About the Photo URLs

I was going to write, "You may be interested by the format of my photo URLs," but then I realized, if you've decided to view this page, your interest is no longer a matter of question. You're obviously either curious, or extraordinarily bored.

Most photos on this part of my site are in a subfolder bearing a six-digit code in the format xxx-xxx. This is not made up out of whole cloth. These codes correspond to the APS Roll ID code for the roll of film used to take the pictures. The name of each individual picture consists of the APS Roll ID, the frame number, and the obligatory extension for the photo's file format.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Advanced Photo System (APS), each roll of film bears an identification code. There is a long, machine-readable code, which (to the best of my knowledge) is unique. There is also an easily-readable six-digit subset of that long code, which is likely to be unique for any one person's film collection. This six-digit code is marked on the film cassette, and on the film itself.

During developing, this code is read by the developing equipment, and the code is printed on the back of each photo, along with the photo's frame number. The roll ID is also printed on an "index print" that is included with the developed film. The index print is a single sheet of 4" x 6" film that shows thumbnail pictures of the entire roll. The film negative is returned in the original film cassette.

Thus, pictures taken with an APS camera can be easily tracked. For any photo shown here, I can take the file name and easily retrieve the original negative from my library, and have it reprinted, without ever consulting the negatives themselves -- or the index print, for that matter.

And, it's an easy way to choose unique filenames for these photos when I scan them.

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