Everyone has a story to tell, and businesses are no different. This is the story behind Pix & TALES. 

The story of us.

It begins in the late ’80s. It was a time of big hair, big sweaters, and big dreams. I had a big dream myself – becoming a mother. And in 1989, we made that dream a reality. 

Until this time, my photo taking efforts were random – a few snapshots here and there, and a sticky album with some high school shenanigans. As soon as Chelsey was born, however, we invested in a good film camera and a video cassette recorder. Before long, we were filling up boxes with printed photos and VCR tapes as we documented every smile and step.

Life changes quickly.

The year Chelsey turned two, my journey as a new mother took a sharp turn when I lost my mom to cancer. In the haze of grief that follows loss, I went looking through the box of old photos I had inherited. I was desperate for comfort and reassurance. 

The problem was, that without the stories behind the still frames, many of these photos were meaningless to me. I needed someone to tell me why everyone was laughing in one picture, and where everyone was in the next. What lake was that? Why was everyone in matching shirts?

Then a few years later, my Grandma, my Aunt and my Uncle passed away, too. 

The entire maternal side of my family was gone, along with the stories I had been so desperate to know. I was filled with anger and regret that I hadn’t asked them about the stories in my mom’s photos while I still had the chance to. 

My sadness deepened when I realized that I hadn’t taken many pictures of my mom after Chelsey was born. My husband and I had been so delighted with our sweet baby, and so intent on capturing every single milestone. That meant, however, that we often neglected to zoom out and capture the rest of the people in her life.

That moment of realization is the moment my story changed. 

I became deliberate about the photos I took, and the stories that went with them. 

I wrote everything down – dates, locations, people’s names. 

We zoomed out and captured all the bits and pieces of life, including important family members. 

And I vowed to create a family legacy of photos and stories for our kids to enjoy and pass along.

Eventually, I made a career out of helping people tell their family stories too.

 

Fast forward to today.

 

Chelsey is a brand new mom and a longtime lover of photos and stories. 

She gets it. She caught the bug! 

Her career over the past decade has included professional photography, graphic design, and writing. She takes a considerable interest in our family’s history and loves looking through our albums and photos. She’s even digging into our genealogy for a deeper understanding of our past and is finding herself genuinely interested in how the generations connect. 

Most importantly to her, she’s documenting Gideon’s life with purpose and intention. She’s creative about how she captures and records his life, knowing how important it’s going to be for him to be able to look back and understand his family’s history, just as she did. She’s even helping her wife and extended family discover the joy in their photos, too!

As I prepare to hand over our family collection, I am utterly confident that she’ll cherish them and pass them down to her kids. 

Mission accomplished!

 

The story behind Pix & TALES

Less than a week after Chelsey gave birth to Gideon, our story changed again. I was staying with Chelsey to lend an extra hand while she recovered from a c-section. 

Suddenly, without any notice, we no longer had jobs. 

The company Chelsey and I worked for abruptly decided to restructure and get rid of its entire staff. After the shock (and a considerable amount of panic!) wore off, we realized our former workplace had given us a gift. An opportunity to create and dream for ourselves again! 

After a mediocre night of sleep (life with a newborn, am I right?) and a day of baby-snuggling and brainstorming, our plan started to take shape.  

We took stock of our skills and passions and carefully began to narrow down what we wanted to do. I had over 20 years of experience in the photo organizing industry, and Chelsey had almost 5 years. At that moment, we decided to combine our skills and help busy families manage their pictures and cherished memories.

 

We hit the ground running.

 

Chelsey reached out to her community of new parents and friends, and she discovered a general lack of knowledge about how to look after their overwhelmingly large photo collections. Their camera rolls were bursting at the seams! 

Her generation feels very overwhelmed by their digital photo mess; on top of this, they have no idea how they’re going to add their parent’s pictures to the pile. The concept of inheriting their parent’s collections hadn’t even crossed their minds yet!

Meanwhile, I reached out to my community of baby boomer friends. They’re struggling with different challenges. 

Many are dealing with boxes of printed photos and piles of kids artwork they saved. They have digital photos on their computers, CDs and older technology. And of course, their collections contain outdated media and old home movies. 

With downsizing on their minds, they are eager to pass this stuff on to their kids. The problem is, they have no idea how to do this, and feel incredibly overwhelmed by it all.

They don’t want to hand over a mess! 

 

That’s when all the pieces came together.

 

We’ve been working and refining our family photo plan for years – as technology changed, so did we. As trends developed, we adapted. 

When they change again, in the years to come, we’ll navigate them with ease. We’ve prepared our photos and stories to move through time, giving us the ability to pass them successfully from one generation to the next. 

We created Pix & TALES so we can help families like yours, in a variety of ways. That’s the story behind Pix & TALES.

We’re ready to inspire two generations to pass their stories on to the next – are you ready to get started? 

Lisa

 

I’m the Founder & Managing Partner, otherwise known as Mom, in the mom + daughter team behind Pix & TALES.