Keeping a record. I must have nearly 30 Photobox books now. I aim to get the %50 discount on them which crops up once in a while. I have an inherent distrust of online photo storage so use this way of creating an archive.
Many are fun photos as you can see.
I have mentioned this topic before and I continue to use the format to store and present my photo archive. Pretty much caught up with the historical stuff so these two images are from the latest photobook. ( I hope Wells museum will have the shelf room ). This album is A3 at about ?80 for 100 images ( I dont add text ). Obviously with the %50 discount a reasonable ?45 or so with tracked delivery. Its the part of the hobby I enjoy though my subjects sometimes dont. I like character studies and unposed shots.They will never win a prize but are on a path divergent from the type of near formulaic images we see in magazines. Posed and back lit. Yes technically always the best but there are more avenues ( passages ) to explore.

Strikes me as a good approach.  However I notice that you don't add text; will this diminish their value as an archive resource for future generations?

I have done one of Reservoir Hole, with text, if you are interested. http://www.albelli.co.uk/view-online-photo-book/e7a2b440-af65-468a-97f9-c77a7fa56861

I dont do text as most of the albums are single subject so its obvious which cave they are. As for people that's fairly obvious too. For me the text blocks just make the arrangements look messy though if you see MRODOC's you will see that he has used it. The book stays live on Photobox so it can be viewed via a link to the site. Free storage for as long as it lasts. Dating the album is important. Were they ever to go into an archive after my passing one would hope they would be accompanied by my caving logs. Cross referencing the two would explain everything.

The Old Ruminator said:

  As for people that's fairly obvious too.

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Maybe - as long as your memory is still working!

I can imagine interested cavers in a few decades' time poring over your photos and asking on another, "Now which one of them was the 'Old Ruminator'? "

The Old Ruminator said:

I dont do text as most of the albums are single subject so its obvious which cave they are. As for people that's fairly obvious too. For me the text blocks just make the arrangements look messy . . .

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Years ago, when working with negative film and prints, and making up photographic albums from the prints, I kept a master sheet for the album with a key to the images on each page. So, the orginator of the images, whether myself or someone else, the neg. nos., people within the images (eg. from L-R) and (on occasion) the locations, but at least the names of the caves. Sometimes it can also be very useful to note the specific dates when certain (historic) pictures were taken and passage locations within the caves as well.

Having written up a significant part of my cave-exploration experiences for the forthcoming Llangattock book(s), I found that, when you're relatively young, you can remember what has gone on around you pretty reliably for around ten years or so, but after this, without an aide-m?moire, the errors and missing details start creeping in with alarming rapidity. However, if you kept a log of the caving experiences at the time when they happened then this can amazingly help you recall far greater detail, more than is actually written down, much later on in time.

Obviously, once you're no longer alive, without having left some sort of guide as to where the pictures were taken and who is in them, they will become pretty meaningless to others - since probably most of the people you were caving with at the time will also have departed - and could well simply end up in the bin. Just try looking at someone else's caving photos and working out even in which cave they took them, let alone the precise location within the cave!

The very minimum for me with 35mm slide boxes is to put a label on the lid detailing the locations where the pictures inside were taken and whether it was the 1st, 2nd or 3rd, etc., box of slides taken at that place. Cross referencing the subject matter on the lid with my various caving logs and other records then enables me to date the pictures pretty much to the day when they were taken, or certainly the year and month.

I think people become the most difficult to put a name to with the passing of time and so keeping a record that can be cross referenced with the photographs is a pretty useful thing to do.

When I digitise images I add all the relevant information as to place, people, source of image (eg. 35mm negative/slide or original print) and date, plus my own photographic and scanning credits, using the info facility in Photoshop. Thereby, if I send images off to someone else and they send them on to someone else again, all the relevant information remains with the digital image file.

I feel it's worth future proofing good cave photography work in this way - especially if the images were taken during original cave exploration trips or feature cavers who others will later be interested to see and identify.

With you all the way on that one Clive, in the process of digitising my historic Peak Cavern archive of slides at the moment, can remember most of the locations, but as for the 'Flash Monkeys', ------....

BTW, could whoever is going through the TSG log books at the moment - (Scud?)- check to see if the photo trips were recorded in the club log - early '80's ? -  might give me some clues --.

My log book is a valuable adjunct to my photos.

You can use your photo editor to caption images before uploading to Photobox.



This is my Grandad and ,yes, I was a bit worried when I saw it first.

Ultimately after all of your work dont forget to leave details of bequests in your will.

From my very first cave trip I have kept a cave book. Unlike a regular log, it is done in a sketchbook. I love an excuse to get out all my special art pens and write the stories of the trips, and I paste in prints of photos I took. They are full of stories - funny, scary, friendship, and adventure! I don't know if anyone will ever read them, but sometimes I look back and am reminded of fun trips and details that get lost as times go on. And hey maybe someone will care to read them someday. There some fun stories in there, after all    :ang:

Another Photobox book due today. That's 31 now :

Amy said:

From my very first cave trip I have kept a cave book. Unlike a regular log, it is done in a sketchbook. I love an excuse to get out all my special art pens and write the stories of the trips, and I paste in prints of photos I took. They are full of stories - funny, scary, friendship, and adventure! I don't know if anyone will ever read them, but sometimes I look back and am reminded of fun trips and details that get lost as times go on. And hey maybe someone will care to read them someday. There some fun stories in there, after all    :ang:

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Reminds me of a beautiful dive log book I saw where the owner did a full page colour wash sketch of her main impression of the dive as a background to her description of it. Looked like a work of art.