Let’s Tell Your Life Story and Preserve Your Family Photos and Other Important Memories

My mission as a photo coach is to:

1. help you tell your life story through your family’s media that you gather from the past, what you take in the present, and what you’ll take in the future;
2. Protect your family’s story so future generations a century from now and longer will be able to discover their rich history and appreciate their heritage.

I’ve been a photo coach since 1995 and I’ve had the joy of enriching many families’ lives. That makes it satisfying to observe my 30^th anniversary coming up in March 2025.

Let’s touch on some basics of telling your life story and protecting your most meaningful memories.

Where are the Files with Your Family’s Story?

A lot of families have memories that are boxed up and stored in garages, closets, on shelves, and in storage units. But we often don’t know what specific memories we have out away except they’re family photos, home movies, audio tapes, slide shows, and more.

A benefit of telling your family story means you’ll be able to declutter and untangle the assorted boxes.

Telling Your Life Story

Did you ever take a journalism class or remember some of what you learned in high school English?

There are key questions I’ve always used as a photo coach and this is how I’ve helped clients.

The 5 Key Questions

• Who – is in the picture, video, or other type of memory
• What – are they doing? On vacation, cleaning house, celebrating?
• Where – are they and does the Where have special significance?
• Why – is this photo, video or other file important?
• When – was it taken?

You can use these questions to take any of your memories and write brief notes or tell a more richly detailed story.

Studies show the positive impact of sharing family stories. The University of Nevada, Reno, states:

“Family storytelling instills great communication skills and a love of reading. Listening to stories is also beneficial in learning story structure, vocabulary and comprehension, as well as stimulating children’s creativity and imagination.” (link to the article at the end of this post).

Let’s organize your files

If you’ve got older printed photos, VHS videos, and you’re overwhelmed by the sheer number of newer files on your smartphone let’s make organizing simple.

Focus on two questions.

Find the Who

Whose stories do you need to tell? Your own, your kids, your parents and their parents?

Your life is made up of people like family and close friends so build your life story around them.

Why they’re important

Find the photos and other files that grip your emotions. These are often the most important ones to save.

Don’t try and save everything.

If you’re on the fence about keeping something or discarding it ask “why” it’s important. What does that moment represent and will it be important to a grandchild or great-grandchild looking at the picture several decades from now.

Use the questions above to find the ones that grip your emotions. These are often the most important ones to save.

Now let’s look at How we’re going to protect your files.

Protecting Your Life Story

I use the services of FOREVER®, the most complete memory-preservation system available.

Here’s what FOREVER® makes possible:

• Digitizing older hard copy files
• Storing them in digital albums
• Printing themed photo books and gifts from your digitized files
• Researching your family’s history using professional genealogists for a consultation or getting help uncovering hard-to-locate records from the 20^th century and earlier.

FOREVER® is permanent storage and the best way that I’ve found to protect your files.

Here’s why.

FOREVER® is designed to last for a lifetime plus 100 years and with the goal of beyond that. Files are triple-backed up, secure, and will migrate our files that become obsolete to newer file formats thanks to the FOREVER® Guarantee Fund.

You own the digital rights to your content.

This means the Terms of Service are in your favor, and you can’t be locked out of your account, have your files deleted or used in data mining and related marketing activities.

Your files aren’t compressed. They’re stored in the original size.

Do you share a love for family stories?

Your family photos and memories belong to you, but you might get a lot of encouragement from others who share your same interests and passions.

They can understand how important it is to preserve your stories, and you can learn from each other about organizing and using your digital files. Illustrate your family tree with photos and videos and describe your files using the space that FOREVER® provides.

I’ll be glad to share all the ways that you can have fun with decluttering and organizing.

Check my Events page on my website for several upcoming Classes and Photo Circles in Southern California in early October plus Virtual Opportunities.

 Someone is hosting and inviting a few others. I’ll teach them best practices and they can work on their own in the future or consult with me as needed.

My permanent residence is in La Quinta (the Palm Springs area) and I live temporarily in Los Angeles, but thanks to the internet I can help groups anywhere in the world.

The idea is like Friends Don’t Let Friends Lose Photos.

Can I Help You Tell Your Family Story?

Your family story is unique and is worth safeguarding for future generations to learn from.

Contact me and I’ll help you declutter, digitize, and preserve your most meaningful memories.

Want to read more?

University of Nevada, Reno “Family Storytelling and the Benefits for Children.”