Consider taking some of these of pictures to enhance your vacation/trip memories, as well as your photo albums or scrapbooks.

1)      Packing:  These are fun pictures to show how you and your family prepare for a trip.  Is it done the night before your flight and in a frenzy?  Consider taking a picture of all the clothes and suitcases on your bed?  What are the must-have items for your children?

 2)      Getting there: How did you arrive at your destination?  Automobile, Train, Airplane?  How long did it take?  Did your plans go as expected?  I have heard so many stories about getting to (or home from) a vacation but we often forget to take those pictures; the face of a tired child or of a frustrated family member.  In absence of photos, try jotting down the story once you are home so that the details are remembered.

 3)      Signs:  I love taking pictures of signs!  It helps me remember the names of places, jogs my memory of where we went, and helps me with my spelling.  Typically, I will take pictures of signs of hotels where we stay, signs and/or menus of restaurants where we ate and even some shots of the signs attached to the monument or statue telling its story. I have a friend who has a great collection of photos of interesting and funny street signs she’s encountered in her travels. 

4)      Every day stuff:  Did you have any R&R (rest & relaxation) on your trip?  Were you allowed to sleep in?  Did you enjoy coffee or cocktails each day?  Documenting your daily vacation life is as important to remembering the places you visited.   We take pictures of our house or room before we mess it up with all our stuff as well as early morning pictures of the resort, or our surroundings. 

5)      Going home – Maybe your clothes will go right into laundry when you get home so you threw it all in, unfolded and messy.    At the end of a long day at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, I saw a child asleep in her stroller.  It was the perfect picture to show how I felt.  

 We use our pictures to tell today’s stories – beginning, middle and end.   On your next vacation, or trip, remember to tell your ‘whole’ story and include some of the ideas above.

If I were a flower I would have a fresh, clean scent. I can’t describe what a flower scent is to me, but I know it when (and if) I can smell it. Inhaling such a scent seems to clear my head and fill it with calm and happiness.

If I were a flower I would grow all year round. I wake up by blooming during spring and summer. I might start to get drowsy in the fall while I look forward to sleeping cozy and warm during winter; getting ready for a new debut in the spring.

If I were a flower, I would help others. Providing food to flying insects and giving shelter or shade to those stuck in the dirt lets me feel fulfilled and accomplished.

If I were a flower, I would use limited resources from humans to survive. I would require a minimum of water; lots and lots of sun, and enjoy the shade.

If I were a flower, I might not like the cold but would learn to adapt to my surroundings.
If I were a flower, I know I would be pretty and make others happy.

Keep your most cherished printed albums near the door so you can ‘grab & go’ in the event of emergency evacuation.  This might be wedding or genealogy albums that are irreplaceable.  Of course, there are great scanning solutions that are inexpensive and well worth the effort to have an electronic version – just in case.

Having a USB drive that contains current family pictures is a great safety measure.  During a disaster, it will be important to show recent photos to aid in search & rescue, especially for children.  Many mobile phones have space for a memory card – consider taking pictures of your family right from your phone and save it to that card.   Remember though, the key is to have current day pictures so update them, at least quarterly, for growing children.

Backing up to CD or DVD and keeping them in a fire safe box might be considered common practice.  Be aware.  Paper burns at 400 degrees and standard fire safes are rated for 350.[i] CDs, DVDs, and photographs melt and become destroyed at around 150 degrees.[ii] Depending on the importance of your images, there are safes on the market that will accommodate you though they are more expensive than standard fire safes. You will want to know how long they can survive in the heat as well as their temperature rating.

CDs and DVDs also have a limited use and actually wear down in time; even the ones that are not re-writable typically become worn down after using them about 1,000 times. If you decide to back up to CD or DVD make sure you make extra copies and store them in a safe place away from heat. One copy to use and another to store may be a good idea.

As an alternative, there are external hard drives and servers at reasonable prices that can withstand fire for at least 30 minutes as well as flooding.   We are seeing the improvement of technology to help us keep our memories safe at a great price!  In addition, it is worth considering the use of an internet based back-up solution for the most important images…. Just in case.

Now the question to ask is manual vs. automatic back up?  Even though the manual backup may take longer, you have more assurance it is getting done.  Using a trusted, reliable automatic backup will be more efficient; however it is up to you to make sure you double check that it is doing the job well.  A blend of these options is your best solution to lessen the risk of potential loss.

Our computers are becoming the modern day shoebox for our photos and important memories. It is even more important today to make sure those memories last for future generations to enjoy.

About the authors:

Keith Erwood is the Owner and Principal of Continuity Corporation a risk management business, specializing in business continuity, disaster recovery and emergency preparedness for business. Keith has also authored numerous articles on preparedness issues and writes the disasterpreparednessblog.com, he regularly speaks on preparedness as well. Keith is currently the President of his local chapter of ACP (Association of Contingency Planners – International) and recently started BRRF.org

Karen has been scrapbooking since childhood.  She always put her pictures into albums.   She loves the social aspect of scrapbooking as well as being able to put her pictures into great looking albums.  In ten years, she has completed over 30 albums herself.  She considers her personal style to be quite simple.  However now that she has ‘gone digital’ she finds herself taking longer and getting more creative with her layouts.  She has been helping her clients keep up-to-date with their photos for over 6 years.   Since January, 2009 her clients have completed over 20 albums, hundreds of pages, and have maintained sanity in the effort of keeping their photos managed.  You can learn more about Karen at Photos Kept Alive.

[ii] Underwriters Laboratories. “Ten things you did not know about UL’s safe testing”  http://www.ul.com/global/eng/pages/corporate/newsroom/storyideas/urbansafetymyths/safes/ (16 Dec. 2009)

Gratitude is a key factor when in business; however why does it always have to be shown in the form of Thank You?  How much do you GIVE this time of year?

Do you have employees?  What are some ideas for giving to them?  Depending on your business and your employees needs you can give them extra paid time off to spend with their families or a gift card to the local market to help them with their holiday meal.  Better yet, ask each one how you can make this year’s Thanksgiving the best ever?  Listen to their answers and do your best to follow through – you may hear some simple requests that are easy to accomplish.

What about your customers?  How can you give to them?  For the rest of the year, make a genuine offer to help.  You can say something like, “Jim, what are you struggling with the most in your business right now?  I would love to see how I can help you overcome this”.  It may not even be related to your business but you may have knowledge, resources and/or referral partners who can really be of benefit.

How can you give back to your referral partners?  Have a similar conversation with them that you have with your customers.  How can you help them move their business forward from now until the end of the year?  What do they need to accomplish?  Offer to have a brainstorming session to help them get to those goals.

During these days of gratitude, I find fulfillment and pleasure when I know I have selflessly given to help others.   How can I help you?

Tip #1: Schedule time on your calendar. I know this seems too simple, but we schedule meetings, networking, babysitters, vacations, even workouts. If it is important enough, put it on the calendar. Consider working on your projects monthly or quarterly. Maybe this is your special time on Friday night or all day Saturday. Find a store, community center or a consultant in your neighborhood and sign up to attend their workshop(s).

Tip #2: Find a buddy. Scrapbookers seem to prefer to work in pairs or groups. I rarely hear about people completing their albums alone (though I do know a few who prefer doing it this way). In business, we call them ‘Mentors’ or ‘Accountability Partners’. The methodology is the same – having a partner to help you move forward on your project will keep you on track and help you in finishing those albums. At my workshops I often have several different groups of friends who attend together. They even compete with one another about how much they will get finished during the workshop!

Tip #3: Break projects into ‘bite-sized’ chunks. Create mini-projects out of a larger one in order to get it done through several shorter cropping sessions. Sally is great at this! She spends 15 to 20 minutes at a time finishing a part of her project. She may sort her pictures in one session, plan layouts by event in another, crop pictures from an event, and so on, until it is complete. Not only does she get a sense of accomplishment throughout the process, bus she also has albums to show off.

Tip #4: Consider going digital. You immediately save the time from having to print all the pictures you may (or may not) use in your project. There are a variety of software packages available that allow you to work on an album project right from your computer screen. Downloading paper, stickers and embellishments are easy to use over and over again! Denise just converted to digital and says she is finding that she is actually much more creative scrapbooking digitally.

By using one or more of these tips, you will start seeing progress on your photo projects.

To request your free digital scrapbooking software, go to http://karenfitting.wordpress.com/ Karen Siegel Fitting has been helping her clients keep up-to-date with their photos for over 5 years. Since January, 2009 her clients have completed over 10 albums, hundreds of pages, and have maintained sanity in the effort of keeping their photos managed.

Tip #1: Schedule time on your calendar. I know this seems too simple, but we schedule meetings, networking, babysitters, vacations, even workouts. If it is important enough, put it on the calendar. Consider working on your projects monthly or quarterly. Maybe this is your special time on Friday night or all day Saturday. Find a store, community center or a consultant in your neighborhood and sign up to attend their workshop(s).

Tip #2: Find a buddy. Scrapbookers seem to prefer to work in pairs or groups. I rarely hear about people completing their albums alone (though I do know a few who prefer doing it this way). In business, we call them ‘Mentors’ or ‘Accountability Partners’. The methodology is the same – having a partner to help you move forward on your project will keep you on track and help you in finishing those albums. At my workshops I often have several different groups of friends who attend together. They even compete with one another about how much they will get finished during the workshop!

Tip #3: Break projects into ‘bite-sized’ chunks. Create mini-projects out of a larger one in order to get it done through several shorter cropping sessions. Sally is great at this! She spends 15 to 20 minutes at a time finishing a part of her project. She may sort her pictures in one session, plan layouts by event in another, crop pictures from an event, and so on, until it is complete. Not only does she get a sense of accomplishment throughout the process, bus she also has albums to show off.

Tip #4: Consider going digital. You immediately save the time from having to print all the pictures you may (or may not) use in your project. There are a variety of software packages available that allow you to work on an album project right from your computer screen. Downloading paper, stickers and embellishments are easy to use over and over again! Denise just converted to digital and says she is finding that she is actually much more creative scrapbooking digitally.

By using one or more of these tips, you will start seeing progress on your photo projects.

To request your free digital scrapbooking software, go to http://ping.fm/wLnef Karen Siegel Fitting has been helping her clients keep up-to-date with their photos for over 5 years. Since January, 2009 her clients have completed over 10 albums, hundreds of pages, and have maintained sanity in the effort of keeping their photos managed.