Blind Print Exchange

Nige · Feb 2, 2004

Has Jim sent who I'm supposed to be sending to? If so, I've misplaced it...

Silverpixels5 · Feb 2, 2004

I recieved my recipient back at the begining of Dec. Try contacting Jim to see if he can get you an address again.

Jim Moore · Mar 15, 2004

I am interested in joining in on the next round if there are any openings.

Thanks!!

Jim

Jim Chinn · Mar 15, 2004

JMoore,

I will get an name and address to you for April.

To everyone else who is a current participant,

Thanks for sharing your passion and art with others in the exchange group.
Please accept my most humble apology for not being more on top of things, especially my own exchanges. I was hit with some major home repairs that involved the part of the house that contains my darkroom, and then just as I was getting caught up with my printing work for a couple of customers my wife's brother died suddenly from a Group A strep infection. He was 52, a non-smoker, a model of good health and a wonderful person. My wife has been devastated and we are just now getting back to normal.

I currently have the following people listed in the exchange, listed by use rnames:

Silverpixel5
David Vickery
Ken S
Ole
Shesh
Nige
Poco
Brimc76
jtsatterlee
David Goldfarb
efikim
Phill Dresser
Bmac
JMoore
Jim68134
Ryan T. (not listed on the forum but someone I know)

Any one else is more then welcome, some rough guidelines are listed earlier in this post. I ask anyone who is currently exchanging prints to be patient, I will get new matches sent to you next week for April. ( I am going to forgo March, I had no time to get names out last month)

I would also like to extend a special invitation to the women on the forum to participate. Don't be shy, it is a great way to look at a variety of styles and techniques of others and be able to discuss work in more depth.

philldresser · Mar 15, 2004

Jim

Sorry to hear of your loss and the house troubles. Take your time and get yourselves sorted. We will still be here when the time is better for you

Regards

Phill

David A. Goldfarb · Mar 16, 2004

I just want to echo Phill's sentiments. Take as much time as you need.

brimc76 · Mar 16, 2004

Jim take your time and get things back on track first.

Silverpixels5 · Jun 13, 2004

Is the blind print exchange still up and running?

Jim Chinn · Jun 13, 2004

I had to put the exchange sort of on the back burner while I got my camera business up and running. I still have all the names and will reshuffle and contact those who were participating. I know some are participating in JMoore's exchange so may not want to continue. But I still like the idea of exchanging one on one so I will contact everyone in July.

Joe Symchyshyn · Aug 26, 2004

I would be interested in the next exchange (if there is one...)

joe

mark · Aug 26, 2004

I would like to participate too, if people don't mind 5x7 contacts until I can find a bulb for the enlarger I have access to.

Jim Chinn · Aug 26, 2004

I had to suspend the exchange for awhile due some personal matters and all the time involved in getting my ULF cameras ready for sale. JMoore has a great exchange going that is a group exchange. The only real difference is in his exchange you would print 5 images and send them to five people and get five in return from those photographers. There are threads in this forum with details and if you post he will include you in the next go around. In that forum prints are exchanged every other month.

Gustavo_Castilla · Dec 27, 2004

Info

Hi I read the info on print excange jet I am not sure how it works .
I uploaded a few Images and did received comments on them but nothing about exchanging can some one tell me more about the forum
Thanks

roteague · Dec 27, 2004

castilg said:
Hi I read the info on print excange jet I am not sure how it works .
I uploaded a few Images and did received comments on them but nothing about exchanging can some one tell me more about the forum
Thanks

We are currently in the third round of print exchanges. Check out the following thread: (there was a url link here which no longer exists) and it should give you more details. Basically, you agree to exchange prints with a limted number of people, in the current round there are three people in each group. You choose a print that you wish to share, print them and send one to each member of your group. I'm not sure when the next exchange will start, probably not until the beginning of the year.

kwmullet · Dec 27, 2004

Jim Chinn said:
I had to suspend the exchange for awhile due some personal matters and all the time involved in getting my ULF cameras ready for sale. JMoore has a great exchange going that is a group exchange. The only real difference is in his exchange you would print 5 images and send them to five people and get five in return from those photographers. There are threads in this forum with details and if you post he will include you in the next go around. In that forum prints are exchanged every other month.

Jim,

I saw this exchange thread for the first time last night and became very interested in participating and was disappointed (but understood why) to see that it's on hold for now. I think this random exchange has a different appeal than the current group exchanges. The bar isn't quite so high -- you're basically encouraged to exchange a snapshot (proof/contact sheet/custom print/etc) of your current work with a randomly-chosen participant. I can see how this might appeal to someone who doesn't want to generate five custom prints for one of the other exchanges. Myself, I would like to participate in both kinds of exchanges.

Seeing that you've got a full plate, might I be so imperinant as to ask a question? Is all that's required of the "moderator" of the blind exchange to collect names/addresses and form random pairs, informing each person of the other member in their pair? If so, how would you feel if someone else stepped up to the plate and attempted to restart this particular exchange?
If someone else expresses an interest, maybe they could do it at least until you have enough copious spare time to take back over, if you wanted. If no one expresses an interest, I may be interested in doing it.

I'm thinking one way to start would be to just PM the members from the last blind exchange further up in the thread and see if they're interested while we wait a couple of weeks for additional members to express an interest as well.

-KwM-

John McCallum · Dec 27, 2004

I think that's a good suggestion. Perhaps Jim might be comfortable letting the reins go to someone else for a little while, just to keep the momentum going(?)
I'd like to participate, if the exchange were to continue going again.

oriecat · Dec 27, 2004

I really like the idea behind this exchange. I would also like to join up if someone gets it going again. I would be happy to help in any way I can.

mikeb_z5 · Dec 27, 2004

I too would like to join in on this one

Jeremy · Dec 27, 2004

I think this would be fun and would be willing to moderate if need be (though Kevin seems to have stepped forward).

Just a note about the print exchange groups:

For each of my groups (I have been in rounds 2 & 3) we had a total of 4 people which meant I only had to submit 3 prints total.

One idea I think we might want to implement is that everyone mail their print to the moderator along with an extra self addressed and postmarked envelope. This way the moderator would shuffle the prints around to a randomly drawn system (lots of free random number generators on the net), put the prints in the different envelope, and then drop them off at the post office. This would GUARANTEE that if you submitted a print that you would receive one back. This seems to be a problem with the group exchange. This would be more work for the moderator which is why I said I would be willing to do so. Because of the cost of shipping to and from the moderator, those outside of North America might not want to join in such an endeavor.

Another option, would be to just include $1.75 with your print and I could buy a huge box of 11x14 envelopes from Sams to use for the shipping so we wouldn't have to worry about the hassle of packing an extra envelope in. 1st class shipping in the US for one of the bubble-padded 11x14 envelopes with an 8x10-11x14 print and two sheets of matboard or cardboard backing is ~$1.60 and the rest would be used to offset the envelope cost.

This is just an idea as I have been a part of a number of exchanges and there are always a few who ruin it for the rest by never sending prints whether out of extenuating circumstances or not, it's always a let-down.

gr82bart · Dec 28, 2004

I've been reading these threads with interest and I'd like to join this one too. Heck, if I'm going in the dark again, I'm going all the way baby!

Art.

Ole · Dec 28, 2004

Jeremy Moore said:
... Because of the cost of shipping to and from the moderator, those outside of North America might not want to join in such an endeavor.
...

Cost of shipping notwithstanding, I'm in. As always.

oriecat · Dec 28, 2004

I think part of the allure of this type of exchange is its simplicity and not having to deal with mailing to a moderator etc (at least for me, having been the moderator for a group exchange on another forum). Maybe it just needs to be structured so that people should only sign up when they actually have a print to send out, that way people won't send one and not get one back. Example: post a notice at the beginning of January, ok people blind exchange happening, have your print ready by the third week. Beginning of the third week, anyone with a print ready posts, saying I'm ready and in, then the mod can jumble the names and PM the info, and please have everything mailed by the end of the month...

kwmullet · Dec 28, 2004

Yeah... I gotta say that risk of getting 'stiffed' by someone not sending in their print not withstanding, I can't think of a mail-through-moderator scheme that doesn't suck a lot of the joy of simplicity out of this particular blind exchange.

An alternative to defining pairs did occur to me, however. Once the list of participants is defined, and everyone commits to making one /something/ (drug store print, contact sheet, contact print, proof, custom print) and sending it somewhere (possibly another country), then the moderator would randomize the list of people and send each of them a PM with the name/address of the NEXT person on the random list, with the last person on the list getting the name of the first person on the list. That way, no one except the moderator would know from whom they should receive a print -- only to whom they should send their print. Once the sending month + a week has passed, anyone who hasn't received a print will notify the moderator who will exempt those who committed to send a print but didn't from the next round or two of the blind exchange, during which time they would hopefully resolve any issues that prevented them from getting their prints out.

If I end up being moderator for this, I might cook up a few extra postcards from each round of the postcard exchange to send them to anyone who got stiffed in the blind exchange so at least those who didn't get a print would get *something*.

thoughts?

-KwM-

Jeremy · Dec 28, 2004

No problem, it was just a thought to keep people from getting stiffed. If that's too much trouble, I'll volunteer to send to an extra print or two if someone doesn't receive one--Kevin you just let me know and I'll provide some extras.

I'm in, also.

Jim Chinn · Dec 28, 2004

Sorry I have not replied to this thread before now, but I encourage anyone who wants to collect and send out names go for it. I simply asked for people to submit addresses by PM and then tried to pair everyone up to a diferent partner, keeping in mind the costs of sending overseas.

Originally there was no obligation too participate every time. I would Email or Pm participants each time to find out if they were in that time around. Once I knew who wanted to exchange I would send each particpant a mailing address. When someone new wanted to join I would ask permission to send out his address.

In looking back it would be easier to just to post a list of names and addresses on a secure page on APUG and then just let everyone know who there exhange partner was every time. Sean offered to set up a page for me, but that was about the time personal matters started taking up all my time.

You really need to provide an option for people to skip exchanges. It makes it user friendly for everone. When two new people join you start them off together. If you have an odd number someone will always volunteer to send two prints to not leave anyone out.

For our European friends one way to keep shipping costs down is to encourage other European APUGers to join. The more participants on your side of the pond the fewer times in a year you would need to send overseas.

Maybe others have some ideas to help defray costs for members in South America, Africa, Asia/Far East.

Blind Print Exchange

Nige

Silverpixels5

Jim Moore

Jim Chinn

philldresser

David A. Goldfarb

Moderator

brimc76

Silverpixels5

Jim Chinn

Joe Symchyshyn

mark

Jim Chinn

Gustavo_Castilla

roteague

kwmullet

John McCallum

oriecat

mikeb_z5

Jeremy

gr82bart

Ole

Moderator

oriecat

kwmullet

Jeremy

Jim Chinn

Blind Print Exchange

Moderator

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