Is your home a photographers ware house ?

<p>Does your home look like a photographers warehouse, or does it look like a normal home. I live in an apartment and it's getting harder and harder trying to figure out where to put all this stuff. I have a home-made studio in one room and a darkroom in another. Some of the stuff won't fit in my closets which are already filled to the brim, so I just leave them out there. Combine that with hundreds of books and magazines mostly photography and you might as well say I'm living in a photographers warehouse. Not sure if this is a good or bad thing.... </p>

<p>It's only a bad thing if it gets in the way of life, otherwise it's just a minor inconvenience. :-) </p>

<p>Pretty much! Thirty-four cameras, plus their assorted lenses, tripods, two cases of studio lights plus stands, backdrops etc., and a darkroom with two enlargers.</p>

<p>When I see the "Hoarders" shows on TV (too painful to watch) I see that if you substitute cameras and photo gear for the hoarded stuff, my office pretty much fits the bill. I've managed to keep large areas of the house clear of photodebris for the time being....<br>

Sometime this spring I've got to make it to IKEA to buy more shelving, etc.... :(</p>

<p>Spring cleaning is almost upon us... a good time to analyze what are our real needs, and to dispense with the other. I realize that is easier said than done, but the exercise helps to focus our real interests.</p>

<p>Cameras.</p>

<p>Wife.</p>

<p>Only space for one, but which?</p>

<p>:o)</p>

<p>Duplicate, oops.</p>

<p>Thirty four cameras, huh? He ain't even trying. I've got 50 film cameras in my living room. If they started selling real gold bars for a buck each how many would you have at home? Some of these old cameras are worth more than gold to me and some are well, just mighty interesting. Jay Leno has over 300 automobiles and Seinfield more Porsches than you can count. Cameras are a small vice, I think.<br>

Could I NOT purchase a Bilora Bella 44 in mint condition-- cheap? I think not.</p>

<blockquote>

<p><em>"Jay Leno has over 300 automobiles and Seinfield more Porsches than you can count."</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>Jay Leno talked about that and what he said probably applies to every collector/accumulator. </p>

<p>Paraphrasing his remark, we are only temporary curators of the things we love and own, and in so doing we preserve history so future generations can learn from and enjoy those things that were once so dear to us. </p>

<p>I'm glad that there are those struggling to keep all those cameras and accessories so I can live vicariously through their collections. I have a stash of odd early digital cameras too that are not very common or valuable but are historically significant, and maybe one day those cameras in the closet will have a place in a museum somewhere in the timeline of cameras and other (currently) useless things. </p>

<p>My basement looks like a used camera shop. Still cameras from 110 to 5x7. Lenses from 20mm to 500mm in 35mm, medium format and large format. Film to digital. Lighting from hot lights to shoemount flash to studio strobe. Darkroom for everythign up through 4x5, with at least three enlargers and a 6-foot sink. And don't forget movie gear -- from 8mm home movies to five 16mm projectors, a pair of 35mm theater projectors and a quarter million feet of 35mm feature length movies. My wife doesn't go down there much.</p>

<p>Holy smokes Craig. I need to print and laminate your response for defense in domestic discussions of collecting stuff :-). Real 35mm projectors with vents and all, so hey, please post an image when you can of you used camera shop. You win the prize hands down...aloha, gs</p>

I only have enough gear to comfortably shoot and process photos. I have a lot of photo prints and digital

files however. They store and display efficiently however. So I don't have these 'warehouse' issues.

<p>Like a camera shop and a yarn store, us. <br>

Most of my camera collection sits in a bookshelf that's not deep enough for books, but will fit a Brownie Hawkeye handily. Others sit on top of another bookshelf nearby. Other things, like my 4x5 monorail, sit by the tv stand out of the way. Upstairs, I've just installed a bookshelf for safelights, timers, and my contact printer... the film developing kit lives under the desk, the enlarger on top. It's not a warehouse, and I use it all, but it is present. </p>

<p>I have wardrobes and closets filled with framed prints. I have boxes of unframed prints in cabinets and under beds. I have two shelves in one closet with all my photo gear except tripods and light stands. Don't see much reason to accumulate equipment, like John.</p>

<p>Our place is beginning to look pretty good. There's contact sheets laying around, chemicals stuffed under the sink, and every available drawer is full of cameras, lenses, and little stuff. I tend to clean everything up after developing or printing, but it's MUCH more fun leaving it lay around.</p>

<p>Is there a photographers anonymous out there yet?</p>