Tag: cathi nelson

September is Save Your Photos Month

September is Save Your Photos Month

Every September, Photo Managers, photo retailers, software companies, and service providers collaborate in teaching people how to preserve life’s irreplaceable photos, videos, and documents.

Why do you take photos?

If you are wondering why this is important, ask yourself: Why do you take photos? How would you feel if you suddenly lost them? Can you easily find an image of your daughter’s first birthday or a picture from your high school graduation?

If you are like most people, your reason for taking photos is to remember your life’s everyday events. I always say we are a people of stories, and the way we tell the stories of our lives today is through photos. And when our pictures are an unorganized, chaotic mess, sharing those stories becomes a tough job.

What do you see?

What do you see when you look at this photo? An elderly woman?

I see the woman whom my family affectionately called Aunt Izzie, a German immigrant who came to the USA after World War II. She came here as an indentured servant, working for a family that was cruel to her. It took her four years to pay for her freedom. Only then was she able to marry my grandfather.

Listening to her stories of surviving the war—the hunger, the fear, the incomprehensible losses—impacted me deeply as a young child and likely contributed to my lifelong fascination with stories and photos. It is vital that my children, and someday their children’s children, know these stories and understand their family’s history.

I know most of your photos and stories aren’t about war heroes and tragic losses. Neither is mine. They are mostly a collection of ordinary moments of vacations, celebrations, love, and loss. But these moments are worth preserving too, as they form the threads in the colorful tapestry that is my family’s story.

I have made it my life’s mission to help people around the world preserve their most treasured memories. This is why I founded The Photo Managers: To educate others about the importance of preserving their photos and videos.

Over 40 Free Virtual Classes On Photo Preservation

We hold Save Your Photos events every year to help motivate you to save the photos and stories you care about. In the past years, we had in-person events, but this year, we are going all virtual due to the pandemic. We are thrilled to offer over 40 pre-recorded classes designed for a busy lifestyle. Every week, beginning on September 1, we will release the courses that apply to one of the five key photo organizing elements.

Register for your free pass and choose the classes that interest you. The free pass offers access to all of the classes. Click here to get your Save Your Photos Month Free Pass.

Classes are available through November 1st, 2020. We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Cathi Nelson, author of Photo Organizing Made Easy; Going from Overwhelmed to Overjoyed, is the leader of a global photo organizing movement. A cutting-edge entrepreneur and speaker, in 2009 she founded The Photo Managers, the leading organization serving entrepreneurs through training, a professional certification program, best practices, and a code of ethics that sets high standards for the rapidly growing photo management industry. She’s built a worldwide community and organization around supporting people in creating thriving businesses doing work they love. She’s been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Real Simple Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal about how to organize and preserve the legacy of your family heritage through photos.

appo photo organizers conference

Wine, Friendship, and Photo Organizing: What You Can Expect at the 7th National Photo Organizing Conference

Nixplay is in New Mexico to join one of our long-term partners, the Association of Personal Photo Organizers (APPO), in celebrating their Seventh National Photo Organizing Conference. We talked to APPO founder Cathi Nelson to give us some insights on how this event can open up opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs who are passionate about helping people tell their stories through photos and videos.

Please tell us about APPO.

Cathi Nelson: APPO is a professional organization that provides community, education, access to quality products, and entrepreneurial business knowledge to support the growth and success of professional photo organizers.

What can people expect for this year’s annual conference?

Cathi Nelson: APPO’s National Conference is the only educational conference for photo organizers in the world. The conference features dozens of small group and interactive learning workshops, led by an impressive collection of passionate experts and certified photo organizers. We cover all aspects of the art and business of photo organizing, with topics focused on photo organizing techniques, skill development, client management, pricing and profitability, and marketing and sales.

We’re excited to offer an educational lineup that meets the needs of today’s astute photo organizer. We proudly partner with top-quality sponsors and vendors, eager to support the growing field of photo organizing with a marketplace designed to showcase leading-edge products and services.

What has happened over the course of 10 years?

Cathi Nelson: Ten years ago, being a photo organizer was not a profession. Today, we have over 700 members in eight countries. We have been featured in countless news articles, podcasts, and blogs, including The New York Times, Better Homes and Gardens, The Wall Street Journal, and Real Simple. Our members have helped thousands of clients preserve their memories, especially after fires and floods.

How has Nixplay helped you achieve your goals as an organization?

Cathi Nelson: Nixplay is an amazing partner to photo organizers. They provide quality products and support the work of independent business owners. Nixplay frames offer photo organizers the option to return a client’s digitized collection to them in a unique way, giving all family members the joy of seeing photos from the past and connecting them with memories happening at the moment. Part of our mission as an organization is to connect our members with quality products to help them in their work, and Nixplay has been the perfect partner.

What are your future plans for APPO?

Cathi Nelson: We envision APPO to grow to thousands of professional photo organizers as the need for our services increases. APPO is built around the values of mutual support, shared success, and giving back. Cooperation, not competition, will help us grow into the future.

What’s your advice for Nixplay Smart Frame owners who might still be struggling to digitize and organize their photos?

Cathi Nelson: We have two resources for those who want to Do It Themselves. The first is my book, Photo Organizing Made Easy, available on Amazon.

We also just launched two online courses with great reviews, Printed Photo Organizing Made Easy and Digital Photo Organizing Made Easy, which you can purchase separately or as a bundle. The courses take you through the step by step process, developed by professional photo organizers.

Interested in the business and art of photo organizing? You can learn more about APPO by visiting www.appo.org or their Online Academy.

Cathi Nelson, author of Photo Organizing Made Easy; Going from Overwhelmed to Overjoyed, is the leader of a global photo organizing movement. A cutting-edge entrepreneur and speaker, in 2009 she founded The Photo Managers, the leading organization serving entrepreneurs through training, a professional certification program, best practices, and a code of ethics that sets high standards for the rapidly growing photo management industry. She’s built a worldwide community and organization around supporting people in creating thriving businesses doing work they love. She’s been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Real Simple Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal about how to organize and preserve the legacy of your family heritage through photos.

marianne-behler-mainimage

Meet A Photo Organizer: Marianne Behler of Lifetime Photo Solutions

We talked to Marianne Behler, the woman behind Michigan-based Lifetime Photo Solutions. Marianne’s in the business of helping people make sense of their photo collections, meticulously going through hundreds of images to determine which captured memories are worth keeping and preserving. In this exclusive interview, Marianne reveals how she became a photo organizer, shares some of her most notable projects, and gives some advice for folks who’d like to start organizing their own photos.

Marianne Behler

Marianne Behler

What made you decide to become a Photo Organizer?

I became a Photo Organizer and a member of the Association of Personal Photo Organizers (APPO) after reading about and immediately contacting Cathi Nelson, who started APPO in 2010. Coincidently people were asking me to organize their photos, digitize their photos, organize their digital photos, and create photo books for them. People love their children and their families; they love taking photos and sharing their stories. But they have no idea how to do it, combined with little time and a sense of urgency.

I converse with people about their photos, their life, and what they might wish to do with their photo collection—their vision. The client I best serve has a lifetime of photos, possibly even of their parents, grandparents, and generations beyond. They are in shoeboxes and bins, in no particular order. Some are in albums of all types, [some are in] old scrapbooks or newer scrapbooks that they now want to reduce in number. They have digital photos on cameras, phones, and other devices. They want something created for their children and grandchildren that will highlight the best of the best of their photos and the stories that make them special—their legacy.

 

organized photo scrapbook

A sample of Marianne’s work

First, I complete a photo assessment of their photo collection, taking pictures and making notes. I prepare a report which includes my recommendation for phases to complete their work—organizing and scanning printed photos is typically the first phase. And that is where a Nixplay frame comes in! Because the sorting, organizing and digitizing of a photo collection takes time, the immediate “I love this” and “I love what you are doing” comes from getting their pictures back into their lives, when they see them again. Imagine seeing their parent’s photos, their own childhood photos, pictures of the home where they once lived, images of their travels, and school photos, all coming back into their lives after not seeing them for years. What a thrill!

Can you tell us about the most fulfilling project you’ve managed?

This is a hard story to tell. It is the story of John McAuliffe, a man who wanted to have his story told. Initially, we were going to tell his story and his wife’s separately, but his wife died. We then revisited the idea of John telling his own story. Unfortunately, John’s Parkinson’s disease had greatly diminished his ability to both remember and communicate. Each time I visited John, his story got bigger and longer. There were more and more pictures and memorabilia to sort through.

Finally, I enlisted the help of his family. And, his story became the story of John and his wife Annetta—both their families had immigrated to America and they had beautiful stories to tell. The long and short of it was that John lived “just” long enough to receive a copy of his book, with the pictures and stories of his life! He and his sons each received a copy of his book, and they also ordered 50 smaller copies for other family and friends. John died just three weeks after, and his life and story were proclaimed by the priest at his funeral because of his book. He truly left a legacy of their lives for his children, grandchildren, and the friends who knew him. Their family stories are being featured in Jackson, Michigan, in a gallery talk on immigration to America. They are using the book and pictures from the book for the gallery talk.

 

Marianne and her client, John McAuliffe

Marianne and her client, John McAuliffe

How has Nixplay helped your job as a legacy keeper?

Nixplay offers me a way to help get my clients’ photos back into their lives! Because a story of a lifetime takes time to curate and tell, Nixplay offers my clients a way to relive their lives immediately. The new stories being told can also be easily combined with my clients’ legacies because of the present-day technology offered by Nixplay. Our children, our grandchildren, and their daily lives and accomplishments can all meld into their Nixplay digital frame from anywhere and everywhere.

 

organized photo scrapbook

More of Marianne’s work

What advice can you give to our readers who’d like to start organizing their own photo collection?

Hire a photo organizer and purchase a Nixplay digital frame that your photo organizer can manage. Have your photo organizer import both your newly organized and digitized photos onto your Nixplay frame, and have your children and grandchildren add photos to your playlists so you can see and be part of their daily lives. This would be an awesome Christmas or holiday present for all the grandparents and parents on your list! The gifts that are so well appreciated are usually those that elicit memories, and a Nixplay frame can achieve just that.

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