Leave A Legacy now offers on-line video preview. This allows you to view your production – created from your video tapes, movie films, photos or slides – on your home or office computer. We connect your computer and our computer over the internet. You can watch what we play or while we make edits on our computer. You can hear the audio of your production over the phone.

We’ve had one client couple who previewed their production playing on our computer in Fort Collins while they each viewed it at their work computers at two different locations in the Denver metro area.

While a client previews their video production they see changes that they want made. Clients can either make notes as they watch or may talk to one of our team to tell them about needed changes.

At Leave A Legacy, we do our best to find convenient solutions to help you preserve your memories with digital creations. With on-line video preview of your video production you’ll know just how it will look when you take the final product home with you.

Her daughter’s school has a tradition of the graduating class donating something of significance to the school. This is just elementary mind you, so it might be more the parent’s thoughts and money going into it. They came up with a great modern idea to buy a flat screen TV, have some lettering made and create a dynamic information wall by the school office.  Their biggest problem was time so she thought of presenting it virtually at the graduation ceremony.

She took several photos at the school (the wall, the couch, etc.), we found some images of a widescreen on the internet and also the school’s logo. We manipulated the photos by “removing” all of the things on the wall, did some masonry work on the wall, added the text in a curve and gave it an effect to look gold and 3 dimensional “hung” the wide screen and “projected” some images on it.

The final result (a jpg file) was projected on the screen after the graduation slideshow. What an interesting photo manipulation project!

Can you imagine paying a professional photographer to shoot your wedding and then before you get your photos the photographer goes bankrupt?  That is precisely what happen to one recent client. The wedding is a few years past but at the time they had to take the film studio to court in order to obtain their 21 rolls of negatives. That trauma was in the client’s past, she was coming in to get all of the negatives scanned so that she could actually print out some photos of her special day from her past. We scanned in all of the color and black and white 35mm negatives for her and saved them to disks for her. The possibilities of what she can do with them now are now endless. We can create a digital photo book and bind it, we can create all sorts of photo gifts using the images, and even create a DVD slideshow of all of the images.

I have the guide book that I used to plan our travels which also gave great descriptions about what we were seeing. I have my notes about where we were going and what we were seeing each day.

I wrote in my journal as the trip went along and wrote about the hits and misses on the food we ordered. “Wes and Cheryl were trying to play it safe and order something with beef.  It wasn’t until the dish was served that we remembered that beef tartar is finely cut raw beef steak. They both struggled to choke it down.”

I also wrote about our experiences with new forms of travel. “The doors on the Paris Metro are reminiscent of the guillotine that was once a popular form of correction. Our first try on the Metro was painful, at least for Aspen. When the doors closed she had half of one arm, and elbow of the other arm, and her suitcase one half in the train when it was ready to leave the station.”

My digital photo books always have lots of text in them to go with the lots of photos.  I also kept lots of memorabilia that I will scan in: bottle labels, ticket stubs, coins, a unique ice cream spoon, sand, stones, and bark.

While on the metro in Paris I saw that Leave A Legacy has some competition. The photo shows an advertisement poster in our metro car.

Options abound for modifying or repairing your photo and video memories.  You may want to have someone removed from an image, be it a former girlfriend, husband or a stranger lurking in the background.  This can be more easily done with a still photo of course.

I once replaced an ex-boyfriend with a bush in a large family photo. We even modified the images from an old 8mm movie film.  The client was fortunate that the unwanted individual was on the edge of the frame.  We made clips at the beginning and end of where he appeared and then adjusted that segment over to the right which cut him off and left the rest of the people showing.

The image at right is of a photo of a car that was identical to our client,

Tom's car restoration

Tom’s, first car. Unfortunately the photo that he brought in had someone sitting in his car! Using Photoshop we were able to extricate the unwanted individual and we reprinted the image for him to treasure in his home office.

When unwanted individuals are present in the background of your precious photo we can use burning tools to darken the background and make them less noticeable or if you want to be transported elsewhere we can cut you out and put a totally different background behind you.

The sample at right is actually made from 3 photos.

One photo made from three images

The man, woman, and background came from 3 separate photos.  The client was a very friendly German who lives up in the mountains west of us in Colorado.  He is the man in the photo (taken several years ago). His appearance has changed in the years since as he is now well weathered with a big bushy black and grey beard. The lady is a lady friend of his from long ago in Germany.  He brought the photos in since he had recently reconnected with her and wanted to create a photo to remember their long ago beginnings.  Some color and texture effects were added to make the three images blend together better.

Happenings at Leave A Legacy

We now have several other options for communicating to the public besides our once a month newsletter that you many want to consider. There are lo

Our video clips are on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/LeaveALegacyColorado you may choose to subscribe to us.  Videos can also be seen on the Video Gallery tab of our revised website.

Our business connections are at http://www.linkedin.com/in/leavealegacy

Our facebook account is at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fort-Collins-CO/Leave-A-Legacy/118684934818243?v=wall it would be great if you “like” us.

Read our blog with lots more ideas and samples and stories of client projects that have come in at: http://www.leavealegacytoday.com/blog.html

A small token of thanks for a sunny memorial slideshow

One particular client had a concept for making the memorial profound. She brought in a collection of photos of her mother through the years: from when she was young, getting married, having children, playing with grandchildren and finally when her health was failing towards the end.

She also brought in a video recording of her two daughters (who were five and two years old) singing “You are My Sunshine”. We did a video to DVD conversion and then put the song snippet at the end of the slideshow. My client also brought in a piece of art that one of her girls had colored ‘specially for Grandma.

The slideshow started with a custom graphic title screen “Celebrating the life of…” and progressed through all of the photos…with music to accompany the images we together had selected. At the end, the granddaughter’s painting came on the screen while the audio of “You are My Sunshine” played. What an emotional moment.

The DVD transfer was flawless and the photo quality was excellent. We were proud of our work and the family was very pleased with the outcome.

When the mother and two young girls came into the studio to pick up the final cut, the mother handed me a rock and told me that it was from her young daughter (she was too shy to tell me herself). The rock was obviously just one that the child had picked up in the driveway. But its significance as a thank-you present to Leave A Legacy for doing the slideshow for her grandmother was not lost on us.

I still have the rock on a display shelf in the studio to remind myself of the little girl who missed her Grandma – but now has an animated touchstone (by way of that slideshow) to remember her by. Always.

A tall man with a kind face visited our Fort Collins office recently and inquired about our negative scanning service. Out of an old folder, he pulled a very large and antique-looking negative – about 5 by 7 inches in size. 

He doubtfully asked if we could handle a negative this big – and I said indeed we could. (Our negative scanning service can handle negatives up to 12 by 17 inches). 

After a quick look at the image, I blurted out “Is that Custer?” Quite the opposite it turned out – it was a historic portrait of Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill. At least I was in the right era!

I felt sure this negative had to be quite valuable so I suggested it not leave the client’s hands for long – we did the negative scanning and B&W and sepia printing of it right on the spot.

While I was producing the final prints, the client regaled me with all the facts he knew about the amazing portrait. He pointed out the incredible detailing of Buffalo Bill’s jacket, told me what color Sitting Bull’s headdress was, and informed me about the historic occasion which caused these two legends to be sitting together for a souvenir photograph.

We do hundreds of photo reproductions and restorations each week, but I’ll certainly never forget this one!

We thought we’d share some ideas about how to set up a series of photos which illustrate a larger theme. Think of it as ‘storytelling’ with images that all share a pre-planned purpose.

We’ll focus on creating an intentional photo series about children growing up – perhaps all too quickly.

That’s the theme. Now what can you do with it? Inspiration can be as close as your closet!

One Outfit through the Years

Find a remarkable piece of clothing. Maybe an heirloom wedding dress, grandma’s colorful paisley blouse, the morning coat that your father wore on his wedding day, or your own polyester pantsuit from “the good ol’ days.”

Next, dress your newborn or toddler in the article of choice.  Then take a photo of the child every year in that very same outfit.

Granted, the first few years your child will be drowning in the polyester suit or the morning coat, but you’ll see him or her slowly fill it out until she ‘owns’ it.

Imagine having such a progressive image showing your child from one year to 18 years of age – displayed at his or her high school graduation party.  It’s a time-lapse shot that you planned two decades prior!  This ‘same suit of clothing’ is also a great idea for making your own photo calendar.

Parallel Photo Series

Starting with a child’s birth, think of certain milestones that you would wish to commemorate throughout his or her young life. Then plan out a “Parallel Photo Series.”

This involves your using the same setting to pose your growing children in, time after time. It’s easy and can be a great document of your child’s growth and maturation!

One of our clients, Katrina, did this when her children were young. She intentionally took photos of them when they were just days old, then when they were each one year old and finally when they each turned three.  She kept the setting and the outfits the same for each of the children at each of the birthdays.

Once she had a completed collection of photos, she brought them to us and we resized the images so that they scaled properly – that is the children were shown at a similar size regardless of which year the photo had been taken.

She now has three sets of progressive photos of her children, making an interesting display for even non-family members to look at.

There are so many events and ages that you’ll want to capture like this: the first day of grammar school, first communion, sweet 16 birthday, first day of high school, and graduation.

Consider a special baby digital scrapbook which shows just the incredible growth spurts of a newborn in a single year.

School Photo Collection

Collect all of your child’s school photos and arrange them together, in a scrapbook or on a wall. Marvel at how quickly children grow up and how they mature through the years.  You can also digitize the photos and display them for a graduation slide show or a photo gift.

Birthday Celebrations through the Years

We all take photos of our kids at their birthday party each year.  Why not compile them cleverly?

Make a series on birthday parties themselves. How cakes were decorated, which games were played, what gifts were given, which guests attended, who had the crying meltdown or the ice cream sugar highs, what crushes were revealed about which celebrities – or which boys next door!

Christmas, Easter, Halloween, New Year’s …. or other Holiday Series

No matter which holidays you celebrate, commemorate them with the same setting each year. It’s fun to see your son grow taller than the Christmas tree, or pumpkin carvings get more inventive, year after year. Easter egg hunts can take place rain or shine – show your family ‘dealing’ with the weather every successive spring.

Display the holiday images together on a piano or fireplace mantle…. and it’s a compelling document about a family’s coming-of-age.

Think it’s too late to do this?

Sure the earlier you start, the better.  But take heart – if time has overwhelmed all your good intentions, it’s never too late!  Just begin where you are and start your own tradition.

Preserving childhood memories isn’t just for new parents; it’s for anyone who cares about the kids…grandparents, aunts, uncles, godparents…anyone!

All of the ideas work in gift form, too.  You could make your own photo calendar with these picture ideas or digitize the photos to make a baby digital scrapbook. 

These are the kinds of “growing gifts” that everyone loves!

Videos will demonstrate tips, tricks and techniques that all relate to preserving your memories. We have a passion for preserving memories and social media will give us a great venue for encouragement and inspiration.