This is my little red book. I use it to keep track of all the finds I make during a collection day. Not when I´m out in the field (my memory is not that bad yet), but when I unwrap the fossils in the evening. I jot down the date, every fossil I found, it´s size, where I found it, any further interesting facts, since March 1991.
My little red book
In the last couple of years, after digital cameras became affordable, I´ve also made a picture of every fossil I have found to keep a photographical record of what the fossil
looked like before I prepped it. When later you have to e.g. remove the matrix of the fossil for whatever reason, you can still reconstruct what it looked like originally.
Digital pictures cost nothing unless you have them printed, so I have a database of fossil pictures on my PC´s hard drive (and I do backup regularly).
Digital pictures also do have the nice feature to tell you their “date of birth”, i.e. the creation date of their file from their so called “exif” (for exchangable image file format) data. If you set the date on your camera correctly (!), you can use this information embedded in the picture to “find” every picture you made on a specific date on your computer´s hard disk. Together with the notes from my little red book, that makes it very easy to later on put the right information on the label of the fossil in the collection.
Digital pictures also do have the nice feature to tell you their “date of birth”, i.e. the creation date of their file from their so called “exif” (for exchangable image file format) data. If you set the date on your camera correctly (!), you can use this information embedded in the picture to “find” every picture you made on a specific date on your computer´s hard disk. Together with the notes from my little red book, that makes it very easy to later on put the right information on the label of the fossil in the collection.
And since I know that you like those before / after prep photos, here are two sets of them…
Crucilobiceras densinodulum, as found
Crucilobiceras densinodulum, prepped, 5.5 cm
This Crucilobiceras densinodulum was found on July 13, 2008 at Boggle Hole.
Amaltheus margaritatus, as found
Amaltheus margaritatus, prepped, 7 cm
This Amaltheus margaritatus was found on March 29, 2012 at Hawsker Bottoms
AndyS
Yorkshire Ammonites (and other fossils ) revisited 