As some of you know, after almost 40 years in the same home, Sue and I have embarked on a new adventure of moving and buying a new home. Since I started The Picture Man in 1974, I have kept all of my negatives from every job that I did. I started keeping records in a 3-ring binder of the file number, client name, type of job, and where it was filed. This has come in handy over the years as people would call and request reprints from jobs long ago.
But with the move, the storage space is limited, so the negative file has to go. I've spent several days going through the files keeping some - lots of family, all of the NCAA Div III National Track Meets (80, 83, 87, 89, 90, 94, 96, 2000), and those special ones. The picture above is most of what is going...I didn't think to take this picture until I had already taken 7 boxes outside.
Yes the switch to digital in 1999 has made it easier to keep the files and search when I need to find something, but there is something about having that negative to hold up to the light to view and remember the good times that were recorded on that piece of film.