Postcard Exchange Round 16 Results and Feedback ...

[rst]

Hi all,

Here again as in previous rounds, a thread to collect comments, feedback, being-late-announcements and my-cards-are-in-the-mail-messages.

Welcome to all of you who are new to the exchange - Thanks for trying this out. And also welcome to those well known people being already in previous rounds - Thanks for coming back.

I hope this will be fun for everyone. I will be back as organizer for the next round which starts with sign-in in May.

Here is the list of participants as a reminder:

Adrian D (20)
Allen Friday (MAX)
aluk (30)
Andrei Ionita (20)
Anke Drewitz (30)
BirgerA (MAX)
Black Dog (MAX)
bmccarthy007 (30)
bpaties (25)
bwakel (20)
BWKate (30)
Cara (40)
crispinuk (50)
david b (50)
drpsilver (MAX)
Eric Mac (25)
gordrob (30)
hal9000 (25)
johnnywalker (30)
Jon King (MAX)
jst (15)
Kraker (30)
KWhitmore (30)
Lynda (MAX)
Mark Fisher (MAX)
MattKing (24)
Mick Fagan (MAX)
Mike Wilde (30)
mikeg (35)
nuckabean (10)
OMU (10)
ozphoto (45)
parker53 (10)
Pete H (MAX)
Peter Markowski (30)
Roger Bulcock (MAX)
rossawilson1 (24)
rst (MAX)
rwyoung (25)
sage (MAX)
Samad Asad (50)
Shannon Friday (MAX)
Simplicius (30)
sly (MAX)
Síle (MAX)
thomsonrc (20)
Tim Gray (MAX)
tlsid (25)
trotkiller (25)
Wayne Frederick (20)
wazza (MAX)
wrench (MAX)

Have fun and cheers
Rüdiger

 

[bpaties]

Hi all.

I am new to the exchange, but have loved the idea of it for a long while (also, wanted an excuse to support my local "Ted's" who now stock Ilford Postcard paper on the shelf). My question is, what is the expectation of a message, if any, on the card?? I don't want to be a slacker and not provide at least a reasonable attempt at the task.

I look forward to participating (both the giving and receiving) even though I am very much an amateur. Thanks for your efforts with this, Rudiger.

yours
boyd

 

[rst]

... My question is, what is the expectation of a message, if any, on the card?? I don't want to be a slacker and not provide at least a reasonable attempt at the task.

That is up to you. I get postcards without even menioning in a readable way who sent it and I get postcards with all details about the image. I usually print labels which contain some information about the image and then I add some handwritten personal comments - be it a remark about an earlier postcard of this person, or just an "All the best" greeting for people I do not know. This lies in the middle of those writing nearly nothing and the brave of us who write the whole message by hand.

Cheers
Ruediger

 

[MattKing]

Boyd:

I really appreciate it when there is a fair amount of info, but at a minimum I'd ask for:

1) Which exchange (in this case, APUG Postcard Exchange #16) the card is part of; and
2) Your APUG screen name.

Matt

 

[rst]

Watch out, the first address correction is out!

Cheers
Rüdiger

 

[Mick Fagan]

Boyd, my postcards are all printed, in fact I printed them last year. I will be sending them out in the near future, however, you are in Australia and I don't need an overseas stamp, therefore I'll write a postcard up tonight and it should be in the post on Thursday evening.

You can have a Captain Cook and figure out the rest by the replies to your question.

You may even get it on Friday, although Qld is possibly 2 days minimum from Melbourne.

I'll hand write, pretty easy really.

Mick.

Ps:- Vanbar also have postcard stock these days.

 

[bwakel]

As it's my first exchange I thought I'd better be prompt so mine went into the post today. Hopefully Royal Mail won't let me down and they'll be with my twenty recipients in the near future.

It was my first experience with Ilford Postcard paper and my first use of RC paper since I used it for my very first prints a couple of years ago. I found it very difficult to get the sort of image I'm used to getting using Forte and Foma FB paper so next time I might create my own postcards from those papers.

Anyway it was good fun and I'm looking forward to seeing what others send me.

Barry

 

[Tim Gray]

Hmm. I need to select a negative and print

 

[Black Dog]

I've sorted all mine out and I'll start sending them out this week.

 

[bpaties]

Hi Mick

"Morrie" arrived safely in the mail on Monday and she is a real beaut! I love the tones and your borderless printing is a very nice touch. Thanks also for including such a nice message, as my first received card it certainly sets the bar very high.

I am like like Tim and am yet to select a negative and can't seem to find time when I am not running a child to sport or attending a meeting about sport at the moment to get into the darkroom. But I should make some time in the next week or so.

Trust you have managed to avoid the wild weather and terrible fires. Stay safe.

yours
b

 

[Mick Fagan]

bpaties, good that you have received the postcard promptly, because of the weekend weather I was wondering whether mail was working.

Yes the fires are quite bad, lost three friends and one other person I knew reasonably well socially, so far. I hope that is all, but I'm not overly optimistic.

Borderless printing with this size of paper I think generally works better, not always, but most times.

Mick.

 

[drpsilver]

11 Feb 2009

My cards are all printed, and will go out in the mail by week's end. This has been a challenging round for me for several reasons...

1. I selected a negative to print and found it was covered with dust so I had to rewash it.
2. I pulled the next box of postcard paper form storage only to find that was very old (15 years+). This gave me some inconsistent results, and some loss of contrast. I overcame both of these issues.
3. I decided to try toning these prints with thiourea. This worked well, but had inconsistent results regarding the extent of toning (some of the shadow areas got too dark). This was my first time toning with thiourea "in masse".

So I am asking for understanding that not all my cards are the same. Hope you like the image I selected for this round.

Regards,
Darwin

 

[BWKate]

Sorry for your loss Mick. I think I speak for most people on Apug and wish that these fires are going to be put out and the weather to be cooler as soon as possible. I've been watching on the news some of the aftermath and it's looks devastating. We had some really bad fires in our Okanagan region a couple years ago. Not as bad as your area but still pretty bad.

 

[Pete H]

The first card of the round came from Barry (bwakel). It's a nicely composed misty scene. I just don't understand the concept of "too many shots" though

Thanks

Pete

 

[Jon King]

bwakel's postcard arrived today - a great early morning image! I can feel the mist rolling over the hill. Very well done!

 

[bwakel]

Jake's (Black Dog) postcard arrived today. A very sharp print with nice contrast of an unusual subject.

Pete and John, thanks for the feedback, glad you liked the composition. I must try and do a 'proper' print of this image as I think there's a lot more to get from it with decent paper and some split toning.

Barry

 

[Mark Fisher]

Mine went out over the weekend. Sorry, no county fair pictures. I needed a break. I did not write the details of the image on the card so here they are....35mm Tri-x in xtol 1:2 printed on Ilford Multigrade RC, taken with a Canon Elan 7 and 85mm lens (I think)...same as most of the county fair images!

 

[trotkiller]

Just finished printing mine, should be in the post by the end of the week

 

[Mike Wilde]

Mine went in the mail yesterday.

This time I decided to send out an RA-4 colour print. I have been busy with other things, and it has been a while - like before Christmas - since I spent any meaningful moments in the darkroom.

The colour developer and blix I had mixed and on hand were 2l each of Kodak RA-RT, with low activity additive in the blix. The mix date I had recorded on the jugs was 14 September 08. Kodak rates them for like 6-8 weeks after mixing before they are to be expected to start pooping out.

There was no 'crud' in the bottom of either bottle after I poured them into the roller transport machine. They had been mixed with pre-boiled and cooled reverese osmosos water, and the developer lives in a glass bottle. The darkroom is 'dark' when I am not in it, and cool - like 16-18C this time of year unless I have had the roller transport or a space heater going. I had not run more than 10 sheets of paper though these chemicals back in September. So I thought - lets give them a try, before resorting to mixing fresh chemicals for this print run of 30 or so 4x6" prints.

I programmed the master channels in my analyser to the paper settings that worked best the last time I used this stock some 6 months ago (it pays to keep good notes if you print colour). Thge image I wanted to enlarge was an outdoor scene, that was well suited to analysis on a neutral grey channel, with a diffuser held under the lens to scramble the projected image to get the recommended colour filter settings. Using this method almost always gets the colour right, but exposure is always off by a stop one way or other.

The settings for filtration seemed to make sense, and I exposed a first piece of paper to test for basic colour flaws and to start to fine tune for exposure. I was prepared to see any sort of wierdness with 5 month old chemistry being used. 5 mintes later a somewhat dark, but otherwise fine in colour balance print dropped out of the dryer. I cut exposure by a stop, and the second exposure was bang on. (Of course then, being unsure of my self I put though a 1/2 stop over and under that just to convince myself this was not a fluke). All of this, including the time it took for the paper to warm from being in the freezer, and the chemistry to warm in the processor took no more than 1.5 hours, mostly spent watching an Indiana Jones movie with the kids. Then it was time to go into production mode, and bang out the 30 prints I wanted to send as postcards. All on 5 months old RA-RT chems - love that stuff!

 

[Black Dog]

Mailed out the rest of mine today.

 

[Tim Gray]

Mine are printed but I need to get stamps today. Hopefully they should go out tomorrow.

 

[bwakel]

11 Feb 2009

So I am asking for understanding that not all my cards are the same. Hope you like the image I selected for this round.

Regards,
Darwin

Darwin, received your postcard today and it's got that wonderful 5x4 contact print tonality that's impossible to reproduce in any other way. I really like the thiourea toning too. Don't be too hard on yourself!

Barry

 

[Tim Gray]

Mark F: Monkeys! Very nice. What film and focal length?
drpsilver: Lovely contact print. I really like the toning. Some day I need to try my hand at that...

 

[ozphoto]

I've received two cards so far -

Darwin
Barry (bwakel)

Both lovely. I'm getting into the darkroom this weekend, so hopefully mine will be going out Monday.

 

[drpsilver]

17 Feb 2009

Barry, Tim, and ozphoto:

I am glad you like the postcard.

Darwin, received your postcard today and it's got that wonderful 5x4 contact print tonality that's impossible to reproduce in any other way. I really like the thiourea toning too. Don't be too hard on yourself!

Barry, contact printing 4x5s has become one of the most exciting darkroom activities. One actually has a reasonable size picture to look at without enlarging anything. Thanks for you encouragement.

Regards,
Darwin