us remove all the photos from her 
son’s photo albums of his growing up years – about 30 large “magnetic” albums. We are scanning and laying out all of the photos and memorabilia into digital photo books. We printed & bound the first four years into one book and are now working on the next 4 years. This reduced every 20″ to 2″ of shelf space!
Carolyn is bringing in about 20 video tapes at a time and having us convert them all to digital MOV files for her computer. She turns every 20″ of video tapes into something that takes NO space!
Get up to 20% off your project!
Spring Cleaning time is here and Leave A Legacy is coming to the rescue! Bring in your closet full of old media (films, videos, audio and photos) and we will turn it into much more compact digital creations. Take advantage of our Spring Cleaning Sale and get $10 off your project of $50 or more! Like us on Facebook, follow us on Pinterest and Twitter for an extra $5 off!
Maybe your family doesn’t have a bunch of traditions that you do currently. Consider renewing some old traditions or perhaps start some new ones. You might try: bake a special dish for a holiday meal every year, write your child a letter every year on their birthday but don’t give it to them until they leave for college, read a story to your child every night (or a special story for the holidays), the options are certainly endless. Our family makes homemade pizza every Friday. When growing up we had popcorn and malts for dinner on Sunday night (Dad’s night to cook).
Use photos to preserve a family story instead of holding on to truckloads of old items. Jan’s parents both recently passed away leaving the house and furnishings that needed to be distributed or sold. The home had a very distinctive style from days gone by. The home was filled with all sorts of wonderful memories. To preserve those numerous memories she took lots of photos – of the collection of the nick-knacks, colorful rooms and interesting artwork. Instead of keeping the house and furnishings as a shrine to her parents she made a special book of the memories of her parents’ home and the places they went to when they visited.
This month’s assignment is to write down the stories of your memories and experiences from your days as a teenager. What was going on around you in your world and in your home? What growing pains did you have (things you did to separate you from your parent’s influence)? What event are you most proud of and what was the biggest risk you took? How did you or your parents handle you learning to drive? This is part of a series of articles about writing your life story to see past installments check out our blog or past newsletters on our website.
How about interviewing your child or if they are old enough encourage them to write their own story. There is not much that is more encouraging or helps build self-esteem than having a book written about or by them and professionally bound (by Leave A Legacy, of course). Questions that can be asked start with the basics of what is your name and birthdate, what do you like to do, what is your favorite toy or activity, who do you look up to, what do you like or dislike about your bedroom… No matter who is doing the writing have the child create the illustrations and design the cover. Leave A Legacy will scan it in a pull it all together for you.
Looking for someone Fabulous for our Creative Project Specialist/Customer Service Representative:
Leave A Legacy is an innovative business that preserves peoples memories through digital creations (films, video, audio, photos, slides, etc.). We are looking to hire a fabulous person to serve as the Creative Project Specialist/Customer Service Representative at our Fort Collins location. Candidate will be doing project intake and completion of a variety of image and document projects. Find out more about what we do at www.leavealegacytoday.com
This team member will be working up to 40 hours/week, with Saturdays required.
Ideal candidate should have:
- 2 years customer service experience in a business related to ours
- Ability to relay technical information in a basic but not condescending way
- Must know their way in and out of a computer
- Enjoy a fast paced always multi-tasking working environment
- Must be detail oriented
- A team player but able to work independently
- Professional, yet creative
- Have a passion for preserving people’s memories
Compensation:
- Pay rate $11-12/hr
How to Apply:
All 4 items must be submitted to be considered. You must submit a LAL application , resume, fabulous cover letter addressing all the points above and professional references.
It’s always a difficult time for a family, when a loved one passes away, whether sudden or expected. It’s best to focus on making the family gathering a Celebration of Life. It is common for people to pull together a DVD slideshow to share at the service. One particular client had ideas for making it extra special. They brought in the typical collection of photos of Grandma through the years. From when she was young, getting married, having children, having grandchildren and concluding with her final years of failing health. They also brought in a video recording of her two young grandchildren (about 5 and 2 years old) singing “You are My Sunshine”. It was just precious. We transferred the video tape to the computer and then separated the audio of their singing off and added it to the end of the slideshow. They also brought in a piece of art that the older of the two girls had colored for Grandma. So the slideshow started with a beginning title screen and showed all of the photos with the music they had chosen, then it showed the granddaughter’s art at the end while the audio of “You are My Sunshine” played. It was just too sweet. When the mother and two young girls came into the studio to pick it up, the mother handed me a rock and told me that it was from her daughter (she was too shy to tell me herself). The rock was obviously just one that she picked up in the driveway. She said that it was a thank you gift for doing the slideshow for her grandma. I still have the rock on a display shelf in the studio to remember this special token of thanks from a little girl who misses her Grandma.
hardcover books
Our hardcover books are a very popular option. The landscape 11” x 8.5” covers come with a 5” x 3.5” rectangular window cut into them. This will show the centered image or text from the first page of the book. The other standard sizes (8” x 8”, 8.5” x 11” portrait, and 12” x 12” ) do not come standard with a window. If you would like an image on the cover and it doesn’t already come with a window we can design a canvas print to adhere to the cover with any image and text you request. We have a variety of colors available at various sizes but you can count on us having hard book covers in black….a great classic choice. The advantage of having a hard cover is definitely durability and also simplicity of design and affordability. Most of our hardcover options allow you to add, remove or replace pages and rebinding in the original cover. This binding option is very easy for us to do at both our Fort Collins and Denver locations at a moment’s notice as long as we have your cover in stock. Other book binding upgrades are available including photo covers, buckram, imitation leather or genuine leather binding.
Paperback or soft cover books are normally bound using perfect binding. These books consist of a block of pages with a cover made from heavier paper, glued together at the spine with strong flexible glue. The other three sides are then trimmed. We, at Leave A Legacy, will design a custom cover for your book with the photos and text you request. Paperback binding allows you a professional look at an affordable price. This is a more affordable option than the hardcover options we offer.
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