There’s something magical about watching an image develop on a piece of photo paper in the developer tray…to see it go from just a blank white piece of paper to becoming a photograph is what many photographers think of when they think of black-and-white photography. That process of watching the image develop is what got me hooked on photography over 30 years ago, and black-and-white is where my heart really lives, even though I’ve done more color work professionally.

In fashion, we use the word “look” to describe someone’s style. Why we don’t use the word “style” to describe someone’s style, I’ll never know, but there it is. It’s a person’s look that differentiates him or her from the rest of society at large. Oh, you know, “She has such a fabulous retro–’80s twist on a contemporary red–carpet look.” Our look is important to us.

You’d never leave thousands of dollars worth of camera gear unattended on a busy public street. It would be foolish to risk the loss of the very thing that ensures your ability to make a living. So while most photographers take great precautions to protect their expensive cameras and lenses, there are a surprising number who fail to copyright the images that they have created with that same equipment.

Film required a simple filing system. Mine consisted of slide sheets grouped by subject and stored in a file cabinet. I maintained simple notes on the slide mounts for dates, subject and location, plus a basic database. This worked well for me—until I went digital.