June 12, 2024 • 37 mins
Today we are talking about an issue that seems everywhere. It seems like a hassle for everyone -managing our digital footprint. We are talking about the thousands of pictures, videos we take, the forwards we receive via social media and instant messaging. So digital decluttering is not just about organizing our own digital assets but also about being responsible and environmentally conscious about our behavior.
In this episode, we host Kiera Liu, a sentimental memory maker, professional photographer, and visual storyteller behind Frame of Life. As a Wayland mama of two, she is on a heartfelt mission to make memories magical, photo and video collections manageable, and stories memorable for generations to come.
Episode Sponsor: Harmoney Bookkeeping Company, Wayland, Mass
Links and Resources:
- Frame of Life Website
- Kiera’s Podcast
- Women Of Wayland Website
- Podcast Instagram
Join us in this heartfelt episode as Kiera Liu shares her journey, philosophy, and practical tips for managing memories. Her candid approach and simplified systems are perfect for all of us looking to preserve their precious moments.
Tune in to this inspiring episode and discover how to embrace the magic in your everyday moments with Kiera Liu.
In this episode, we host Kiera Liu, a sentimental memory maker, professional photographer, and visual storyteller behind Frame of Life. As a Wayland mama of two, she is on a heartfelt mission to make memories magical, photo and video collections manageable, and stories memorable for generations to come.
Episode Sponsor: Harmoney Bookkeeping Company, Wayland, Mass
Links and Resources:
- Frame of Life Website
- Kiera’s Podcast
- Women Of Wayland Website
- Podcast Instagram
Join us in this heartfelt episode as Kiera Liu shares her journey, philosophy, and practical tips for managing memories. Her candid approach and simplified systems are perfect for all of us looking to preserve their precious moments.
Tune in to this inspiring episode and discover how to embrace the magic in your everyday moments with Kiera Liu.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
This episode is brought to you byHarmony bookkeeping company Vhaland today we are talking
about an issue that seems everywhere.It seems like a hassle for everyone.
I'm talking about managing our digital footprint. I'm talking about thousands of pictures,
videos, we take, the forwardswe receive via social media and instant messaging.
(00:26):
This is actually more than just ahassle. The amount of data created
annually was forty ztabytes in twenty twenty. It is estimated to reach one eighty
ztabytes by twenty twenty five. Samewith AI running on top of our data.
Open aisgpt for used an estimated seventyeight million dollars worth of compute to
(00:51):
train, while Google's Gemini Ultra costsone hundred and ninety one million dollars for
compute. Using a chat bots everysingle time also has a cost. So
digital dick cluttering is not just aboutorganizing our digital assets, but also about
being responsible and environmentally conscious about ourbehavior. Kierra is wait, let me
(01:19):
make you listen to this audio clipfirst. And I was looking back to
try to describe who I am,and I have had distinct moments in life
where I remember just trying to writemy bio like I am Hi, I'm
Kira, who am I? AndI have recording some of me back in
the day pushing my baby through theSouth end of the city, like saying
I'm Kira, who am I?And trying to understand how all of the
(01:45):
series of events brings me to whereI am. There's been so many different
cycles. I've been the lawyer,I've been a photographer, I've been a
stay at home mom. I've hada baby in a pandemic, Like where
does all this come together? Kieraua sentimental memory maker, pro photographer,
and a visual storyteller. Now she'ssomeone who simplifies your life with this digital
(02:09):
overwhelm. She's a wail and mamaof too on a mission to make memories
magical, photo and video collections manageable, and stories memorable for generations to come.
She also hosts a podcast and youwould find such amazing nuggets and workshops
that she teaches to inspire family tosimplify this memory keeping process. Often sleep
(02:34):
deprived and found giggling her way throughlife, Kiera helps her client ditch the
perfection, embrace the chaos, findthe magic in the mundane. And focus
on those moments that matter most.We have an awesome, lively, lovely
woman in this studio today, Kierra. I love having you here too.
(02:58):
It's so hard not to just startgiggle looking at you. I'm very excited.
Yeah, so let me begin withyour introduction. Of course I've told
the audience about you now, butcriminal defense attorney, Oh my god,
I cannot put that face on you. I know me either, Like what
happened there, well, the marketin two thousand and eight crash. When
(03:23):
I graduated law school, which wasa really freaky time in life. I
always wanted to be some sort oflitigator. I thought it was going to
go become a prosecutor, and thendidn't get that job. So I ended
up in criminal defense, which isthe other side of prosecution. The transition
from being a criminal defense attorney tomemory keeper and photographer. I want to
(03:46):
talk about a transition from being thatto this. Yeah, so I can
thank my mom for this. Mymom didn't graduate college, she didn't go
to college. She barely got throughhigh school and had me at twenty years
old, and I basically grew upwith her, and she didn't know how
to advise me when I got tothe point of me going to pick a
(04:09):
college and what I wanted to doin my future, and her advice to
me was to always follow what wasin my heart and what lit me up.
And at the time, you're eighteenyears old and everyone else is going
out to college, and I'm like, what lights me up? I love
sunsets and I love beautiful pictures andmaking people happy, but I also want
to help the world in some deeperway. And when I was six years
(04:32):
old, I was adopted and Ihad my first experience in the courts then
when I was with a judge,and it was the judge bringing us together
as a family, and it wasreally monumental to my life where I wanted
to then bring other families together.So at eighteen years old, I thought,
hey, like maybe I could bea lawyer bring families together, but
(04:55):
also be a photographer and take beautifulsunset pictures. Absolutely, Kianna, you
have an entrepreneurial spirit. And Isay that because you came up with this
brilliant idea of frame of life projectand you were solving a problem. And
I remember many you know, womenand moms on the Facebook group we're writing
(05:15):
about it overwhelmed with thousands of pictures. But here you were, you were
bringing this idea frame of life project, and there was a problem and people
were talking about it. When didyou see it as a problem, Because
yes, you were connecting your journeyof capturing moments and bringing happiness into life
as a photographer. How did youjoin that added it to the problem that
(05:40):
people were facing with tons of picturesaround. Yeah, so there's nowadays in
this world, I feel like everyone'sjumping on the bandwagon. Help you ditch
the overwhelm with your camerale and like, curate your collections, make it easy.
But what I was finding is withthese systems, they're not really getting
to the heart of the issue.The issue is we have too many pictures.
(06:01):
And I started to realize really quicklythat you have to be on top
of either going through and calling throughall your pictures on a daily basis,
or you have to get more entireyou have to get you have to get
more intentional with what photos you're actuallycapturing. So every night I've gotten in
the habit of going through and hidingthe ones I love and then zooming out
(06:24):
and deleting all the rest, andI don't get caught in the trap of
looking back and forth between each individualpicture too long, and that way,
when I go back and look atmy camera, all I see is my
favorites. Oh wow, Kira,I have been listening to your podcast and
it's it's a delight to listen to. First of all. Second, I
really wanted to ask you about thisepisode where you talk about vacation pictures.
(06:47):
So you know, when you takethousands of pictures on a vacation, how
do you decide which ones to keepand which ones to let goal? Yeah?
Any when was the last time youmade an album, like a physical
printed album of your photos? Oh, my goodness, my vetting album.
I think we Oh, I'm proudof you. Not a lot of people
have that even then. So thatwasn't to put you fully in the hot
(07:09):
seat, but it's to give mean idea of But when you get it,
I know you have all redesigned yourvetting album or something. I designed
it. Yeah, it took mefive years. I never paid for one
in the beginning, and it tookme five years to even get one.
And I'm a pro photographer. Soit happens like we all live with the
best intentions to print our photos,but we don't get around to it.
(07:29):
So what I'm trying to teach peopleis to really be intentional when you're taking
the pictures and when you're on vacationthinking about what you would want to print.
Instead of taking nine thousand pictures throughoutthe whole day and being focused on
your camera and on your phone,live in the moment and just know that
you need to get a couple scenesetting photos of the day, like where
are you staying, Like say we'regoing on vacation to the cape, Like
(07:53):
what house are you staying? Andwhat beaches do you go to? What
restaurant did you love? Was therea favorite activity that you did? And
just take when you're at in thosemoments, take one or two pictures,
and when you feel like you gottaget out, don't keep trying, and
give yourself permission to lean in andlive in the moments instead of being so
focused on getting seventy five thousand picturesbecause you don't need it and it'll make
(08:15):
it easier later. It took mea long time to realize that how do
you approach capturing moments in a waythat truly encapsulates their essence? Oh that's
a good Questionnaity. So if we'relooking at capturing moments with my kids,
for example, I'm I'm always carryingmy phone. It's always around, as
much as i'd like to not tosay, I like have it tucked away,
(08:37):
and I'm always zoned in on athe moment. But my camera is
in a very powerful tool and it'sin my phone and it's always with me,
So I use that to my advantage. I like to shoot video more
often than taking photos, and oftentimesI'll even steal screenshots out of video,
so that can sometimes with moving kids, really capture the essence of the moment
(08:58):
a lot more and I feel likeit's breathing life into the moments that are
happening. So I'll just take afive second clip showing the light coming through
the trees of on my kids' facesas they're playing with their cars or riding
their bike on the driveway, andit brings that moment so much more to
life than just a photo. Andthat's not to diminish photos, because I
(09:20):
really love them still so much so, and it's like I try to take
a little bit of both. SoI just focus on what's around me and
my senses, like, I feelit in all of the senses, like
what can I see? What canI hear? What can I smell?
What can I feel? What canI touch? And I try to take
that as a moment of grounding,to bring me into that present moment and
(09:41):
notice like the magic that's happening,because when you put all those five senses
together, you can see some reallycool things. Absolutely. Kan there any
tools and software that you use toorganize. There's a few tools out there
right now. There's slide box,which is an app that you can connect
with your camera roll. You canslide through and say, like kind of
(10:01):
like Tinder for your camera really slidebox that that sounds interesting. Yeah,
So you can slide back and forthlike swipe left delete and slide right is
to keep, and you can kindof categorize your pictures quicker that way.
And there's another app called good Onesthat's similar. I've tried it. I
haven't quite figured out how it's workingyet, and I'm like, I don't
(10:24):
know. I just find it easierto use my camera roll, use the
hearts and delete the rest, andthen what I call that is my daily
delights. So at the end,all I'm seeing are images that I've hearted
that I find to be my favoritesof the time, and now my camera
roll becomes this living real of thehighlights of my life and the moments that
I want to remember already without havingto do much more. Coming back to
(10:45):
your Fame of Life project, Iwant to understand the overwhelmed that the data
storage, Like you're paying for datastorage these days. There was a time
one they had just daughted and theywould give you the five hundred andbs and
one gigabyte or free storage, andthen there game phones which you will have
like in built storage. What hasbeen your experience with this and what is
(11:09):
the most efficient way of backing upthe pictures and the moments. Yeah,
so I'm I'm basically still in alittle bit of triage mode right now.
So in life, I'm finding thatthere is no perfect solution with the way
the clouds are working. You can'tjust trust one. I wish you could,
like at this point, if you'veever experienced, which I have a
(11:33):
loss of data, so like ifsomeone took your phone, say your phone's
gone and you lose that completely.If you're not paying for iCloud storage or
Google photos. Those images are notgetting backed up anywhere. So once your
phone is lost and gone, youhave no more images. Yeah. So
if you put them into Google andyou stop paying, or you run out
of storage and you don't re upto keep paying, and you're not keeping
(11:54):
on track with deleting your other photosso that they're cleaning up the drive and
you're maintained space, you're not goingto be backing up all of your images.
So I've found it right now inlife. It's stinks, but I'm
paying for Multiple I'm paying for iCloud, I'm paying for Google, I'm paying
for drop Box. It's like allover the place. But I don't trust
the system right now, and Ihaven't had the time to fully gut everything.
(12:18):
I've worked on backing up all ofmy photos to one hub, trying
to think maybe using Amazon and bethe better way. They offer free photo
storage right now, so you canunlimited photos like you're Prime members. Yeah,
so you can load unlimited photos toAmazon Videos. It's capped at fifteen
gigabytes, but you can update thatand I have. But I thought maybe
(12:43):
I'll get them all off of Dropbox, all off of Google, all off
of iCloud, and put them intoAmazon, and then I can eliminate paying
the cost on all of those places. But unfortunately, what I learned is
that when you export from Google,they come in a million different folders in
a ZIP five. They're not bydate, They're not like they'll be from
(13:03):
different years, different months, alllumped into one. And then they have
all these extra files that have themetadata attached to it that are not necessarily
right next to it. So sortingand organizing your backup that you thought you
had because you had the cloud becomesa complete mass. And I'm just realizing,
really facett like, you need tohave it in multiple sources so that
(13:24):
you can get it in the emergencyuntil you have the time to really hone
in on what you're saving. Iagree because I totally rely on Google Photos
to store everything, and I neveronce taught that a cloud storage can go
wrong? Is there a possibility offof going wrong? They are all backed
(13:46):
up, they say, like amillion times, But the cloud is actually
a real place. And what I'mlike starting to research into I just have
I have an article saved on mycomputer right now to read that I haven't
gotten to yet. But it's aboutthe environmental impact that digital data is having
on the world because clouds are real, like they are server warehouses out in
(14:07):
Utah and western parts of the country. There are other I'm sure they're located
at other places. It's fascinating,but they're like they're like solar fields but
not. They're just big warehouses generatingheat with all this data that's storing all
of these images, and we're creatinga problem for the future. And these
are just us keeping the fifty thousandselfies you took over yourself that you didn't
(14:31):
even like because your eyes were blinking, or your husband took them from too
or the screenshots are taking that younever go back to. So my mission
now is to really teach people tostart capturing and focusing on keeping and backing
up the ones that matter to you, not the other stuff. I didn't
know. That's fascinating that you knowthere's a storage, like a physical storage
(14:52):
for the cloud. More on memorykeeping after we talk about the bookkeeping business
is that helped us get this episodeout? Today we are featuring Harmony,
bookkeeping company founded by Debbie Vote.Debbie's journey began with a passion for organization
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E. Y Books books dot com. But you were talking about the you
(16:52):
know you're not sure about the backingup processes and apps. How do you
ensure the longevity of these digital fileSo the trick to that is that you
have to back up every year.It never ends. It's like laundry.
So I'm starting to realize even laundry, like I've always I feel like it's
a great analogy because I'm always tryingto get on top of the laundry,
like get caught up, but thesecond you're done folding, there's more laundry.
(17:17):
And it's the same with your pictures. You're always going to be taking
pictures. So it's something that youhave to be aware of that this is
an ongoing thing and it's something thatyou need to invest the time and the
energy into. And depending on yourtime of life, you might have to
pay a little bit more for cloudstorage right now so that everything's there for
the time that you can actually goback and fix it. And I truly
(17:38):
recommend that everyone backs up their photosfrom the cloud onto an external hard drive
so that they physically have the copyof the photos. That means something to
see. So hard drive is important. The external hard yeah, like not
just the one on your computer.One you can unplug. They are good
for about five years, so everyfive years you need to be recycling those,
and people don't realize that it's notthat you have to get rid of
(18:00):
it, but they are known tofail a lot more quickly after five years.
So I like to make sure todownload from Google. I will go
and get my favorites since I'm doingit in Apple. If I make the
hearts, it's going into Google Photosas my favorites. I'll export those and
make sure that those are on myhard drive as at least I have my
favorites right, you know, soI'm not getting all the screenshots and stuff.
(18:23):
You can go quickly and delete those. Inside Google there's and inside Apple
Photos you can look scroll down toyour albums and you can sort by blurry
photos, by screenshots, by duplicates. They're doing now, so there's ways
to really start chunking out a lotof the waste really quickly and then focusing
on using your keywords, leaning intothat AI to find the pictures that matter,
(18:45):
putting them into your own albums thatyou can find quickly, and just
really focusing on your pictures that way. I want to know about the AI
affecting the storage effect organizing, becausewhat you are trying to help people with
is compiling, organizing, keeping trackof your pictures that you take every day.
(19:08):
But with Google Photos, I've realizedthat the AI AI is everywhere is
in built in Canawa and Google Pictures, and I'm sure on I'm not an
iPhone user, but I do havelaptops. So my question to you is,
how do you see the future ofAI with photography, with organizing stuff,
(19:29):
because I feel like it's actually makingthings easier. They compile it in
an album. They ask you abouta certain which is scary actually creepy.
When they ask you who this personis, can you name it? And
then they pull out all the picturesdepending on what you write, like I
had my mom's name written as momand then the next thing I know is
(19:52):
there is an album that shows thenext thing, and then they have before
and after thing too, like intwenty sixteen, I held my bab be
in my arms and twenty three itshows a seven I'm holding my seven year
old. Listen, how is itreading that way? How is it comparing
to pictures us before and after?It's trained to watch faces and the facial
(20:14):
structure as you grow and change throughoutthe years, and we're helping AI by
tagging things and letting them know,Hey, no, no, that's not
my mom, that's actually me.Great, I look like my mom.
It's starting, but also like it'shelping you quickly find pictures. So I'm
leaning into AI because I think AIis going to help us who are completely
(20:34):
overwhelmed by the sizes of our photocollections and not able to get the pictures
quickly when we need them. Wecan use services like Google and our app,
Apple Photos. They have already builtin. You can search frog and
it might show you pictures of pondsor a frog that you've already taken a
picture of. Really random. Yes, thank you for mentioning it. So
(20:55):
it's not just the ones that youput in for the face. But I'm
starting to use that as my wayto quickly find picture. I mean,
it's still thousands, but it helpsto sort through them because I think it's
really helpful for people to search.Like, if you are looking for a
picture of you from a certain time, you can search a location of where
you were if your location's on taggedon. I don't like to have my
(21:15):
location on often, but you cansearch monuments so if you're not, if
you don't have location services tied toyour pictures, you can search like a
beach and you can It'll pull upall these pictures of beaches and then you
could find the picture quicker from whereyou were if that was what you're looking
for. Yeah. My surprise waswhen I dived in Sadi as an ethnic
(21:37):
Yeah, and it pulls out allthe pictures of me in a sari or
mom in a sardi. Everyone,I'm like, what that piece. It's
also reading, so Google is reallygetting better with language and corporation in a
certain keywords. That's interesting. Yeah, it's not just English, it's it's
picking up Hindi and Arabic and allall of those. So that was my
(21:59):
AHA moment. Yeah, I mean, and it's going to pop up the
memories that pop up when you're like, why is it showing me that today,
Like, it's listening to you,it's watching your search terms. It
kind of sucks, but there's sometimesways to lean into it that might make
your life a little bit easier.Truly. I want to quickly move on
to the legacy the workshop that youwere talking about. Number one, how
(22:21):
do we digitize the old picture blackand white, and how do we actually
take care of them so they lastnext one hundred years. That's an awesome
question. So what I've learned isthat photos that are printed are going to
last much longer than anything digital thatwe have, really and it's really upsetting.
(22:41):
So I'm encouraging people to still printtheir pictures because if you think about
it, you have photos that haveprobably traveled from India across the world and
gotten here that were taken many decadesago and they're still fine. And can
you find your pictures from two thousandand two, like if you actually think
about the reality of what the differenceis between how small photos were digitally back
(23:06):
in the day versus like if youhave just a physical photo. But there's
some tangible things we need to beaware of. Photos that are put in
those sticky photo albums are placed onacid based paper that are just eating your
photos and making them deteriorate quickly.We all have them. I have got
tons of them at home. Sothe number one thing you need to do
right now is get those things outof the sticky paper as fast as you
(23:27):
can, and using a hair dryeron low setting is the easiest way to
get that glue to separate, andit'll they'll just start peeling up because they're
pretty stuck. So getting them offof that and into something that is non
acid that can protect your paper yourimages that are printed for longer is great.
(23:48):
But the first step I always dobefore I start taking them out is
I do try to digitize them usingmy phone. I got another handy app.
It's called Photomine, and you canI have a lifetime access to I
think I've paid a couple hundred dollarsjust to have it forever. But you
can take an image and use yourcamera to scan it and it crops it,
(24:08):
It automatically enhances it. It canmake a black and white photo color,
it can make photo like it cancorrect any tears in it, and
it just is a quick way toget a quick scan of that physical image
and save it digitally. You canput them into albums right away as you
take them, which is a greatway to help organize as you go.
And a lot of times those imagesthat you're scanning are the ones that are
(24:30):
meaningful to you. There's a reasonwhy you want that picture saved. So
you're already starting to curate your collectiona little bit more. There's there are
printers that you can buy, Ithink ones in my Amazon cart so it's
coming soon. But you can scanmultiple pictures fast and have those digitized that
way. I always keep the originalsof the ones that mean the most.
(24:52):
But if there's duplicates, if there'slike like sunset pictures are I'm a like.
I love sunset like so much.That's why I started becoming a photographer.
But I've very rarely found a sunsetpicture I left like, they're never
as beautiful as they are in reallife, and they're often just you flip
through them. You're like, cool, cool, cool, I don't need
to see it. You don't needto see ninety percent of the concert photos
(25:14):
you take. Oh my god,oh my god, that is annoying.
So those can go their baggage,get rid of them, just throw them
out. They don't that's be veryvery important. Yeah, So just start
focusing on the ones that mean themost. Get them scanned, even if
it's just on your phone, andget them out of something that's going to
be eating them up, and youcan put them in just a paper envelope.
(25:36):
They make archival quality ones. Ihave a whole podcast, so we
could think about that that goes.I talk to a preservationist from the Smithsonian
who like walked through how to takecare of your heirlooms, and it was
mind blowing to me, Like VHSis they're dead, They're like twenty five
years is their lifeline? Like howlong they were designed to live? And
(25:56):
nobody recorded a VHS like less fiveyears ago. Now, it's crazy how
fast time is gone. So thosethings are like there's some key high priority
items that need to be digitized nowand you got to just keep track of
what matters most and focus on gettingthose in your hunting peck journey and Kiara,
that is so important. Thank you. These are such amazing informative tips.
(26:18):
So tell me about your legacy workshop, Alder that you've created a little
bit. I don't want you togive away everything because I want people to
go follow you, go learn fromyou and be your client. But how
would you describe that? What haveyou done in that? Yeah? So
I have a workbook I've put togetherthat's called Carrie Your Legacy, where you
(26:38):
can go through and start framing yourvision for what you want to leave behind,
and you can also use it totake notes on someone you loved that
has passed and keep track of thedetails about them and have it in one
special spot so that you're not isit just for pictures or is it the
writings. It's for both so youcan add. It has prompts in there
(27:00):
and space for where you can typein. It's a phillble PDF and it's
also a Canva doc that you canload into Canva and type in and add
pictures as you go. But it'sa place where you can just start organizing
your thoughts, getting like the goingto the heart of like what is your
why for doing this? What isyour goal? What is the legacy you
hope to leave. What images wouldsupport that? We talk about inside that
(27:23):
work, we talk about the pivotpoints in your life, like those key
eras because I had to make itsound cool, like like Taylor Swift and
Me came together. But it's thekey eras of your life where you look
at those big pivotal moments and arethere pictures of you at those times?
And there are, Like I havepictures of me the day I was getting
adopted and the day I went tophoto school and my class there was only
(27:47):
nine of us, and there's apicture of us there, and then it's
looking at when I got sworn intothe New Hampshire Bar, and like looking
at these big moments, there areimages that bring you right back to it.
But if my kids, like fiftyyears from now, are going through
these pictures, they won't have anycontacts and they won't know about it.
So this workbook is designed to getyou thinking about those moments, finding those
(28:07):
images and putting them together so thatthey're all in one spot. I don't
know, so which brings me tothe question that you have a particular memory
or photograph that's really close to yourheart. So this is like hard to
tell. I have so many thatmean so much to me. It's so
talented. The most recent one isjust one I saw recently. Was it
(28:30):
brought together the reality of everything.So there's a picture of my grandfather's dog
on the steps of his fraternity Andhe had told me a story about him
having a dog in college that wouldfollow him everywhere and became a fraternity brother.
And I didn't believe him, andI found a picture and the dog
is framed in the whole fraternity AtLehigh University, there's a picture of the
(28:52):
dog. He's an honorary fraternity brother. I didn't believe him, And now
I found a picture. There's anewspaper clipping about it too, my god,
and I was like, he's notkidding, He's not kidding, and
it's amazing to see, Like it'sdefinitely not anything I ever took, but
it was. It just is oneof those examples of like the full circle
of what these images can do.Oh my god, that that must be
(29:14):
hilarious to look at. So tome as a podcaster, all my degrees
made sense. Eventually never made senseto me. I'm an engineer in the
NBA and all of these degrees andmoney wasted. I thought it miss a
waste of money. What am Ieven doing? I'm not making money.
I've reinvented my career. So myquestion, too, is what helped you
(29:37):
become the photographer you are today orthe person you are today. It's amazing.
I mean I had the same thoughtwhen I graduated law school and I
had two hundred thousand dollars in debt, and I was like, what am
I doing right now? So itdidn't make sense at the time, And
I've learned that sometimes you have tojust ride the waves and be in the
moments that you are and realize thatthat we as women are incredible. Like
(30:03):
I'm blown away to know that youhave an MBA and are an engineer.
I'm not shocked because I look atour setup here. I know, thank
you, thank you, you bringeveryone together. But what I've learned is
like these skills along the way havelot have taught me how to grow a
business, how to talk to anybody. I had confidence to start my photography
business because I knew how to takea beautiful picture. I didn't have to
(30:26):
learn it, it was something thatwas already there. I knew how to
write the contracts for the big brandingdeals that I would do working with companies.
I knew how to get creative whenit needed to make an advertising reel
for myself because I practiced advertising photographywhen I was in school. Like,
it all just kind of pulled together. And when I became a stay at
home mom, I had to buildmy own village. And when I became
(30:48):
a pandemic mom, I had toconnect to family all over the world.
When I had a new baby andI was stuck at home with my toddler
and the world took down and Ihad to learn he was born in April
and it was I remember that wasmy first real experience with the women of
Waleen podcasting. Such an incredible timetoo. You took us through the That
was a fantastic thank you for doingthat. I still remember people messaging and
(31:11):
texting about the pandemic. Mommy gettinginto the hospital all alone, and it
must be scary, it must beso scary for you. But you had
this smile, this beautiful smile thatyou have right now, and that it's
enchanting. Here. I have totell you that that you're someone people want
to be connected with you. You'reYou're a god. I think baby is
(31:33):
failing you, but I definitely you'rea bundle of joy. It is that
I have to ask you a seriousquestion on because this is how I wanted
it. And has there been aphotograph that you've taken that has impacted somebody
(31:53):
or someone in a way that theynever anticipated, or how has a photograph
brought meaning to you? And I'mbackflu the way and yeah, So that
is the beauty about being a photographeris you often are the one responsible for
taking the favorite photo of anyone's lovedone like that has hired you. So
(32:17):
I have been multiple times called whensomeone has passed away to share a photo
of their loved one for the memorialservice, and I've seen my images used
in that way. But something happenedin our town that really brought that experience
full circle to someone I never metand with photos I had never taken.
When Eliza passed away, I hadjust joined the PTO and just reached out
(32:40):
saying, I want to help withthe school and I'm so excited to be
involved in the Wayland community and wantto give back with my photography skills.
When she passed away, it kindof came full circle when the family needed
help making a slideshow for her memorialand I realized that beautiful thank you for
doing that. It meant a lot. It been a lot to me because
(33:01):
at that time, I mean,Eliza's a beautiful young girl in her neighborhood
who I never had the privilege toknow. But I knew that I have
these skills of collecting photos, ofknowing how to curate them, of knowing
how to do a slide show andtell a story really well. So I
helped the family come together create ashared drive that we could get all the
(33:23):
photos in and then I went throughand picked out the key moments I could
find and put them together in away that was meaningful, that told a
story, showed her growing up throughthe years and what she loved and vacations,
and it really helped bring some lightand levity to a really, really
tough situation. And I'm forever gratefulto the family for letting me do that.
(33:45):
Like it impacted me in ways Ididn't know, and it changed me
to grow so much more appreciative ofnot only my family, but my community
and our community at large. Likewitnessing how incredible Wayland is. Yeah,
we've done ye tears. I wantto cry to it. I might know.
The way you described it is verytouching. Our town got to ghetto
(34:08):
and paid the tributes to Eliza intheir own ways. You nicely put it
like you didn't know how it wouldimpact you, but it did. Yeah,
it was really tough. It was. I didn't know it was gonna
affect me because I was like,I don't know that and it won't hurt.
But just to see how beautiful andvibrant she was, and to know
that we can teach people to appreciatetheir lives right now you don't know when
(34:32):
you're gonna go, and you don'tknow when the last day is, and
that that's the hardest part of itis like I have seen my loved ones
pass away unexpectedly, I at youngages, and then to know that it
can happen to your kids when they'reyoung, Like, it's important to embrace
the life we have now and liveit so fully and document it and be
a part of it and just leanin. So it just pulls it all
(34:57):
together for me. And this iswhy your work is bought, Kierra,
and you're doing a favor to theworld, a digital world that we live
in. This is why it isvery important. Thank you, Thank you
for sharing your story with us.Are there any closing thoughts you have for
our audience? Yeah, I wouldlove to meet more people, especially in
Whalen. I'm starting to meet moreevery day. They can find me at
(35:21):
www. Dot frameoflife dot co.I've got a new website that's beautiful and
it'll help connect you to my podcast, which is Frame of Life. You
can find that on Apple and Spotifyall the other places that it exists.
And then I'm on Instagram mostly inthe dms there and I'm at Frame of
Life project over there. Thank youso much, Kiera. This has been
(35:44):
truly a wonderful, wonderful recording andconversation. Thank you, Thank you for
coming over. Thank you, sweetheart. This was so much fun. And
I'm like so grateful for the workthat you do for the women of Whaland
and the stories that you bring aboutour town. It helps connect us in
ways that I didn't know as possible, like you. The Women of Whalen
podcast has brought so much joy tomy life and has introduced me deeper to
(36:07):
people I've already even known and learnedtheir stories and learned that we connect in
so many ways that when you meetbriefly at a PTO meeting or with the
WCPR walking through town at the library, like you can't catch that. And
you're capturing these stories with this podcast, and it is incredible for us to
be able to learn about each otherand realize the humanness of us. And
(36:29):
I'm so proud to live in thiscommunity knowing that I'm surrounded by people like
you and like the Women of Whalen. That's so sweet and kind of fut
Thank you so much, Kiera.That was Kiera Lou for you. It
was a blast recording this episode.Join us on a journey through the vibrant
community of Aaland as we spotlight theextraordinary stories of women right next door,
(36:52):
from entrepreneurs to activists. Care giveus to creators. Each episode of Women
of Whalen brings you closer to theremarkable women in shaping our town's fabric.
Tune in for inspiration, empowerment,and the untold tales of everyday heroins making
a difference in our myths. Thankyou for listening. This is Yamini,
(37:13):
your host, and you were listeningto women a while in the podcast
This episode is brought to you byHarmony bookkeeping company Vhaland today we are talking
about an issue that seems everywhere.It seems like a hassle for everyone.
I'm talking about managing our digital footprint. I'm talking about thousands of pictures,
videos, we take, the forwardswe receive via social media and instant messaging.
(00:26):
This is actually more than just ahassle. The amount of data created
annually was forty ztabytes in twenty twenty. It is estimated to reach one eighty
ztabytes by twenty twenty five. Samewith AI running on top of our data.
Open aisgpt for used an estimated seventyeight million dollars worth of compute to
(00:51):
train, while Google's Gemini Ultra costsone hundred and ninety one million dollars for
compute. Using a chat bots everysingle time also has a cost. So
digital dick cluttering is not just aboutorganizing our digital assets, but also about
being responsible and environmentally conscious about ourbehavior. Kierra is wait, let me
(01:19):
make you listen to this audio clipfirst. And I was looking back to
try to describe who I am,and I have had distinct moments in life
where I remember just trying to writemy bio like I am Hi, I'm
Kira, who am I? AndI have recording some of me back in
the day pushing my baby through theSouth end of the city, like saying
I'm Kira, who am I?And trying to understand how all of the
(01:45):
series of events brings me to whereI am. There's been so many different
cycles. I've been the lawyer,I've been a photographer, I've been a
stay at home mom. I've hada baby in a pandemic, Like where
does all this come together? Kieraua sentimental memory maker, pro photographer,
and a visual storyteller. Now she'ssomeone who simplifies your life with this digital
(02:09):
overwhelm. She's a wail and mamaof too on a mission to make memories
magical, photo and video collections manageable, and stories memorable for generations to come.
She also hosts a podcast and youwould find such amazing nuggets and workshops
that she teaches to inspire family tosimplify this memory keeping process. Often sleep
(02:34):
deprived and found giggling her way throughlife, Kiera helps her client ditch the
perfection, embrace the chaos, findthe magic in the mundane. And focus
on those moments that matter most.We have an awesome, lively, lovely
woman in this studio today, Kierra. I love having you here too.
(02:58):
It's so hard not to just startgiggle looking at you. I'm very excited.
Yeah, so let me begin withyour introduction. Of course I've told
the audience about you now, butcriminal defense attorney, Oh my god,
I cannot put that face on you. I know me either, Like what
happened there, well, the marketin two thousand and eight crash. When
(03:23):
I graduated law school, which wasa really freaky time in life. I
always wanted to be some sort oflitigator. I thought it was going to
go become a prosecutor, and thendidn't get that job. So I ended
up in criminal defense, which isthe other side of prosecution. The transition
from being a criminal defense attorney tomemory keeper and photographer. I want to
(03:46):
talk about a transition from being thatto this. Yeah, so I can
thank my mom for this. Mymom didn't graduate college, she didn't go
to college. She barely got throughhigh school and had me at twenty years
old, and I basically grew upwith her, and she didn't know how
to advise me when I got tothe point of me going to pick a
(04:09):
college and what I wanted to doin my future, and her advice to
me was to always follow what wasin my heart and what lit me up.
And at the time, you're eighteenyears old and everyone else is going
out to college, and I'm like, what lights me up? I love
sunsets and I love beautiful pictures andmaking people happy, but I also want
to help the world in some deeperway. And when I was six years
(04:32):
old, I was adopted and Ihad my first experience in the courts then
when I was with a judge,and it was the judge bringing us together
as a family, and it wasreally monumental to my life where I wanted
to then bring other families together.So at eighteen years old, I thought,
hey, like maybe I could bea lawyer bring families together, but
(04:55):
also be a photographer and take beautifulsunset pictures. Absolutely, Kianna, you
have an entrepreneurial spirit. And Isay that because you came up with this
brilliant idea of frame of life projectand you were solving a problem. And
I remember many you know, womenand moms on the Facebook group we're writing
(05:15):
about it overwhelmed with thousands of pictures. But here you were, you were
bringing this idea frame of life project, and there was a problem and people
were talking about it. When didyou see it as a problem, Because
yes, you were connecting your journeyof capturing moments and bringing happiness into life
as a photographer. How did youjoin that added it to the problem that
(05:40):
people were facing with tons of picturesaround. Yeah, so there's nowadays in
this world, I feel like everyone'sjumping on the bandwagon. Help you ditch
the overwhelm with your camerale and like, curate your collections, make it easy.
But what I was finding is withthese systems, they're not really getting
to the heart of the issue.The issue is we have too many pictures.
(06:01):
And I started to realize really quicklythat you have to be on top
of either going through and calling throughall your pictures on a daily basis,
or you have to get more entireyou have to get you have to get
more intentional with what photos you're actuallycapturing. So every night I've gotten in
the habit of going through and hidingthe ones I love and then zooming out
(06:24):
and deleting all the rest, andI don't get caught in the trap of
looking back and forth between each individualpicture too long, and that way,
when I go back and look atmy camera, all I see is my
favorites. Oh wow, Kira,I have been listening to your podcast and
it's it's a delight to listen to. First of all. Second, I
really wanted to ask you about thisepisode where you talk about vacation pictures.
(06:47):
So you know, when you takethousands of pictures on a vacation, how
do you decide which ones to keepand which ones to let goal? Yeah?
Any when was the last time youmade an album, like a physical
printed album of your photos? Oh, my goodness, my vetting album.
I think we Oh, I'm proudof you. Not a lot of people
have that even then. So thatwasn't to put you fully in the hot
(07:09):
seat, but it's to give mean idea of But when you get it,
I know you have all redesigned yourvetting album or something. I designed
it. Yeah, it took mefive years. I never paid for one
in the beginning, and it tookme five years to even get one.
And I'm a pro photographer. Soit happens like we all live with the
best intentions to print our photos,but we don't get around to it.
(07:29):
So what I'm trying to teach peopleis to really be intentional when you're taking
the pictures and when you're on vacationthinking about what you would want to print.
Instead of taking nine thousand pictures throughoutthe whole day and being focused on
your camera and on your phone,live in the moment and just know that
you need to get a couple scenesetting photos of the day, like where
are you staying, Like say we'regoing on vacation to the cape, Like
(07:53):
what house are you staying? Andwhat beaches do you go to? What
restaurant did you love? Was therea favorite activity that you did? And
just take when you're at in thosemoments, take one or two pictures,
and when you feel like you gottaget out, don't keep trying, and
give yourself permission to lean in andlive in the moments instead of being so
focused on getting seventy five thousand picturesbecause you don't need it and it'll make
(08:15):
it easier later. It took mea long time to realize that how do
you approach capturing moments in a waythat truly encapsulates their essence? Oh that's
a good Questionnaity. So if we'relooking at capturing moments with my kids,
for example, I'm I'm always carryingmy phone. It's always around, as
much as i'd like to not tosay, I like have it tucked away,
(08:37):
and I'm always zoned in on athe moment. But my camera is
in a very powerful tool and it'sin my phone and it's always with me,
So I use that to my advantage. I like to shoot video more
often than taking photos, and oftentimesI'll even steal screenshots out of video,
so that can sometimes with moving kids, really capture the essence of the moment
(08:58):
a lot more and I feel likeit's breathing life into the moments that are
happening. So I'll just take afive second clip showing the light coming through
the trees of on my kids' facesas they're playing with their cars or riding
their bike on the driveway, andit brings that moment so much more to
life than just a photo. Andthat's not to diminish photos, because I
(09:20):
really love them still so much so, and it's like I try to take
a little bit of both. SoI just focus on what's around me and
my senses, like, I feelit in all of the senses, like
what can I see? What canI hear? What can I smell?
What can I feel? What canI touch? And I try to take
that as a moment of grounding,to bring me into that present moment and
(09:41):
notice like the magic that's happening,because when you put all those five senses
together, you can see some reallycool things. Absolutely. Kan there any
tools and software that you use toorganize. There's a few tools out there
right now. There's slide box,which is an app that you can connect
with your camera roll. You canslide through and say, like kind of
(10:01):
like Tinder for your camera really slidebox that that sounds interesting. Yeah,
So you can slide back and forthlike swipe left delete and slide right is
to keep, and you can kindof categorize your pictures quicker that way.
And there's another app called good Onesthat's similar. I've tried it. I
haven't quite figured out how it's workingyet, and I'm like, I don't
(10:24):
know. I just find it easierto use my camera roll, use the
hearts and delete the rest, andthen what I call that is my daily
delights. So at the end,all I'm seeing are images that I've hearted
that I find to be my favoritesof the time, and now my camera
roll becomes this living real of thehighlights of my life and the moments that
I want to remember already without havingto do much more. Coming back to
(10:45):
your Fame of Life project, Iwant to understand the overwhelmed that the data
storage, Like you're paying for datastorage these days. There was a time
one they had just daughted and theywould give you the five hundred andbs and
one gigabyte or free storage, andthen there game phones which you will have
like in built storage. What hasbeen your experience with this and what is
(11:09):
the most efficient way of backing upthe pictures and the moments. Yeah,
so I'm I'm basically still in alittle bit of triage mode right now.
So in life, I'm finding thatthere is no perfect solution with the way
the clouds are working. You can'tjust trust one. I wish you could,
like at this point, if you'veever experienced, which I have a
(11:33):
loss of data, so like ifsomeone took your phone, say your phone's
gone and you lose that completely.If you're not paying for iCloud storage or
Google photos. Those images are notgetting backed up anywhere. So once your
phone is lost and gone, youhave no more images. Yeah. So
if you put them into Google andyou stop paying, or you run out
of storage and you don't re upto keep paying, and you're not keeping
(11:54):
on track with deleting your other photosso that they're cleaning up the drive and
you're maintained space, you're not goingto be backing up all of your images.
So I've found it right now inlife. It's stinks, but I'm
paying for Multiple I'm paying for iCloud, I'm paying for Google, I'm paying
for drop Box. It's like allover the place. But I don't trust
the system right now, and Ihaven't had the time to fully gut everything.
(12:18):
I've worked on backing up all ofmy photos to one hub, trying
to think maybe using Amazon and bethe better way. They offer free photo
storage right now, so you canunlimited photos like you're Prime members. Yeah,
so you can load unlimited photos toAmazon Videos. It's capped at fifteen
gigabytes, but you can update thatand I have. But I thought maybe
(12:43):
I'll get them all off of Dropbox, all off of Google, all off
of iCloud, and put them intoAmazon, and then I can eliminate paying
the cost on all of those places. But unfortunately, what I learned is
that when you export from Google,they come in a million different folders in
a ZIP five. They're not bydate, They're not like they'll be from
(13:03):
different years, different months, alllumped into one. And then they have
all these extra files that have themetadata attached to it that are not necessarily
right next to it. So sortingand organizing your backup that you thought you
had because you had the cloud becomesa complete mass. And I'm just realizing,
really facett like, you need tohave it in multiple sources so that
(13:24):
you can get it in the emergencyuntil you have the time to really hone
in on what you're saving. Iagree because I totally rely on Google Photos
to store everything, and I neveronce taught that a cloud storage can go
wrong? Is there a possibility offof going wrong? They are all backed
(13:46):
up, they say, like amillion times, But the cloud is actually
a real place. And what I'mlike starting to research into I just have
I have an article saved on mycomputer right now to read that I haven't
gotten to yet. But it's aboutthe environmental impact that digital data is having
on the world because clouds are real, like they are server warehouses out in
(14:07):
Utah and western parts of the country. There are other I'm sure they're located
at other places. It's fascinating,but they're like they're like solar fields but
not. They're just big warehouses generatingheat with all this data that's storing all
of these images, and we're creatinga problem for the future. And these
are just us keeping the fifty thousandselfies you took over yourself that you didn't
(14:31):
even like because your eyes were blinking, or your husband took them from too
or the screenshots are taking that younever go back to. So my mission
now is to really teach people tostart capturing and focusing on keeping and backing
up the ones that matter to you, not the other stuff. I didn't
know. That's fascinating that you knowthere's a storage, like a physical storage
(14:52):
for the cloud. More on memorykeeping after we talk about the bookkeeping business
is that helped us get this episodeout? Today we are featuring Harmony,
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E. Y Books books dot com. But you were talking about the you
(16:52):
know you're not sure about the backingup processes and apps. How do you
ensure the longevity of these digital fileSo the trick to that is that you
have to back up every year.It never ends. It's like laundry.
So I'm starting to realize even laundry, like I've always I feel like it's
a great analogy because I'm always tryingto get on top of the laundry,
like get caught up, but thesecond you're done folding, there's more laundry.
(17:17):
And it's the same with your pictures. You're always going to be taking
pictures. So it's something that youhave to be aware of that this is
an ongoing thing and it's something thatyou need to invest the time and the
energy into. And depending on yourtime of life, you might have to
pay a little bit more for cloudstorage right now so that everything's there for
the time that you can actually goback and fix it. And I truly
(17:38):
recommend that everyone backs up their photosfrom the cloud onto an external hard drive
so that they physically have the copyof the photos. That means something to
see. So hard drive is important. The external hard yeah, like not
just the one on your computer.One you can unplug. They are good
for about five years, so everyfive years you need to be recycling those,
and people don't realize that it's notthat you have to get rid of
(18:00):
it, but they are known tofail a lot more quickly after five years.
So I like to make sure todownload from Google. I will go
and get my favorites since I'm doingit in Apple. If I make the
hearts, it's going into Google Photosas my favorites. I'll export those and
make sure that those are on myhard drive as at least I have my
favorites right, you know, soI'm not getting all the screenshots and stuff.
(18:23):
You can go quickly and delete those. Inside Google there's and inside Apple
Photos you can look scroll down toyour albums and you can sort by blurry
photos, by screenshots, by duplicates. They're doing now, so there's ways
to really start chunking out a lotof the waste really quickly and then focusing
on using your keywords, leaning intothat AI to find the pictures that matter,
(18:45):
putting them into your own albums thatyou can find quickly, and just
really focusing on your pictures that way. I want to know about the AI
affecting the storage effect organizing, becausewhat you are trying to help people with
is compiling, organizing, keeping trackof your pictures that you take every day.
(19:08):
But with Google Photos, I've realizedthat the AI AI is everywhere is
in built in Canawa and Google Pictures, and I'm sure on I'm not an
iPhone user, but I do havelaptops. So my question to you is,
how do you see the future ofAI with photography, with organizing stuff,
(19:29):
because I feel like it's actually makingthings easier. They compile it in
an album. They ask you abouta certain which is scary actually creepy.
When they ask you who this personis, can you name it? And
then they pull out all the picturesdepending on what you write, like I
had my mom's name written as momand then the next thing I know is
(19:52):
there is an album that shows thenext thing, and then they have before
and after thing too, like intwenty sixteen, I held my bab be
in my arms and twenty three itshows a seven I'm holding my seven year
old. Listen, how is itreading that way? How is it comparing
to pictures us before and after?It's trained to watch faces and the facial
(20:14):
structure as you grow and change throughoutthe years, and we're helping AI by
tagging things and letting them know,Hey, no, no, that's not
my mom, that's actually me.Great, I look like my mom.
It's starting, but also like it'shelping you quickly find pictures. So I'm
leaning into AI because I think AIis going to help us who are completely
(20:34):
overwhelmed by the sizes of our photocollections and not able to get the pictures
quickly when we need them. Wecan use services like Google and our app,
Apple Photos. They have already builtin. You can search frog and
it might show you pictures of pondsor a frog that you've already taken a
picture of. Really random. Yes, thank you for mentioning it. So
(20:55):
it's not just the ones that youput in for the face. But I'm
starting to use that as my wayto quickly find picture. I mean,
it's still thousands, but it helpsto sort through them because I think it's
really helpful for people to search.Like, if you are looking for a
picture of you from a certain time, you can search a location of where
you were if your location's on taggedon. I don't like to have my
(21:15):
location on often, but you cansearch monuments so if you're not, if
you don't have location services tied toyour pictures, you can search like a
beach and you can It'll pull upall these pictures of beaches and then you
could find the picture quicker from whereyou were if that was what you're looking
for. Yeah. My surprise waswhen I dived in Sadi as an ethnic
(21:37):
Yeah, and it pulls out allthe pictures of me in a sari or
mom in a sardi. Everyone,I'm like, what that piece. It's
also reading, so Google is reallygetting better with language and corporation in a
certain keywords. That's interesting. Yeah, it's not just English, it's it's
picking up Hindi and Arabic and allall of those. So that was my
(21:59):
AHA moment. Yeah, I mean, and it's going to pop up the
memories that pop up when you're like, why is it showing me that today,
Like, it's listening to you,it's watching your search terms. It
kind of sucks, but there's sometimesways to lean into it that might make
your life a little bit easier.Truly. I want to quickly move on
to the legacy the workshop that youwere talking about. Number one, how
(22:21):
do we digitize the old picture blackand white, and how do we actually
take care of them so they lastnext one hundred years. That's an awesome
question. So what I've learned isthat photos that are printed are going to
last much longer than anything digital thatwe have, really and it's really upsetting.
(22:41):
So I'm encouraging people to still printtheir pictures because if you think about
it, you have photos that haveprobably traveled from India across the world and
gotten here that were taken many decadesago and they're still fine. And can
you find your pictures from two thousandand two, like if you actually think
about the reality of what the differenceis between how small photos were digitally back
(23:06):
in the day versus like if youhave just a physical photo. But there's
some tangible things we need to beaware of. Photos that are put in
those sticky photo albums are placed onacid based paper that are just eating your
photos and making them deteriorate quickly.We all have them. I have got
tons of them at home. Sothe number one thing you need to do
right now is get those things outof the sticky paper as fast as you
(23:27):
can, and using a hair dryeron low setting is the easiest way to
get that glue to separate, andit'll they'll just start peeling up because they're
pretty stuck. So getting them offof that and into something that is non
acid that can protect your paper yourimages that are printed for longer is great.
(23:48):
But the first step I always dobefore I start taking them out is
I do try to digitize them usingmy phone. I got another handy app.
It's called Photomine, and you canI have a lifetime access to I
think I've paid a couple hundred dollarsjust to have it forever. But you
can take an image and use yourcamera to scan it and it crops it,
(24:08):
It automatically enhances it. It canmake a black and white photo color,
it can make photo like it cancorrect any tears in it, and
it just is a quick way toget a quick scan of that physical image
and save it digitally. You canput them into albums right away as you
take them, which is a greatway to help organize as you go.
And a lot of times those imagesthat you're scanning are the ones that are
(24:30):
meaningful to you. There's a reasonwhy you want that picture saved. So
you're already starting to curate your collectiona little bit more. There's there are
printers that you can buy, Ithink ones in my Amazon cart so it's
coming soon. But you can scanmultiple pictures fast and have those digitized that
way. I always keep the originalsof the ones that mean the most.
(24:52):
But if there's duplicates, if there'slike like sunset pictures are I'm a like.
I love sunset like so much.That's why I started becoming a photographer.
But I've very rarely found a sunsetpicture I left like, they're never
as beautiful as they are in reallife, and they're often just you flip
through them. You're like, cool, cool, cool, I don't need
to see it. You don't needto see ninety percent of the concert photos
(25:14):
you take. Oh my god,oh my god, that is annoying.
So those can go their baggage,get rid of them, just throw them
out. They don't that's be veryvery important. Yeah, So just start
focusing on the ones that mean themost. Get them scanned, even if
it's just on your phone, andget them out of something that's going to
be eating them up, and youcan put them in just a paper envelope.
(25:36):
They make archival quality ones. Ihave a whole podcast, so we
could think about that that goes.I talk to a preservationist from the Smithsonian
who like walked through how to takecare of your heirlooms, and it was
mind blowing to me, Like VHSis they're dead, They're like twenty five
years is their lifeline? Like howlong they were designed to live? And
(25:56):
nobody recorded a VHS like less fiveyears ago. Now, it's crazy how
fast time is gone. So thosethings are like there's some key high priority
items that need to be digitized nowand you got to just keep track of
what matters most and focus on gettingthose in your hunting peck journey and Kiara,
that is so important. Thank you. These are such amazing informative tips.
(26:18):
So tell me about your legacy workshop, Alder that you've created a little
bit. I don't want you togive away everything because I want people to
go follow you, go learn fromyou and be your client. But how
would you describe that? What haveyou done in that? Yeah? So
I have a workbook I've put togetherthat's called Carrie Your Legacy, where you
(26:38):
can go through and start framing yourvision for what you want to leave behind,
and you can also use it totake notes on someone you loved that
has passed and keep track of thedetails about them and have it in one
special spot so that you're not isit just for pictures or is it the
writings. It's for both so youcan add. It has prompts in there
(27:00):
and space for where you can typein. It's a phillble PDF and it's
also a Canva doc that you canload into Canva and type in and add
pictures as you go. But it'sa place where you can just start organizing
your thoughts, getting like the goingto the heart of like what is your
why for doing this? What isyour goal? What is the legacy you
hope to leave. What images wouldsupport that? We talk about inside that
(27:23):
work, we talk about the pivotpoints in your life, like those key
eras because I had to make itsound cool, like like Taylor Swift and
Me came together. But it's thekey eras of your life where you look
at those big pivotal moments and arethere pictures of you at those times?
And there are, Like I havepictures of me the day I was getting
adopted and the day I went tophoto school and my class there was only
(27:47):
nine of us, and there's apicture of us there, and then it's
looking at when I got sworn intothe New Hampshire Bar, and like looking
at these big moments, there areimages that bring you right back to it.
But if my kids, like fiftyyears from now, are going through
these pictures, they won't have anycontacts and they won't know about it.
So this workbook is designed to getyou thinking about those moments, finding those
(28:07):
images and putting them together so thatthey're all in one spot. I don't
know, so which brings me tothe question that you have a particular memory
or photograph that's really close to yourheart. So this is like hard to
tell. I have so many thatmean so much to me. It's so
talented. The most recent one isjust one I saw recently. Was it
(28:30):
brought together the reality of everything.So there's a picture of my grandfather's dog
on the steps of his fraternity Andhe had told me a story about him
having a dog in college that wouldfollow him everywhere and became a fraternity brother.
And I didn't believe him, andI found a picture and the dog
is framed in the whole fraternity AtLehigh University, there's a picture of the
(28:52):
dog. He's an honorary fraternity brother. I didn't believe him, And now
I found a picture. There's anewspaper clipping about it too, my god,
and I was like, he's notkidding, He's not kidding, and
it's amazing to see, Like it'sdefinitely not anything I ever took, but
it was. It just is oneof those examples of like the full circle
of what these images can do.Oh my god, that that must be
(29:14):
hilarious to look at. So tome as a podcaster, all my degrees
made sense. Eventually never made senseto me. I'm an engineer in the
NBA and all of these degrees andmoney wasted. I thought it miss a
waste of money. What am Ieven doing? I'm not making money.
I've reinvented my career. So myquestion, too, is what helped you
(29:37):
become the photographer you are today orthe person you are today. It's amazing.
I mean I had the same thoughtwhen I graduated law school and I
had two hundred thousand dollars in debt, and I was like, what am
I doing right now? So itdidn't make sense at the time, And
I've learned that sometimes you have tojust ride the waves and be in the
moments that you are and realize thatthat we as women are incredible. Like
(30:03):
I'm blown away to know that youhave an MBA and are an engineer.
I'm not shocked because I look atour setup here. I know, thank
you, thank you, you bringeveryone together. But what I've learned is
like these skills along the way havelot have taught me how to grow a
business, how to talk to anybody. I had confidence to start my photography
business because I knew how to takea beautiful picture. I didn't have to
(30:26):
learn it, it was something thatwas already there. I knew how to
write the contracts for the big brandingdeals that I would do working with companies.
I knew how to get creative whenit needed to make an advertising reel
for myself because I practiced advertising photographywhen I was in school. Like,
it all just kind of pulled together. And when I became a stay at
home mom, I had to buildmy own village. And when I became
(30:48):
a pandemic mom, I had toconnect to family all over the world.
When I had a new baby andI was stuck at home with my toddler
and the world took down and Ihad to learn he was born in April
and it was I remember that wasmy first real experience with the women of
Waleen podcasting. Such an incredible timetoo. You took us through the That
was a fantastic thank you for doingthat. I still remember people messaging and
(31:11):
texting about the pandemic. Mommy gettinginto the hospital all alone, and it
must be scary, it must beso scary for you. But you had
this smile, this beautiful smile thatyou have right now, and that it's
enchanting. Here. I have totell you that that you're someone people want
to be connected with you. You'reYou're a god. I think baby is
(31:33):
failing you, but I definitely you'rea bundle of joy. It is that
I have to ask you a seriousquestion on because this is how I wanted
it. And has there been aphotograph that you've taken that has impacted somebody
(31:53):
or someone in a way that theynever anticipated, or how has a photograph
brought meaning to you? And I'mbackflu the way and yeah, So that
is the beauty about being a photographeris you often are the one responsible for
taking the favorite photo of anyone's lovedone like that has hired you. So
(32:17):
I have been multiple times called whensomeone has passed away to share a photo
of their loved one for the memorialservice, and I've seen my images used
in that way. But something happenedin our town that really brought that experience
full circle to someone I never metand with photos I had never taken.
When Eliza passed away, I hadjust joined the PTO and just reached out
(32:40):
saying, I want to help withthe school and I'm so excited to be
involved in the Wayland community and wantto give back with my photography skills.
When she passed away, it kindof came full circle when the family needed
help making a slideshow for her memorialand I realized that beautiful thank you for
doing that. It meant a lot. It been a lot to me because
(33:01):
at that time, I mean,Eliza's a beautiful young girl in her neighborhood
who I never had the privilege toknow. But I knew that I have
these skills of collecting photos, ofknowing how to curate them, of knowing
how to do a slide show andtell a story really well. So I
helped the family come together create ashared drive that we could get all the
(33:23):
photos in and then I went throughand picked out the key moments I could
find and put them together in away that was meaningful, that told a
story, showed her growing up throughthe years and what she loved and vacations,
and it really helped bring some lightand levity to a really, really
tough situation. And I'm forever gratefulto the family for letting me do that.
(33:45):
Like it impacted me in ways Ididn't know, and it changed me
to grow so much more appreciative ofnot only my family, but my community
and our community at large. Likewitnessing how incredible Wayland is. Yeah,
we've done ye tears. I wantto cry to it. I might know.
The way you described it is verytouching. Our town got to ghetto
(34:08):
and paid the tributes to Eliza intheir own ways. You nicely put it
like you didn't know how it wouldimpact you, but it did. Yeah,
it was really tough. It was. I didn't know it was gonna
affect me because I was like,I don't know that and it won't hurt.
But just to see how beautiful andvibrant she was, and to know
that we can teach people to appreciatetheir lives right now you don't know when
(34:32):
you're gonna go, and you don'tknow when the last day is, and
that that's the hardest part of itis like I have seen my loved ones
pass away unexpectedly, I at youngages, and then to know that it
can happen to your kids when they'reyoung, Like, it's important to embrace
the life we have now and liveit so fully and document it and be
a part of it and just leanin. So it just pulls it all
(34:57):
together for me. And this iswhy your work is bought, Kierra,
and you're doing a favor to theworld, a digital world that we live
in. This is why it isvery important. Thank you, Thank you
for sharing your story with us.Are there any closing thoughts you have for
our audience? Yeah, I wouldlove to meet more people, especially in
Whalen. I'm starting to meet moreevery day. They can find me at
(35:21):
www. Dot frameoflife dot co.I've got a new website that's beautiful and
it'll help connect you to my podcast, which is Frame of Life. You
can find that on Apple and Spotifyall the other places that it exists.
And then I'm on Instagram mostly inthe dms there and I'm at Frame of
Life project over there. Thank youso much, Kiera. This has been
(35:44):
truly a wonderful, wonderful recording andconversation. Thank you, Thank you for
coming over. Thank you, sweetheart. This was so much fun. And
I'm like so grateful for the workthat you do for the women of Whaland
and the stories that you bring aboutour town. It helps connect us in
ways that I didn't know as possible, like you. The Women of Whalen
podcast has brought so much joy tomy life and has introduced me deeper to
(36:07):
people I've already even known and learnedtheir stories and learned that we connect in
so many ways that when you meetbriefly at a PTO meeting or with the
WCPR walking through town at the library, like you can't catch that. And
you're capturing these stories with this podcast, and it is incredible for us to
be able to learn about each otherand realize the humanness of us. And
(36:29):
I'm so proud to live in thiscommunity knowing that I'm surrounded by people like
you and like the Women of Whalen. That's so sweet and kind of fut
Thank you so much, Kiera.That was Kiera Lou for you. It
was a blast recording this episode.Join us on a journey through the vibrant
community of Aaland as we spotlight theextraordinary stories of women right next door,
(36:52):
from entrepreneurs to activists. Care giveus to creators. Each episode of Women
of Whalen brings you closer to theremarkable women in shaping our town's fabric.
Tune in for inspiration, empowerment,and the untold tales of everyday heroins making
a difference in our myths. Thankyou for listening. This is Yamini,
(37:13):
your host, and you were listeningto women a while in the podcast
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