Hi Ken,
Thanks for your reply. I'm always interested in how other photographers deal
not only with storage but also retrieval. I'm certain your slide archive is
much bigger than mine will ever be though.
After I realised that the sheet/binder system didn't work for me I did consider
for a while looking for a filing cabinet in which to hang the sheets. However,
the relatively large footprint made me hesitate. A few years ago I also began
to have trouble sourcing the sheets themselves as a lot of outlets, some of
them specialists, stopped stocking them. I got the last batch direct from a
manufacturer but I'm not sure if even they are still supplying them. As I said,
I also found them rather fiddly to use; the plastic was robust but rather
stiff, making it difficult to get the slides out sometimes. Do you use a
particular sort specially designed for hanging? I'd be grateful if you could
forward me a link to a supplier or ever a photo of one.
At the moment I sort chronologically with slides from the same roll being
stored together. As part of my reorganisation I plan to draw up a master index
of the contents of each film, with a few keywords to make the index searchable.
After what you've said I think I'll rethink the sheet/hanging cabinet
system. I too like the convenience of being able to pull out a sheet
and lay it on the light box without having tp handle the slides
individually.
Regards,
Duncan.
________________________________
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Olympus Camera Discussion <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thu, 19 November, 2009 16:59:44
Subject: Re: [OM] Archival slide storage
My dad has his slides stored in those metal boxes too. Most of the boxes
date back to the '60s and '70s.
I initially tried to use that filing method myself, but it just didn't work
for me. I went with 20 per page archival storage sheets. At first I kept
them in binders, but eventually migrated over to hanging storage. I use
hanging file filders and place the sheets in them. For the longest time I
kept them in plastic portable storage boxes, but once I stuffed the sixth
box I decided something had to change. They are now jammed inside a
four-drawer file cabinet and I'm about to light up a second file cabinet.
Had I continued on with the metal boxes, I'd not have been able to mix
slides with negative sheets, proof prints and note pages.
The file sheet method works great for me because I use an indexless system.
When sorting the slides, I place them in the existing sheets or new sheets
if I run out of slots or it's a body of work within the category. Photos of
cars are placed in the "transportation" folder. Flower shots go in the
"flowers" folder(s). This way, I maximize the benefit of shooting slides
which is the ability to sort every image to an end folder without having to
rip apart rolls.
However, as you can imagine, it doesn't work well with negatives.
My system has served me well and I have few regrets as the bulk of my
library is in the form of slides. But, by going "indexless", it means that I
am totally compromised with the sheets of negatives.
I really prefer the sheets of slides, though. I can whip through a couple
thousand images looking for that "special something" in just a few minutes.
If you ask me for an image of a blunderblast and I actually had one, I could
find it in under five minutes.
AG
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