This photo was taken just a few months after Hurricane Ian devastated Southwest Florida. I spent months helping people salvage and restore their flood damaged photographs. That work had my mug splashed all over the news, flown to LA and NYC to talk on national television about the joy that work had brought so many people. And while it did bring joy, it wasn’t exactly all that rosy of a story. Here is the truth….
For months after Hurricane Ian, talking to flood victims was part of my daily routine. And while chatting up the wins on the news had also become a regular thing, what was neglected in those interviews was how many people had pictures that just couldn’t be saved. The remains of thousands of personal photographs were thrown in the trash. At one point I was actually spending just as much time consoling people as they coped with that loss as I was actually working on saveable images. It was heavy, it was sad, it was heartbreaking….. It was also preventable.
So while I was on the news, talking about the wins (and the wins were great) there was something else always in the back of my head.
“How can I encourage people to proactively secure their print pictures and prevent this?”
Now I focus on THAT mission daily. It isn’t that hard to get print photographs digitized. Even the least tech-savvy person can do it.
In addition to talking about photo organizing and offering encouragement and motivation for everyone to start that project, I am taking it a step further. I am offering an in person photo organizing workshop where everyone can bring the old pictures, shoe boxes, albums, random collections of prints and we are going to work together to digitize all of them!
I’m going to teach techniques to make sure that phone pictures and old print pictures can neatly live in one organized place. Every person will leave with the tools needed to keep all of their pictures organized going forward.
If you are ready to get your photo mess organized and want a little help getting that done, I want you to join me for this workshop. It is going to be fun, welcoming and appropriate for any tech skill level. Check it out and I hope to see you there!
use code PHOTO to get $100 off! Available for a limited time!
If you have questions and want to talk more about how you could benefit from this workshop I would love to chat. I’m happy to answer questions via email [email protected] or set up a time to talk by phone.