David, Patrick,
Do not under any circumstances think any postcard print you send, is better or worse than what anyone else sends.
Content is king, quality is secondary!
That said, if one is able to achieve good content, is lucky enough to nail exposure, has a good go at getting film developing correct, then one is more than likely able to get a reasonably good print that one can be proud of.
When I was seriously teaching myself the craft part of photography I was often amazed at the quality of work produced, day in day out, by commercial photographers. Seeing what they produced and under the conditions they produced their work, I decided to up my own personal ante continuously, until I hopefully achieved a level I could be satisfied with.
These days I am more or less happy with the technical level of work that I output, the artistic part though, is another matter.
I have been in the postcard exchange for a fair few exchanges, in that time I have seen some very interesting prints, occasionally the technical aspect is dominant, sometimes the content is dominant, sometimes the technical and content features of the print are equal and of a standard that you find your eyes are riveted to the print for some time, this is terrific and makes me wish to do something equally as well or better.
Other times I have seen prints that are sort of a bit low technically, sometimes they are a bit low from a content point of view, sometimes a print comes through that is technically and content low. These kinds of prints are often from people who are near the start of the learning curve, or maybe they are using extremely limited equipment, whatever.
I have consistently noticed that if these people stay in the exchange for at least three consecutive rounds, their prints do seem to somehow get elevated in aspects of content and technical quality. This is a most gratifying thing to see, and I believe one of the best aspects of the postcard exchange!
Mick.
