I started photography over thirty years ago! Boy it sounds strange saying that! Anyway, Starting out I shot mostly color prints. Film was sent off at the local drug store and came back processed with prints several days later. Back then I developed the shoe box method. I would go through a pack of prints, trash the really bad ones, put the good ones in a photo album, and leave any duplicates in the envelope with the negatives. On the envelope I would write as close as possible the date the photos were taken, The subject, location, and any other notes that might help me find a prized negative in the future. To some extent I still do use the shoebox method, except that I have progressed from using shoe boxes for storage and moved to card files purchased from used office furniture stores. It would not be too hard to setup an Access datbase to track these things, but since I work on computers for a living I try to keep them as far away from my photography as possible... When I started doing black and white photography I started keeping my negatives in old notebooks. I purchased the printfile sheets and after I had printed the negatives I would place them in the print file sheet. As with the shoebox method I would write the date, subject, and notes on that group of negatives on the lable at the top of the printfile page. Using a three hole punch I would put a contact print sheet and any rejects I might have from prints made in the printing session. The back of the prints and contact sheet provides more space for notes if needed. The downside of my system is that it relies on my memory of when something was shot. So far that has worked out fine. I can usually go right to a negative when I need to. One day I may be more forgetful or even gone. At that point my system breaks down... Hopefully someone here has come up with a better system. Like you I am very interested. Speedy Date: Mon, 25 May 2009 22:12:03 -0400 Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Getting Organized From: wm.harting@xxxxxxxxx To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Can't help much, Elias. I've been away from home for almost a week and the homework I brought with me is a briefcase full of notes about developers, papers, scanning procedures, printing techniques, contact prints, notes about prints to make, oh just a huge bunch of stuff. I took one piece of paper and headed it with the word Simplify, and I've been paring things down. I think I'm making progress but I won't know until I get back to the darkroom, file away the things I know I'm not going to do (life is short) and try to stick to the list and do some printing. Simplify! -bill h On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 9:35 PM, K W Hart <kwhart1@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: From: "Elias Roustom" <elroustom@xxxxxxxxx> At the risk of revealing too much about my worst habit, the lack of habits, I'm going to ask if anyone else has the same problem I'm having. Two years into photography, I now have sheets and sheets of negatives, prints experimenting with every sort of technique or paper or developer, and no order to any of it. I'm at a point now where it's getting hard to move forward with any photographic project without looking for something under something else... I'm going to assume I'm not the only one who has an obsession with this craft and is also very busy (with paying work). I've got some ideas of how to dig out, straighten up and fly right, but I'm curious how some of you have dealt with putting your house in order? Not only about storage and retrieval, or record keeping, but about anything pertaining to managing current projects and planning future projects. I could use some inspiration, and some good ideas. Elias "Junk expands to fill all available space" I'm not sure I can give a definative answer, but you did ask just for inspiration and good ideas... One thing I do when I feel the walls closing in is to make a list of things I need to do. I find great satisfaction in crossing things off the list and watching it get smaller. Don't get bogged down with personnal management software- just use a piece of paper. Seeing things crossed out is inspiring. For my professional photos (professional meaning that people are paying me for them), I maintain a database of negatives, cross-referenced to the customer. The database also has a field for the type of photo: "Hi-key baby", "Outdoor senior", "Location Group", etc. Then if I need a certain type of photo, I can search the database for a codeword. For my pleasure photos (no one commissioned them), I file the negatives in photofile pages- clear plastic pages that can be directly contact printed. The pages and the contact prints go in a notebook chronilogically. Sometimes I will print them to an appropriate size and make an album- the negs for these go in the album. For example, I have albums of various civic events: July 4th celebrations, etc. As for the various types of paper and developer, you either need to set up a notebook with samples and procedures so that you can refer back to it when you need a certain effect, or, you need to standardize on one paper and one developer so that you will have consistency in your work. Bear in mind that if you choose the standardization route, that paper and developer will be discontinued in six months or less! For me, I prefer to standardize the darkroom and do my experimenting with the camera. Too many varibles and you don't learn anything. I feel your pain: I'm currently trying to sell my property and move halfway 'cross country to the old homestead. I know that all the 'stuff' I have here won't fit in the property I want to move to, so I'm constantly looking for things that can go on eBay, go to the salvage yard, or just go to the dump. I feel this is getting organized, but I have a pile of stuff waiting for someone to bid on, a pile of scrap metal stuff needing to be sorted for salvage, and a pile of stuff needing to go to the dump (the dump charges $20 for up to a ton, so I want to be sure my truck is dragging when I go there!). The best encouragement I can offer is to keep as much of your chaos in the darkroom as possible- that way you can turn out the lights and not have to look at it! ============================================================================================================= To unsubscribe from this list, go to www.freelists.org and logon to your account (the same e-mail address and password you set-up when you subscribed,) and unsubscribe from there. _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail® has a new way to see what's up with your friends. http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/WhatsNew?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_WhatsNew1_052009