photo storage

[chessie]

I used to take a lot of (film) photos (back in the days before I had children)... most are color prints either 3x5 or 4x6. Does anyone have these types of "archives" and how do you store them? At one time I used albums, but had up to 30 albums going, plus it made it difficult to sort or reference. Any suggestions?

Harold

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Harold Hodnett
Fan of NS, CSX, and their predecessors!
Coming soon: The North Carolina Railfan Web Site
http://www.trainweb.org/ncrail/

[espee2]

Do like I do, stuff them in a drawer, and every 10 years, go through the drawer and really have some flash-backs...LOL http://www.trainboard.com/biggrin.gif

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espee2

Railroading in Southern Oregon
www.tunnel13.com (http://www.tunnel13.com)¤
layout: SP's Newberg Branch in N scale (http://tunnel13.com/newberg.html)

[Gats]

Harold, Currently a majority of mine reside in the 'wallets' they came from the processor in. Though this is not the proper way to store photos, I do have some in albums. But as you say, this makes referencing difficult.
I too would like to find a better solution other than going into a full indexing system.

Gary.

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Gary A. Rose http://www.pnc.com.au/~audiosat/cat01.gif
The Unofficial TC&W page (http://www.pnc.com.au/~audiosat/)
TrainBoard Moderator and Member No.377
N to the Nth degree!

[watash]

Be careful of the self-adhesive type album, the sticky reacted with the photo emulsion, and ruined some of my older photos. You can get little white page tabs and write info (date, where, type, subject, etc.) Install photos related to that tab. Next tab is next (roll of film, subject, etc) Might be time consuming to go back now, but from now on you would have a cronoligical order. You can number or date (from-to) each full album too.

Just a suggestion. http://www.trainboard.com/biggrin.gif

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Watash #982
"See you in the Pit" http://www.trainboard.com/smiles/092.gif

[chessie]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by espee2:
Do like I do, stuff them in a drawer, and every 10 years, go through the drawer and really have some flash-backs...LOL http://www.trainboard.com/biggrin.gif

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's kinda' what I did, that is why I am asking the question now (10 years later http://www.trainboard.com/biggrin.gif)

Harold

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Harold Hodnett
Fan of NS, CSX, and their predecessors!
Coming soon: The North Carolina Railfan Web Site
http://www.trainweb.org/ncrail/

[chessie]

I sorted my pictures out into a crude shoebox method for the time being. For example, I have all of my CSX loco photos (and their predecessors) sorted by engine type. I mostly have the same for the done for my NS pictures.

I know for "proper" storage, photos should be stored in acid-free paper containers, etc. I remember a few years back looking into "proper" storage boxes, but it seems the cost were very high. (Or at least higher than the costs of the shoeboxes I had on hand http://www.trainboard.com/biggrin.gif) ) I will try to do a little research and will let you know what I find.

Harold

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Harold Hodnett
Fan of NS, CSX, and their predecessors!
Coming soon: The North Carolina Railfan Web Site
http://www.trainweb.org/ncrail/

[chessie]

Watash,
GOod idea about the tabs. I was fortunate early on to buy databacks for my cameras; most of my photos have the date imprinted on the picture! (Yes, I know "professionals" would frown on that, but I did not take the pictures for them; I took them for me!)

Harold

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Harold Hodnett
Fan of NS, CSX, and their predecessors!
Coming soon: The North Carolina Railfan Web Site
http://www.trainweb.org/ncrail/

[watash]

That's great Harold, that will make it easy to put a photo you post here, back in its proper place in your albums. I have a slip-in type, but not that many photos yet. I lost a lot.

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Watash #982
"See you in the Pit" http://www.trainboard.com/smiles/092.gif

[chessie]

watash,
I am sorry that you lost some of your photos, as that also equals a loss for the rest of us http://www.trainboard.com/frown.gif As everyone has probably figured out, I enjoy sharing my pictures... since a pictures "is worth a 1000 words", I like to do a lot of talking in a small amount of forum space http://www.trainboard.com/smile.gif

Harold

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Harold Hodnett
Fan of NS, CSX, and their predecessors!
Coming soon: The North Carolina Railfan Web Site
http://www.trainweb.org/ncrail/

[watash]

Yeah Harold, I been told I got a big mouth, but don't look like much, so they don't waste pictures on me! HA! http://www.trainboard.com/biggrin.gif

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Watash #982
"See you in the Pit" http://www.trainboard.com/smiles/092.gif

[Alan]

For some of my photos I use card index file boxes (plastic, with hinged lids), with seperators for differnt subjects made from card. Very easy to access, but you would need several boxes, although they take up far less space than albums.

But for my important photos (main holidays, or trips to the USA), I use Albums, so I can leaf through them easily.

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Alan Curtis. Moderator. Member #12

The perfect combination - BNSF and N Scale!

www.alancurtismodels.com (http://www.alancurtismodels.com)
Andersley Western Railroad (http://www.trainweb.org/andersleywestern/)
Alan's American Gallery (http://www.trainweb.com/alansamericangallery/)

[chessie]

Believe it or not, at one time, I had close to 10,000 train pictures that I had taken! Fortunately, I went throgh my collection and pared down the pictures to "the best of the best". (In some cases, I had numerous pictures of the same locos in ths same general pose). I still have a few thousand to keep up with. My concern about plastic storage boxes is the potential for chemical interaction and degradation of the photo quality over time. As I had said previously, I need to research my options a little more. Maybe my pictures are not museum quality, but I would like for my kids to be able to share them with their kids, and so on.

Harold

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Harold Hodnett
Fan of NS, CSX, and their predecessors!
Coming soon: The North Carolina Railfan Web Site
http://www.trainweb.org/ncrail/

[Alan]

The most important thing is to keep the negatives safely.

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Alan Curtis. Moderator. Member #12

The perfect combination - BNSF and N Scale!

www.alancurtismodels.com (http://www.alancurtismodels.com)
Andersley Western Railroad (http://www.trainweb.org/andersleywestern/)
Alan's American Gallery (http://www.trainweb.com/alansamericangallery/)

[Paul Templar]

Why not Scan the photo's into your computer, then put them onto CD. When all photo are on a CD, clear the hard drive of photo's and start again if you have more than a CD's worth to do.
I have about 9 CD full of photographs, and they are all in Chronological order. The computer does this for you.

Got them for life then. http://www.trainboard.com/cool.gif


[This message has been edited by Paul Templar (edited 25 January 2001).]

[Alan]

Trouble is paul, I have a lot of photos on slides, and do not (yet) have a slide scanner. But slides are easy to store http://www.trainboard.com/smile.gif

I would love to post some on here though. But slide scanners are a bit pricey http://www.trainboard.com/frown.gif

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Alan Curtis. Moderator. Member #12

The perfect combination - BNSF and N Scale!

www.alancurtismodels.com (http://www.alancurtismodels.com)
Andersley Western Railroad (http://www.trainweb.org/andersleywestern/)
Alan's American Gallery (http://www.trainweb.com/alansamericangallery/)

[chessie]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Paul Templar:
[B]Why not Scan the photo's into your computer, then put them onto CD. When all photo are on a CD, clear the hard drive of photo's and start again if you have more than a CD's worth to do.
I have about 9 CD full of photographs, and they are all in Chronological order. The computer does this for you.

Got them for life then. http://www.trainboard.com/cool.gif


<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Paul,
That is a good idea, although it does not solve my original dilemma about how to preserve the original "photographic prints" that I paid money to have developed. I fully intend to "archive" my photo collection on CD-R as I scan them , in the same manner as I complete regular backup of my digital camera photos (and entire computer) using my CD-R drive.

Harold


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Harold Hodnett
Fan of NS, CSX, and their predecessors!
Coming soon: The North Carolina Railfan Web Site
http://www.trainweb.org/ncrail/

[nickleplate]

I wish i could offer a suggestion for you Harold but I am the worst at storage. I keep mine in their original storage. I scan and stash anymore......