Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens...Reflections by Terri

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...these words bring back such fun memories to me.  When my children were small we started a family tradition...every Sunday afternoon after church & lunch we would put a movie into the player, pop some popcorn and watch one of our favorite movies. As you might guess The Sound of Music was one of our favorites.  Many of these family traditions I was able to capture on our small point and shoot camera. I faithfully had them developed (as funds would allow) and like many of  you put them in shoe boxes in my closet.  Unfortunately many of my photos began deteriorating badly from the acid and lignen given off  by these boxes.
Luckily for my photos, in 1994 a dear friend introduced me to Creative Memories.  I learned how much damage shoe boxes could do to my treasured family memories. So I began moving my photos into safe albums as quickly as I could.
A few years later, Creative Memories started offering Power Sort Boxes.  I must say that if I had to choose my very favorite thing Creative Memories produces it would be Power Sort Boxes! These wonderful boxes enable me to properly store my photos.  As soon as I finish sharing my latest photos I place them in these boxes. The dividers that come with the boxes allow me to easily organize them. I try to take time right then to write down a few details including the reason I chose to take these photos as well as where and when I took them. The Power Sort Box holds 1200 4x6 or 5x7 photos divided into 6 compartments. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes.

Photo Tip: Don't leave your photos in the envelopes and boxes that your developer puts them in! Your photos will begin to deteriorate much faster left in them.  Instead invest in a couple Power Sort Boxes.  
My second favorite thing from Creative Memories has to be Memory Manager 3.0. Memory Manager 3.0 Software is the answer to photo overload.  It offers you an easy way to organize, cross reference and fine-tune all the photos you have trapped on your computer! It's incredible how quickly you can have your photos ready for your next project. It is especially user friendly.  I have used several other digital organization software programs and none compare to Creative Memories Memory Manager 3.0.
This software came in especially useful a few years ago when one of Jerry's aunts offered to share Granny Fonville's family photos.  In exchange for allowing me to borrow them and scan them onto my computer I agreed to make a heritage album for her.  I had no idea what an incredible task this would become! She shared with me hundreds of photos., some dating back to the 1800's.
 Thankfully I had Memory Manager 3.0 Software to help with this immense task.  Using this software I can scan the photos, record the story that Granny faithfully wrote on the backs of each photo and then restore much of the damage time has done to them, while still keeping a digital copy of the photo in it's initial state.  I can not imagine attempting to tackle this task without Memory Manager 3.0!

I could write on and on about the wonderful products that Creative Memories has made available to help us preserve and protect those precious photos that record the memories of our lives. Instead I would like to share a list of my top 12 favorite "things" and a few photo tips to help solve some of your photo dilemmas. I hope these will prove useful to you.  Terri

Terri's Top 12 Favorite Creative Memories Products:
  1. Power Sort Boxes
  2. Memory Manager 3.0
  3. 12x12 Coversets
  4. 12x12 Spargo photo-safe pages
  5. 12x12 photo safe polypropylene page protectors
  6. Hummingbird Personal Trimmer
  7. Frosted Photo Splits
  8. Multi-Purpose Tool & Clips
  9. Custom Cutting System
  10. 12-inch Rotary trimmer
  11. PicFolio Photo Albums
  12. Power Palettes
Terri's Photo Tips:
  1. Get closer to your subject!
  2. Now get a little closer...either physically or using your zoom lens!
  3. Turn off your flash and take some indoor shots using natural light!
  4. Take lots of photos...the more photos you take the more likely you are to get some really good shots!
  5. Trash the photos that don't turn out or are blurry! It's OK you've taken lots more!
  6. Regularly print the photos you take, don't just store them on your computer.
  7. Remove the photos from the store photo packages as soon as you get them.
  8. Take the photos with you when you go to the Dr.'s office, or when you plan to wait for your kids at a sporting event or music class and take a few minutes to identify the important details about these photos. I promise you in ten years you will have forgotten why you took this photo!
  9. Invest in a couple Power Sort Boxes and begin organizing those photos. You choose how to organize them...there's no right or wrong way...organize them by child...date...event...whatever works for you!
  10. If you decide to put your photos in an album...keep it simple...the most important thing is your photo and the story that goes with the photo...you really don't need a lot of extra stickers and bling...it's about the photo and the story that goes with it not the decorations!

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