Memories

It’s OK to look a little dopey if…

- Joel Heffner

I don’t mind looking a little dopey for this Fathers Day photo. The family came through with some gifts I really appreciated. The photo shows some of them. During the pandemic, my favorite hand soap was appreciated.

Joel on Father’s Day 2020. During the 2020 pandemic, handsoap was in short supply. Chocolate bars were always welcom.

Looking a little dopey was fine with me because…it shows me looking at the camera (actually iPhone). Years from now, it will mean more. Although there were some photos of me looking down at the gifts, I think this one will be the best because it shows me.

Make sure you get photos with the subject looking straight into the camera. You’ll want to remember what the people looked like…more than anything else…in my silly opinion.

It also is important to make sure the metadata explains the photo. We don’t usually write on the back of photos as we did in the past. The metadata helps tell the details. Here’s what I wrote on the metadata for this digital image.

Make sure the “backs” of your family memories are carefully written!

Fastest, easiest, and cheapest way to preserve memories…

- Joel Heffner

I don’t usually use expressions like fastest, easiest, and cheapest but today is an exception. When it comes to preserving family memories there is a way to do it that fits those three criteria. Create a Blogger site. Blogger is a site created by Google. It’s free. You can add pictures as well as text. You can add to it whenever you want. Although it’s supposed to be a blogging site, it’s actually whatever you want to make out of it.

Try Blogger to preserve your family memories. It’s easy, fast, and free.

Try it if you want to preserver family memories.

Old is old, not necessarily better…

- Joel Heffner

Back when Mathew Brady was taking portraits of celebrities like Abraham Lincoln, they used very toxic chemicals and few precautions. Today, we can create pictures that look very similar in a click or two. Here’s a black and white selfie I took using my iPhone and the TinType App. No toxic chemicals needed and it only took a few seconds to create.

Sometimes, you accidentally are in the right place at the right time…

- Joel Heffner

I’d love to take credit for the careful posing of these three Pugs. I can’t. They just decided to lean on each other. I was there at the right time and in the right place…ready to take a picture. Happy that I did. This photo was taken about 15 years ago. Although Camille, Teddy, and Ruby are gone…their memories live on in pictures.

From top…Teddy, Camille, and Ruby

Preserve Your Family Memories…before it’s too late!

- Joel Heffner
Family photo in mid-1930s in Poland. After WW II only two survived…my father (9) and my uncle (11).

Taking family photos is great, preserving family memories is even more important! Saving your family memories is easy, fast, and free. Here are the suggested steps:

  1. Find the most important photos in your closets, drawers, and albums.
  2. Take out your smartphone, yes, your smartphone.
  3. Photograph the old photos.
  4. Here’s the most important part…make prints of the photos and give them to your family members. You might also want to create small albums. Make sure you record the NAMES of each person. Very important. The photo above has each person numbered. The problem is that the list of names has been long lost.

Do whatever is necessary to preserve your family memories…now.

[Incidentally, I offer a workshop on preserving family memories. For details, please contact me.]

Preserve your garden…before it’s too late!

- Joel Heffner

Most of us are facing colder weather…soon. Those lovely flowers won’t be there much longer. Preserve your garden memories by taking photos now. Make prints and hang them up to admire them during the winter. They also serve as reminders of where you planted what. Go ahead…preserve your garden memories!

Garden Overview
Garden Overview — Summer, 2019