Part of keeping discs playable, in good shape and happy is to store 
them correctly. Store discs upright (book style) in original disc cases. Return discs to their disc case immediately after use. Store in a cool, dry, dark, clean-air environment — relative humidity should be 20% – 50% and temperature 4 – 20 degrees C. If you are in Colorado where the Leave A Legacy studios are located you are in luck…humidity is not a problem here.
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 www.LeaveALegacyToday.com. Last month we talked about why it’s a great idea to write your life story. This month we will start getting organized. Make separated pages in a word document or in a spiral notebook with a different category listed at the top.
These titled pages are for you to write down ideas and thoughts that you need to cover. It’s a book to jog your memories. If you think of something that you should tell about just write a little note about it. For example: on the Grandparents page I wrote “tell about when Grandpa lived with us”.
So have some fun getting organized and jogging your memory!
Categories to Write About:
Birth
Toys & First Memories
Parents, Grandparents and Great Grandparents
Brothers and Sisters
Other Relatives (aunts, nieces, cousins, etc)
Schools Attended
Holidays; Birthdays
Failure & Hope
Illnesses & Remedies
Religion
Property
Hardship & Survival
Your Children
Jobs
Politics
Influence of War
Influence of Art (books, music, movies, etc.)
Turning Points Inventions
Hobbies; Marriage
Pets
Important Dates in History
Accomplishments
Fashions
Games & Sports
Talents
Famous People
Relationships (romantic, family, friends)
Faith & Spirit
Influential People
Family Traditions
Gifts
Special Moments
Your Special Page
Food
Your Life Today
Your Plans for the Future
Death
Courtship
Brief Encounters
Lessons Learned
Vacations
Dad with baby Marsha
More about the “Why” of Marsha and Leave A Legacy. My Dad, Richard Washnok, is represented in our log by the large star. He was an entrepreneur as well. For most of my growing up years he was a self employed corn breeder. He was an independent man and independent thinker. I worked for him every summer once he went out on his own. I learned the expectation of hard work and doing it well.
I developed an entrepreneur mindset from him. The acorn didn’t fall far from the tree and I started out my career as an independent corn breeder as well. I’ll tell how I got here from there another day. So I have never had a “regular” job where I worked for someone else. When I stopped breeding corn I had to create a business of my own because I certainly wasn’t going to go to work for
someone else in a 9-5 job. That’s a piece of why I started Leave A Legacy.
My father created an expectation of excellence (if one received a C in schoolthat was considered average and average equals failing to my father). I always looked up to my father and wanted to be just like him. He was very fast in his work and I did everything I could to be just as fast. My father always had a big heart when concerned for others. I think I have an even bigger heart as I can get so sappy with clients who are reminiscing, I get drawn into the stories they tell me from their life, and am drawn to tears when working on a memorial DVD slideshow for someone I’ve never met. I guess he left a pretty good Legacy himself. Thanks Dad for instilling those qualities in me and thanks for watching over me these last 7 years!
I thought I’d document a bit of why we are in the Leave A Legacy business, serving Fort Collins, Northern Colorado, Denver Metro area and around the world for that matter.
My memory has always been poor. While others can remember which grade they learned long division in or cursive handwriting, I am lucky to remember where I left my cell phone. I just don’t have many memories from my
Marsha
childhood. I must have been present during the events of my life but I just didn’t stick in my noggin. That is part of the reason why I began Leave A Legacy. Our memories and our lives are so fleeting. We want to be the place to help you preserve your memories with digital creations (wow, that’s actually our tag line!). We may not have done anything remarkable that will go down in history but I want to encourage everyone to preserve the memories and experiences of their lives. Many of the projects we get are the transferring of analog memories to digital media. All of those video tapes, films, audio recordings, slides and photos….they all contain pieces of our lives that ought to be preserved for later generations. All of us have a story to tell. All of us want to be remembered for more than just our birth and death dates and where we lived. Why Leave A Legacy? Because everyone has a story to tell even if it’s just that your brother once chased you around the house with the scissors to cut your hair off….
From the disks we’ve seen come back to the shop we know that more people need the message on how to handle disks correctly to keep them working.
Don’t touch the back of the disk with anything. The back of the disk (the side that goes down in the dvd player without the label on it) is where the information is contained on the disk. Any scratches or finger smudges can affect the playability of the disk. When you pick up a disk, hold it by the edges of the disk or the edge of the inner hole only. When we set a disk down at Leave A Legacy it is either in it’s jewel case or we flip it upside down.
This segment is for giving you ideas on how to preserve your family memories. Many times it is our family history or our parent’s and grandparent’s stories that we want to preserve. Some clients have brought in birth records, marriage certificates, death notices and news articles that document their family history. Ancestory.com is also a useful resource that many clients have used to find historical family records. One client recently found a ship manifest there listing some relatives who came to America. We have special scanners to carefully handle your oversized and delicate documents. Once we have a digital image we can create a book, DVD slideshow or more….we are limited only by your imagination!
I’m going to start a new series of articles about writing your life story. At Leave A Legacy our mission is to assist people in preserving their photos and
memories digitally. I believe that everyone has a story to tell, a story to preserve. You may not have invented something or made a big discovery. You may not feel as though you’ve done anything important. But I want to encourage you to write about your everyday life memories. Why, you may ask? Our memories are fleeting and time passes all too quickly. When my children were young I wrote a nightly journal about our kid’s activities and that was priceless. They did the cutest and funniest things and I have much of it documented. What I’m talking about here is looking back to all the events of your life. Each month there will be an idea to work on. I’ll encourage you to comment back and let me know your thoughts, experience and progress.
Today, photographers and videographers have it easy – digital capabilities make it possible to review and alter photos and films instantly; and transporting equipment is a breeze with handheld devices. But remember the days when clear photos required still scenes and people had to stand motionless for up to 20 minutes? Or when video cameras weighed twice as much as the person carrying it?
Let’s review a few of the more notable times in Photography and Videography history to find out how we got where we are…
1826 – The first known fixed, permanent photography was taken by Nicéphore Niépce. This landscape photograph required an eight hour exposure!
1835 – William Fox Talbot creates his own photography process. A few years later he invents the positive/negative process used in modern photography.
1854 – The first greeting card was introduced! Known then as the carte de visite (French for “visiting card”), eight individually exposed images were reproduced on a single negative then cut apart and glued to calling card-sized mounts.
early camera
1861 – The first-ever color photograph is shown by James Clerk Maxwell.
1888 – Kodak introduces the first easy-to-use camera – the n1 box camera.
1891 – Thomas Edison invents and patents the first motion picture device. The kinetoscope (an early motion picture exhibition device) led way to the Kinetograph – the first motion picture camera. Movies were photographed via rapid stop-and-go film movements resulting in the appearance of fluid movement.
1901 – 120mm film is introduced by Kodak.
1914 – The first color dramatic feature film – The World, the Flesh and the Devil, is released.
1923 – Kodak introduced the first 16mm film as an inexpensive alternative to 35mm.
1926 – The first Motion Picture Duplicating film is invented to duplicate negatives. Previously, duplicates were only available if a second camera was also used.
1932 – Disney creates the first full-color movie cartoon, Flowers and Trees, in Technicolor.
8mm movie camera
1932 – For the first time, amateur 8mm movie film, cameras and projectors are available.
1934 – 135mm film is introduced specifically for still photography. The 135mm film cartridge also increased the ease of 35mm film and grew in popularity to surpass 120 film in the 1960s.
1948 – The first Polaroid instant image camera in unveiled by Edwin H. Land.
1952 – Dreams of 3-D film become reality…and the craze begins.
1957 – The first digital image on a computer is produced by Russell Kirsch.
SLR camera
1959 – Nikon introduces its first single-lens reflex camera (SLR), the Nikon F, to become the most advanced camera of its day.
1960 – EG&G develops an underwater camera that functions at extreme depths for the U.S. Navy.
1965 – Super 8 film is introduced by Kodak as an improvement of the “Regular” 8mm film format. Super 8 film allows the exposed area of the photo to be larger.
1968 – For the first time, a photograph of the Earth is taken from the moon.
1978 – The first point-and-shoot, autofocus camera is developed by Konica.
1980 – Sony introduces the first consumer camcorder.
digital camera
1984 – Canon releases the first digital camera – the first ever electronic still camera.
1985 – The first digital imaging processor is introduced by Pixar, innovatively using computer algorithms to perform image processing on digital images.
1990 – Kodak introduces the first Photo CD. The first of its kind, it allowed digital images to be stored easily.
2008 – Polaroid announces the discontinuance of instant film products, leading to surge in digital imaging technology.
Leave A Legacy is growing up! This October, our Fort Collins store celebrates 5 years of preserving memories! AND our new Denver store celebrates one year! Wow – I can’t believe we’re growing up so fast…
So…to celebrate our own upcoming anniversary, we’ve decided to share some of our gift and celebration ideas for anyone out there celebrating an anniversary of their own!
Gift Ideas
1st Anniversary – Make a photobook of your first year together. Or if you’re a photo-taking junkie and wouldn’t dream of fitting the entire first year into one book, make a photobook or DVD slideshow of your wedding and/or honeymoon!
5th Anniversary – Beginning to tire of spending lots of money on anniversary gifts? Inexpensively create a custom gift such as a champagne bottle label. Enjoy yourselves and your personalized bottle while sipping the bubbly. Include your favorite photo together and a heartfelt message expressing your love for one another.
Celebration Ideas
Newlyweds – Start a tradition. Look through your favorite photos and pick one at a meaningful location. Visit this place yearly and document your visit with a photo in the same place and position each year.
Seasoned Spouses – Get out of your daily routine of chores and evening television and stay at a romantic Bed & Breakfast. Let someone else do the cooking and cleaning for you and just relax. Bring along some home videos and scrapbooks to relive your favorite memories together.
We’re all aware that technology is changing how we live our everyday lives. Laptops, Digital Cameras, Smartphones – these once-novel tools are becoming day-to-day necessities. I realize the iPad is no longer shockingly novel either but this tool has combined the three most frequently used pieces of technology into one supertool. Its capabilities are seemingly endless and new applications are created daily. Now I know what all you skeptics are saying – it’s just a glorified iPhone with maybe a few more apps. But look again – the iPad may be transforming the art of photography.
Built-in Benefits
Not only is the iPad an image processing platform that is light and compact enough to carry with you wherever you go, it contains hundreds of apps to assist in your photography endeavors. With a 9.7” Backlit display, photos look fabulous – unlike the quality that some Smartphones deliver. The iPad also allows you to manage all your online photo libraries from one place without searching for a wi-fi connection or turning on your computer. Additionally, you can download images directly from your digital camera or SD card (or any other photo-taking device) onto your iPad with the the iPad Connection Kit. Other adapters can be used to connect the iPad directly to TVs, computers, and projectors.
Beyond connecting and organizing, the iPad offers several Apps for photo editing and imaging viewing that allow you to do several things with your photos from one platform. Here are a few of the favorites:
Editing/Organizing Apps:
While there are too many photo editing apps to name, I will describe a few of the most common:
Adobe Photoshop Express: Probably the most popular editing App because it resembles the layout of Adobe Photoshop with which most photographers are familiar. However, this is best used for small edits.
Photogene for iPad: For more complex projects, many users like Photogene. This App has all the expected capabilities (crop, straighten, sharpen, resize, add effects, etc.), while additionally allowing you to output you edited photos directly to your e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, and iPad photo library.
Photosmith App: A new App that allows you to review images and organize them into collections and add data, rate and share each image.
More Cool Stuff
For Professional Photographers:
iPad Portfolio: Most professional photographers with an iPad have discovered its incredible capabilities as a professional portfolio. Easy to maneuver with great viewing quality, the iPad has become a portable portfolio that photographers can display at a moment’s notice.
Photo Releases: Two different Apps provide both Model and Property release forms that you can substitute for those outdated paper forms. Easy Release is a generic form to which you can add your company’s information. Contract Maker Pro assists in making custom releases by providing a common template in which you can adapt custom fields to fit your unique needs.
For Recreational Photographers:
Artify: Do you like both photography and painting? This App transforms any image you choose into impressionistic artwork, later allowing you to sharpen details of faces or objects. Or you can customize your image by using your
finger as a small, medium or large brush to alter the look of your photo.
Airplay: Allows you to stream images wirelessly from your iPad to HDTV.
Airprint: Wireless printing straight from your iPad.
Clearly this is not an exhaustive description of the possibilities that the iPad can bring to the world of Photography, but it demonstrates the basic benefits. While the iPad may not replace traditional forms or photography development, it is clearly learning the tricks of the trade. And who knows? Maybe someday the camera will be a thing of the past.
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