Secure storage of your equipment.

[Lachlan 717]

I'm interested in the means that people go to in order to make sure their equipment (and images) are stored safely.

For instance, I have just purchased a 6'x2'x2' aluminium tool box to put my gear in. This is locked via 2 large, hardened steel padlocks.

Inside, I have added to the security by storing my 48kg of scuba diving lead weights. Nice and heavy! Not going to be easy to scamper away to the local pub/bar with to sell at a silly price.

In addition, I also purchased a large, fire rated safe to store my images on. This includes scanned images on CD/DVD. This is also locked in the aluminium box.

Anyone else go to these lengths?

Lachlan.

[Nick_3536]

I often lock the front door.

[Turner Reich]

Pretty much the same but I have an alarm on the box too boot.

[Vaughn]

I have a twenty+ year old RAAF airman's metal foot locker, but I can't get my wife to let me use it (she stores some extra linens in it.)

Vaughn

[Lachlan 717]

I have a twenty+ year old RAAF airman's metal foot locker, but I can't get my wife to let me use it (she stores some extra linens in it.)

Vaughn

In other words, she has the twenty+ year old RAAF locker!!

[Eric Woodbury]

Be careful about fire safes. A document safe will pressure cook your negs. You need a "media safe" for negatives or CDs. They have thicker walls, lower humidty, and a longer burn time, usually 4 hours. If you live where there are wild fires, then just kiss it off. Here in the US, if your house is on fire in a wild fire, the fire department will not waste their time on it and the hot ashes will cook anything and everything. I'm considering an underground media vault.

[Leonard Metcalf]

False floor in the truck, tinted windows, and an alarm. And after loosing them once, I rarely ever leave them in the vehicle.

Len

[Brian Ellis]

I'd be flattered if anyone liked my photographs well enough to steal 'em.

[Frank Petronio]

.22 downstairs, 12 gauge upstairs, 18" Maglite and steel tire thupper in the car....

Oh and a mean angry Golden Retriever, lol.

[Ron Marshall]

I never leave anything in a parked vehicle, even for a short time.

[Brian K]

Eric is right about fire safes versus media vaults. But I ended up going the fire safe route because the media vaults are far heavier (2-3 times the weight) and provide far less storage area for the same footprint (1/3 to 1/2). I have many negatives i needed to store and using media vaults would mean that I'd need 4- 1500 pound media vaults to equal the storage area of the 2- 600 pound fire safes that I have. Quite a difference in floor load and foot print. In addition I would still be unable to store enough prints in either safe system.

So to compensate for the lower protection afforded film by paper rated fire safes, and mind you mine are 3 hour rated, and to provide some level of protection for the huge amount of prints I have, I instead made the dedicated storage room more fire resistant. The exterior walls of the room are 8-12 inches of steel reinforced concrete, the floor is concrete and ground level. The interior walls are three layers of fire rated gypsum, each rated for 20 minutes (one hour total protection) , the doors are fire rated doors, even the air vents are fire vents designed to close a steel barrier if the outside temperature exceeds 160 degrees. The rooms immediately connected to the Safe room also use fire rated gypsum and the floors are concrete covered with porcelain tile.

The room itself is at the furthest point in my house from the furnace & boiler and is also the furthest point away from the main structure of the house. In addition I am very close to my town's fire house. I have a central station burglar/fire/CO sensor/alarm system which would report a fire to the central monitoring company at the first sign of smoke. The use of the fire safes was to add an additional delaying tactic regarding fire damage to my negs. I figure given the other protective factors it would not subject the fire safes to a significant exposure to flame or intense heat for very long and the entire purpose of both fire safes and media vaults is to delay fire damage ( the whole fire rating thing is about how long a time exposure is to fire conditions) I have done enough compensation in other areas to make up the difference between the two.

I just hope that this strategy is never tested.

[kev curry]

...car security is a little cuddly dog called Rover

[Joseph O'Neil]

.22 downstairs, 12 gauge upstairs, 18" Maglite and steel tire thupper in the car....

Oh and a mean angry Golden Retriever, lol.

*sigh* Complete overkill. A 12 gauge is all you ever need, if you buy the right ammo to begin with.

:p

[David A. Goldfarb]

Some of my stuff is in a closet. Some of it is in the study. The closet has a sturdy lock, but I don't have a key for it.

[Brian K]

Well, how many great images do you really want to protect? I've read where you're lucky to have 50 great images in your portfolio over your lifetime (fine art). So lets assume you have 200-300. Well, that should be easy enough to store at the bank (film or DVD). If you got thousands of images, then I believe your just storing junk, and you need to really decide which are memories, and which really sell.



Professionals view the images they produce differently. While many people may not produce work of financial value, professional photographers often find great value or income through stock sales. In addition when you have spent many years, and tremendous amounts of money producing images you also view them as having value.

Regarding equipment safes a floor standing gun safe is usually more than enough protection for camera gear. These are usually over 450 pounds, can be bolted to the floor and have thick enough steel to deter everyone short of a skilled jewel thief, and skilled jewel thieves do not waste their time with camera gear. A gun safe has vastly more internal storage than a jeweler's safe.

In addition having a central station reporting alarm system helps as it is always ideal to not even allow the burglar to enter your home.

[Vaughn]

I'd be flattered if anyone liked my photographs well enough to steal 'em.

My truck was broken into back in '95 -- lost all my 5x7 equipment (from pod to spot meter...and my TLR Rollei. But to add insult to injury, they obviously did not think the framed photograph I had with the camera gear was worth anything and they left it (along with two 5x7 film holders I had loose.) They broke the lock on the driver's side door and got into the camper shell via the back window of the cab.

Vaughn

[Turner Reich]

If I lived in a fire area I'd dig a deep hole and put in a concrete liner, when or if a fire is going to burn everything then I'd put the valuables in there and put a lid on and fill it in.

[Drew Wiley]

Around here they'll take your lockbox, your truck, and everything. Padlocks won't last
ten seconds. The most important thing is to keep a low profile. Don't carry fancy
looking camera cases. Throw an old blanket and some worthless clutter over your gear when traveling. Be aware of who might follow you home or to the studio. Don't trust repairmen you haven't known for a long time. Don't have equipment shipped to your home - get a different shipping address. Don't use a professional name on your mailing envelopes. Etc. Protecting prints and negatives is a completely different problem. Just
be aware that data safes and fire safes will need some sort of internal humdiity control
or everything might rust and mildew, unless you're in a desert climate. If you have a lot
of valuable prints you'll probably have to build a vault room. But then you'll get hit by
an asteroid!