The Camera Cabinet

Carl's sale was a nice success, with over 90 orders, 25 or so of those for both prints. Later orders could take up to eight weeks to arrive, but we'll keep people posted as to what's happening with shipments. My thanks to Carl, his wife Bettina, and all of you who participated or commented.

We're committed to the sale-a-month experiment until the end of the year (and possibly through January or February), but I can already say it won't be continuing. We went from too few of those sales to too many. Next year (excepting the early months, if applicable), we'll have three or four print offers, all in the Fall, and that'll be it.

Any coffee-drinkers crabby and cranky today? You may be, since you had no "Morning Coffee" this a.m.! Sorry...I was still working at 11 p.m. and had three hours to go before bedtime, but I lost it—got so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open. Had to crash. Ya hate it when that happens.

At the end of the month I'll be traveling to work on the first TOP book. Although there have been lots of delays with that, it's front-burner time for that project. I can't wait.

Today I spent several hours at the old house working on packing more things up, and came to...The Camera Closet. Which has yet to be touched. In the spirit of the move, I should really cull mercilessly and keep only what I really need and frequently use, right? (Tellingly, the only camera to make it here to the new house so far is the NEX-6 and Zeiss 24mm ƒ/1.8. I've bonded with that.)

It might even be time to attack the odds'n'ends box, which is chock full of filters and lenscaps and straps and diopter attachments and one-offs like Bill Schneider's replacement baseplate for a Wista 4x5 and an old Weston selenium meter. I've given dozens of lenses to Goodwill and sent "care packages" to a several camera-loving friends (mostly comprised of true esoterica), but the camera cabinet is still too full, overloaded with treasures. (Maybe I should put that word in quotation marks.) And the odds'n'ends box has always been sacrosanct—it never gets culled, just added to.

"Too full" is the way camera cabinets are supposed to be, though, right? It's their happy state, the way they want to be. Always room for one more.

Oh, and I did pick "Church" for the print sale wall in my basement office. Close call, though, that.

Mike

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Kevin Bourque: "I just got through purging my camera closet and it's STILL FULL. How does that happen?"

Comments

[Earl Dunbar]

Speaking of Weston meters, last month while on holiday, I discovered that the 357 batteries for my OMs and SP35 were definitely not as they "always" are. So when "Sunny 16" wasn't good enough, I relied on the Weston IV that was in the 4x5 kit. It's accurate, agreeing with the Pentax Spotmeter that was calibrated by Richard Ritter.

[Ken Tanaka]

Why do you now feel you're having too many print sales? It appears to me that your readers enjoy and take advantage of them. Plus it seems that the majority of the work -- production & fulfillment -- are the onus of the photographer.

[Rusty]

Three moves are as close to a fire as it gets

[Glenn Allenspach]

One of my favorite "Treasures" I had over the years in my Fibber Weegee's Closet was a shutter release timer. Probably 50's vintage, but I never really knew. It looked like a little silver bullet, had a wind-up lever on it, and when you removed the bullet tip, it screwed into the camera's cable release socket. The best part was the name: Votar.

[Mike]

I fully endorse a full camera cabinet, unless someone has something fun they're looking to unload (that I can add to mine).

[Bernd Reinhardt]

Mike, why do you feel that there have been too many print sales? Number of prints sold? Work load? Can you please elaborate.

[Bryce Lee]

Mike, did you sell your old house?
And did you get the price you wanted?

[Michael Roche]

Mike,how about a picture of the photo cabinet and a few words on some of the contents.

[Roberto]

Well, I was counting on TOP sales to get some more photo, from time to time, compatibly with my taste and mostly with my finances. It one-a-month is too much, my approach would have been just to halve it, and test it again until you find the right balance. Anyway, your call, and I'll be grateful whatever you decide.

[Steve Pritchard]

Mike, do you think the noble ambition of the Morning Coffee column might become a rod for your back if you feel obliged to produce one every day? I enjoy them, naturally but I don't feel like you should apologise if you don't file every single day. To me, part of the T.O.P. ethos resides in it's tone of informality and, although I don't know you outside of these pages I get the impression you're not a huge fan of regimentation. I'd be happy just to see 'em when you've got 'em!

[Dennis]

I read about Ingrid first, then about the camera closet. I think you need to talk to your organizer consultant again. The only upside here is you can't die from an overdose.

[Oskar Ojala]

I have a box with my filters in it. I keep thinking I want a box half the size, but then I don't really get rid of anything, because if I need any of the filters, it's easy to just take from the box and the value of a second hand filter is pretty low these days, so no great incentive to try to get rid of them other than space.

I've always wondered though how people store their lenses. Just standing up in cabinets doesn't seem to scale that well. Or do people have custom cabinets?