Divorcing Long Island couple agrees to share kids, not photos

BY THOMAS ZAMBITO - DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, April 14th 2010, 4:00 AM

It's not a pretty picture.

A divorcing Long Island couple agreed to share custody of their two kids - but couldn't decide how to divvy up 7,000 family photos snapped during a 21-year marriage.

So Nassau County Family Court Judge Vito DeStefano jumped in and put everything into focus.

The husband gets 75% of the photos or three out of every four on each page of 75 photo albums, DeStefano wrote. His wife gets what's left.

"The court finds that the husband was intricately involved with taking, compiling and cataloging the thousands of photos at issue," DeStefano wrote in a case in which the spouses were identified only by initials.

"He equated his collecting of photographs of family with the hobby of collecting rare books."

The hubby claimed his camera-shy wife was being vindictive by trying to take the pics, which are mainly of their kids. She said she wasn't in most of them because she was holding the camera.

The judge tried to get the warring sides to resolve their differences before issuing his ruling, and the couple paid $2,100 to scan the photographs onto a disk.

But both sides were unhappy with the quality and demanded originals.

DeStefano has given them until June 3 to split up the photos or he'll have them back in court to do it under his watch.