WAO Part 2 Old Skool New Skool

Many of us didn't begin taking photographs yesterday with the advent of digital cameras. We began with silver and film and chemicals in darkrooms. Many of us with 30+ years of files realize that having a system to find what we have taken in the past. Unfortunately, many of us do not have everything cataloged or in containers that preserve the materials. During a good deal of the time I have photographed regularly, color slides in there nice oblong boxes provided a place to put the rolls as they came back from the processors. (Kodachrome was always sent out and required 2 weeks or more to return) I began early, classiffying my rolls with a simple system. I numbered each roll 7501 with the first two digits designating the year and the seconf two digits indicating the number of that roll in that year chronologically. When I got my first "real" computer in 1985, I set up a database of "Roll Records" that recorded important information about the roll. At some point I moved all these slides into cardboard boxes that held about 4-6 rolls. I used empty slide mounts to keep them separated. I used a rubber stamp to put a roll number on each slide mount. Over the years, I experimented with adding two more digits to identify individual slides. These attempts were short lived. I felt that if I could maintain the roll and its general contents that would be all I really needed. I was shooting any where from 1 rolls to 60 rolls per year as my picture taking waned or was temporaryally replaced with a different form (video, polaroid).