Since I've dived into photography a year ago, I've taken bunches of slides/negs. The keepers go into various albumn, and slide trays. It's been a pleasure. But... archiving is becoming unwieldy given the volumne I have generated. Could any of your fine fellows suggest a website, and/or catalogue where to get ideas on storing the results of my photography? Thanks a million. Jim

-- Jim Ford (anniejim@dellnet.com), December 14, 2000

Answers

Jim, my choice for storage of both negatives and slides is to use the plastic pages which are made of a type of plastic which will not harm the film. A typical slide page will hold 20 slides. A typical negative page for 35mm holds 7 strips of 5 frames each. They are 3- hole punched for storage in a 3-ring binder, very convenient. to use them, I put a whole page on an 8x10 light box and use a loupe to inspect the slides or frames. Typical suppliers: Century Photo Products, 205 S. Puente Street, P.O. Box 2393, La Brea, CA 92822- 2393. Another good place to know about is Light Impressions, www.lightimpressionsdirect.com. Better yet, just chaeck with your local photo store. The pages I'm describing are archival, that is, they don't "outgas" with harmful gases that could fade your emulsions.

I use the slide pages for editing. Once I have selected a group of slides, they go into a carousel tray. If you like to Pick up a bunch of slides and drop them into a stack-loader, then you need a storage box instead. Check the Light Impressions Catalog for something archival.

Regards,

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), December 14, 2000.

Jim,

What ever you do, DON'T WAIT! I kept thinking, "I'll get around to organizing this mess someday."

Thirty years later, I am at a loss on how to start. In my mind I can see slides I know I took, but for a million bucks, I couldn't put my hands on them in less than a month. I have a room, floor to ceiling, full of taped up boxes, (I moved ten times in the military), that simply have the annotation, "Slides", from the mover's pen.

Start now, don't put it off. "Someday" never quite gets here.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), December 15, 2000.

Oh, and you can also get a slide-labeling program to run on your PC. "CRADOC" I think one of them is called. I probably have 6000 to 7000 slides, and I haven't done this yet . . . but I'm only 60, so there's plenty of time.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), December 15, 2000.