Postcard Exchange Round 15 Results and Feedback ...

[Mark Fisher]

Sorry I've not been posting my received cards lately. Had some family things pop up in the last week or so. I think these are all the cards I've received:
sly
wazza
Mark Fisher *I think? I can only really make out Mark on the card sorry!
DRPSilver
Jon King
Tim Gray
Black Dog
Anke Drewitz
Kathy (KWhitmore?)
Buster 6x6
nyx
I have about 2/3s of my cards printed and filled out at the moment so hopefully will still make the deadline...

If it is a very high contrast image of some lips on a carnival ride, it is mine. Might be tough to tell it is a carnival ride since I removed the context.

 

[erikg]

I've received three more: Judith's White Mt. Flume -- well done! Way to fill the frame, great balance and contrast. Kathy's Laundry Day -- interesting location and I like the way you framed it, the spiral stair is especially cool. Buster 6x6's pooch portrait of Buster. Great pic, he looks like a good friend, and now we know the origin of your apug id. Thanks folks.

 

[Buster6X6]

Thanks Ruediger , Judith sure made a great image keep her shooting . Stu I had an idea it was something as Leica , wonderful image.
ericg thanks for your comments.

Greg

 

[Pete H]

Thanks, Buster for the buddy. Nice shot.
Also thanks, nyx, for the fascinating abstract. I'm still working on the interpretation.

Pete

 

[stu]

Hi all,

I haven't yet expressed my thanks for all the lovely postcards so far. I have arranged them on the wall by my desk at work. I work in an advertising agency, and unsurprisingly all the creative types come over to have a good look at them. They love them, quite a talking point!

So, my thanks so far go to
drpsilver
Warren Hinder
Lillian Sly
Tim Gray
Mark Fisher
Nyx
Buster6x6
Black Dog

Great stuff. Thank you.

 

[Black Dog]

Black dogs

Black Dog - This one is full of mystery. What's the story here...what's the guy with the hat thinking? Afraid of dogs? Love it.


Thanks again, another great round.

-Kathy[/QUOTE]

Hi Kathy-glad you liked it.It's from a visit to Barfleur in Normandy with my parents and Floss [black and white Border Collie].I noticed the two dogs facing off and just had the time to grab this picture [luckily I had a 28mm lens on my LX and had set it to f16]....a rare foray into street photography for me!

 

[ozphoto]

Sorry to all on my list. Has been another hectic month shooting overseas.
Finally printed them up over the weekend, and they are just flattening out.
Should have them in the post by Monday for all of you!

 

[drpsilver]

13 Nov 2008

To All:

It has been a very busy two weeks with work and relatives visiting from the UK. Now it is time to catch-up and comment on the cards I have received (in no particular order).

I like KWhitmore's card of laundry drying because it has so many stories to tell.
Black Dog has very effectively captured an essence of this memorial. I really like the soft focus shadows in the background.
Jon King's Egyptian Bull must have been a real surprise. I wonder what the builders of the bull were thinking. What a find indeed!
MattKing's driftwood has good tonal range and lots of detail. I like how you kept the entire piece in focus. Good work!
Tim Gray's photo really captures the sense of something being disturbed. I can imagine the pigeons being scattered by the bicycle. This photo also has lots of possible stories to tell.
Anke Drewitz's card is one of my favorites for this round. The warm tone emulsion and base of this, unknown to me, paper makes the image glow. Great card!
Buster6x6's portrait of Buster gives a real sense of how much of a companion he is.
Finally for now, jst's card of the flume in the White Mountains. Nice work. Ruediger, you have taught you daughter well.

Thanks to all for your cards, and for your kind words regarding the card I sent. It is exciting to see what the mail brings to me each day.

Regards,
Darwin

 

[drpsilver]

I've received lots of great cards; in no particular order:

Pines in Fog from drpsilver - I like to shoot in fog too, but how do you keep the water out of the bellows?

14 Nov 2008

Pete:

When photographing in the fog, or light rain, I will use my dark cloth to cover the camera as much as possible until its time to trip the shutter. I am not overly concerned with keeping the bellows absolutely dry. To date I have not had any issues with moisture inside the camera.

Then at the end of the day I will set-up the camera with the bellows almost fully extended and let them dry overnight. This assumes that you have a dry place to set-up. Of course if it starts to really rain I will throw the dark cloth over the camera and begin to pack-up as quickly as possible.

Regards,
Darwin

 

[Mike Wilde]

finally, time snatched to comment on the cards in to date

Jake Williams – Plum pudding – I like the effective use of the shallow depth of field. The dim light, to capture the flame, allows you to cast the tea cup out of focus – but we still know what the cup is, and it sets the context for the balance of the image. Oh, and the memories of Grandma putting her home made steamed plum pudding on the table, or some years a carrot and raisin pudding instead. Then Grandpa would sally forth with the brandy, liberally douse the warm pudding on the plate, and then he would use the paper pull bit left over from the Christmas crackers, and transfer the flame from one of the candles that were always burning in a table centre piece of some sort to the pudding. Your image really takes me back.

Mark Fisher – County fair – Great abstraction I like the great contrast range, and sparse use of greys. My wife commented – ‘like a Warhol a bit isn’t it’

Warren Hinder – Eucalypts canopy on the waters edge – I love the deep brooding feeling the dark tone lower undergrowth give to the frame. Hats off to you for finding the still water to frame the reflection so well also.

Hal9000 – Leaves photogram. – A great range of tones; I usually just get whites and blacks with my photogram efforts. I not sure if you made this arrangement fixed by ironing the leaves to wax paper first or not. If not, then there would be a unique arrangement for each print, and I love that idea as well. The sugar maple leaf I easily identify with; I have been raking the things up and bagging them on almost every dry day I could find for the last 3 weeks.

John King – wow- what a subject – I love it.

Lillian Sly – Heads gardener- a very nice scan and inkjet print. I like how the saturation of colours captured by the original slide still echo well in this derived print.

Darwin – foggy trees – a very nice low key image. Great that you can pull such an image out of an overcast day; I wish I could – usually I see a day like this and think – good thing this is a work day, and not the weekend.

Buster – the true pal- He looks to be stirring from a nap taken on the back step, and has the same look that my kids give me when I am about to make an exposure – as if to say – oh dad, not another picture. Nice use of sharpness and a range of tones.

Tim Grey – Pigeon puddle – There must be too much latent CSI in my brain, because, like others, I saw this first as a pool of blood, with spatters. – the title set me straight.

 

[Anke Drewitz]

received some more cards:

Jon King's Egyptian Bull - a quiet impressive thing to shoot
Tim Gray's crime story - nice kiff-off to create some storys around
drpsilver's nice dreamy fogged pines
Buster6x6's Buster - Is he the buddy for your camera equipment?
Nyx's abstract and toned details - love this tone

Thank's to all and even to the kind responses to my cards,
Anke

 

[Buster6X6]

Yesterday I received a card from nyx It is a wonderful image ,tone is outstanding. Marek you did not give me anything how the image was created. Maybe I would like to try something like that in the future. Tell me what camera and film did you use? Also paper and developer?. Very creative.

Greg

 

[nyx]

Yesterday I received a card from nyx It is a wonderful image ,tone is outstanding. Marek you did not give me anything how the image was created. Maybe I would like to try something like that in the future. Tell me what camera and film did you use? Also paper and developer?. Very creative.

Greg

Thank you, I'm glad you like it

I'm sorry, I had enough trouble with printing the address sheets already, so I didn't include technical details. Maybe I'll master it for the next round.

It was shot with M6 + ZM 35/2 at some middle aperture on Trix souped at Xtol stock. But the important part is of course Foma 131 paper in Maco Superlith developer.

And believe me, I'm glad you can't compare the postcards with each other...lith printing 50 cards and trying to keep them all as close as possible...not fun

 

[Buster6X6]

Thanks Marek I believe you, print is outstanding though.

Greg

 

[johnnywalker]

I received nyx's beautiful print today. Awesome print job. I think this is only the second lith print I've held in my hands. I just checked Marek's address, and it looks like the country is missing on my label. I haven't had it returned, so maybe I found it and fixed it before I mailed it - but maybe not. Anyway Marek, you should have mine by now - if you don't let me know and I'll send another.
Also received Kathy's print of the bicyclist on the stairs. Nice capture! Did you just stand there waiting knowing somebody would do that eventually?
I also received Buster6x6's picture of Buster, his namesake. Great dog photo. I can see him saying, "ok, but only one picture and be quick about it".

 

[KWhitmore]

Thanks johnnywalker! The cyclist I caught had just jumped another set of stairs above and behind me. So, after the shock of seeing that little maneuver, I closed my gaping pie-hole, put the camera to my eye and waited for him to jump the next set of stairs. It was at the end of a nice long walk through Montreal's old port.

Kathy

 

[kraker]

Just finished printing my 30-odd cards. While they're drying, let me comment on the cards received since my last update:

Tim Gray: I read an earlier comment about the "crime scene", which sounded a bit odd to me, until I saw your card. Some crime scene indeed! I like it a lot, thanks.
nyx: I read the details a few posts back. This is a really nice abstract. Still figuring out which side is up. Not that it really matters: it is great anyway! Thanks.
Busters buddy Buster... "I'm more a cat person myself" "What? Wash in your own spit and all that?"...but seeing this lovely creature, well, I'm sold! Lovely picture.
Pete H. visit to Brugge. Yes, that would be a typical view of Brugge, indeed (And then again, not necessarily Brugge.) Nice shot.

Thanks, it's been a great round so far.

As I said, mine are printed. Writing them will take me some time, but I would expect them to go in the mail before the end of November.

 

[erikg]

Four more this weekend: Aluk's Summer Memories -- the season seems so far off already. Nice closeup on the flowers, they will help get us through the winter. Pete H's Bicycles and chocolate, two of my favorite things. I think I would like Belgium. Great capture of a charming scene. Nyx's untitled abstract. I love the composition and the way it works in any orientation. Beautiful print too, I haven't seen many true lith prints, but the color really works with this image, very rich and there is a nice dimensionality to it. Finally is Bdial's full moon through the trees. Great! Very spooky, Halloween came right to mind. My wife really loves it too, it has a lot of feeing in it. Thanks so much, folks.

I'm running a bit late with mine, but they should be going out pretty soon. I need to figure out a better way to do the labels. Any advice on bringing the address list into excel?, I can't seem to get the fields to fill properly.

 

[Akki14]

Have recieved aluk's flowers. Very pretty. What kind of paper is it? Ilford Satin?

 

[drpsilver]

17 Nov 2008

Two cards from this weekend's mail:

Pete H.'s photo combines two of my favorite things: chocolate and bicycling. Nice composition of bicycle (and riders) with the chocolateir. I also am struck by the juxtaposition of old and newish buildings.

The card from nyx is very nice. There is so much going on in this image, but is does not give me any sense of clutter. I find it really cool that this image could work well in any orientation. Well printed indeed!!

Thanks for the cards, and keep the surprises coming in the mail.

Regards,
Darwin

 

[aluk]

My postcards went out before the weekend, so they should be arriving soon (for those who have not yet already received them). @ Akki14: Sorry for the lack of details - as I wasn't using labels, I didn't have the patience or room to squeeze in all the info. Ilford FP4+, MGIV Pearl.

 

[rst]

There arrived more postcards at my door.

KWhitmore sent Laundry Day which I like very much.

The pigeon steps from Tim Gray is great - and funny.

Buster6x6 sent me Buster. The whole family loves this card.

bdial sent a very dark and moody Halloween postcard. Thanks for that.

Bruges: chocolates and a bicycle from Pete H is great. I like this kind of images. Maybe because this never happens to me.

Then there are Summer Memories from aluk. Nice. I have a very similar shot from my mothers backyard.

And then came the postcard from nyx. Wow, that is a great print. Very nice. This is definitely one of my favorites of this round. Thanks.

I am going to write and sign my postcards right now. They should go out tomorrow or at least within this week.

Thanks and ciao
Ruediger

 

[bdial]

Ruediger, I'm glad you like it. I'm astounded that it made to Germany already though (went in the mail Saturday).

 

[Buster6X6]

Two more cards arrived yesterday.
Pete H "Joker" Very nice street scene even with the high contrast, shadows printed really good.
aluk's I hope I have read it right" summer memories" beautiful selective focus image.

Thanks Greg

 

[nyx]

I just checked Marek's address, and it looks like the country is missing on my label. I haven't had it returned, so maybe I found it and fixed it before I mailed it - but maybe not. Anyway Marek, you should have mine by now - if you don't let me know and I'll send another.

Don't worry, I got your card already. I think it was one of the first that came.