Postcard Exchange Round 20 - Comments and Feedback

[Mike Wilde]

It's hard to see these nice comments float around, and realise that I am not in on this round. It is the first round I have sat out since way back in R11

I have printed a set of images in the past month, with an aim to include them in the next round I enter with my multiple batches of images. I did feel better sending out a set of three at once last round, and this is the resulting image hang over, if you will.

By the time next round comes up should have a summer vacations worth of new negatives to draw from.

This past month I have been busy with a training course running 8-5 every saturday, in addition to working the regular hours monday to friday, combined with a flurry of birthday parties to ferry my two kids to. The weeks running up to school finishing for the summer here always brings a rush of these socal events for those who have a birthday that falls over the school break.

 

[mike c]

Mike are you a Marathon runner,9hrs in one day is way a lot.

 

[Mike Wilde]

No, not running, literally. Actually a course in preparation for writing my Project Management Professional exam. Lots to read every week, and a good 9 hour session of your mind being very engaged in interacting with the instructor and other class participants. It is like I would imagine a grad school seminar to be like. Everyone has something useful to contribute, has experience in the field, and all want to be there and do well. So different than some of my long ago undergrad classes.

 

[aluk]

The cards for the Canadians, Australians, and Americans on my list went out yesterday, but then I ran out of stamps... Postcards for the rest of the world will go out either later today or (more likely) on Monday.

 

[rst]

This time I will not loose track, so I have three cards to report:

mike c Wonderful tones, superb.
Mick Fagan I like it Mick, great high key.
Dave Martiny Nice street scene. Good.

And I have to report about one postcard my daughter received so far:

mooseontheloose The Zen Photographer - she likes it very much and I like it too. I hoped to find the same in the mailbox addressed to me ... but there was none.

I hope to be in the darkroom printing postcards next week. I already settled on a negative. So the hardest part is done

Cheers
Ruediger

 

[mooseontheloose]

mooseontheloose The Zen Photographer - she likes it very much and I like it too. I hoped to find the same in the mailbox addressed to me ... but there was none.

Ruediger,

That's very strange, as I mailed all the cards at the same time. Hopefully it shows up sooner rather than later -- please let me know!

 

[mike c]

Mike Fagan's card ,like the way the back ground light warps around the neck and face,was there a fill light for the eyes? really nice photo of a beautiful face.
Mike

 

[Dave Martiny]

Mick Fagan -- Your card has motivated me to try some high key portraits.

Rachelle -- The tight crop and great tonality add qualities of a great photograph to the already visually appealing statue.

Thanks and regards,

Dave

 

[hwv]

First Postcard

This is my first participation in postcard exchange. Got my first card yesterday from Mick Fagan. A very nice picture of a beautiful model, taken from an unusual angle of view. Nearly symmetrical. I like it very much.
So, the farthest away (16527.725 km), the first received.

I'm looking forward for the next ones.

So far, I've just cut 4 sheets of paper into 32 postcards. Tomorrow I will print the picture I've chosen.

hwv

 

[Laurent]

Well, looks I'm a bit late in commenting the cards received so far...

Here they are :
Dave Martiny's street sweeper : wonderful subject, great composition, nicely printed... I love it ! (My wife's first word after seeing it was : Waow !)

Mike C's Clamming at Sunset : the back lighting and sunset make it almost abstract, but I can feel the mood ! I love these moments on the deserted beach !

Paul C's Weybourne signal box : the card has been a bit marred in the transport, but the image is untouched and it adds to it IMO. Great details and composition, it's a very good document about this place !

Thanks to you three !!

 

[Mick Fagan]

I also have received Rachelle's card, quite a nice little carving there, very nice presentation and the cropping (if any) suits the subject well.

HWV, if my card was the first you have received in a postcard exchange, then look out for the rest. Yes I suppose Aachen is about that distance from my front door.

For those wishing to know, the model was sitting on her dining table, there was a 500W Photoflood on the back wall, there were two 250W Photoflood lights either side of her, positioned about 10º in front and equidistant, there was no catchlight for the eyes.

Mick.

 

[Alex Bishop-Thorpe]

Got Mick's this morning, just a lovely portrait and very nicely printed. It's proudly stuck with a magnet next to Rachelle's zen photographer on my whiteboard...

 

[mooseontheloose]

Well, the exchange has started off with a bang -- my first day and I get three cards! Mick Fagan's lovely high key portrait, Mike Clark's "clamming at sunset", and Dave Martiny's "street sweeper". I like the angle of view in Mick's portrait, the silouettes in Mike's image, and the repeating lines in Dave's photo. For some reason they work well when grouped together -- all these pictures of people, none of whom are looking at the camera, but all of whom provide an interesting subject. Thanks guys.

And just a note to the comments about my card -- there's very little cropping (a little, to get rid of distracting plants around the frame) and just a slight enlargement to make it larger than a contact print. The statues were very close together -- between 10-20 in a row, all side by side, with maybe a foot and a half of space between rows. It was very awkward to get in there and get a good field of view without getting other statues in the picture, or being too close too subject and thus out of focus. Luckily the photographer was in a place with good light, so that helped.

 

[ozphoto]

Got my second card for the round from Fleath; ah yes public transport in Adelaide - remember it well.
Great feel - Morphett Street Bridge?? And on my favourite paper also - missing the darkroom terribly here in BKK.

Looking forward to more greeting me from the mailbox - as does my partner here.

 

[Laurent]

I received Mick Fagan's portrait. The perspective is unusual, and works great with the symetry... I also like the grain (or is it the skin's grain ?) the lighting.... verything ! Thanks Mick !

 

[mike c]

Fleath's card came today ,Cool night scene.

Mike

 

[paul_c5x4]

The first of (hopefully) many arrived today - A numbered, limited edition card from fleath that brings back many memories of waiting at airports for shuttles.

 

[Mick Fagan]

Numbered, limited edition?

I re-read Fleath's card, checked the name and abbreviated name, didn't see anything, then in the bottom right corner this:- 58/70.

So when he's rich and well known, perhaps I can on-sell one of his original prints for a small fortune. This will allow me to pay my way into a retirement home, maybe!

Funnily enough I logged onto the gallery the day I received Fleath's print, down the bottom under the random section was the postcard print I had received about an hour previously. Interesting to see, I left a comment and noted that the print had been online for over a year and had attracted no or little comment.

Nice print Fleath!

Received Clamming At Sunset by Mike C, looks just as good upside down, which is how I and my work colleague, first viewed it. Peaceful.

Prague Street Sweeper from Dave Martiny, quite an impact, especially as he is surrounded by cigarette butts on the ground.

Laurent, I purposefully enlarged the negative until the image started to noticeably soften, then cropped. In a small version it is quite sharp and of a higher contrast, I wished for the opposite effect.

Mick.

 

[mike c]

Mick,it does look ok upside down,I accidentally printed them with the neg flipped upside down also did not know tell all 25 were printed.

Mike

 

[Stephen Frizza]

Hi guys please forgive me if my cards arrive to you a little behind schedule I am printing Ilfochrome post cards and am very busy on other photographic projects at the moment but i promise they are coming!...

~Steve

 

[Laurent]

I got Fleath's card today. Thanbks Fleath, this is a great shot !

 

[BoxBrownie]

Phew! Printed all mine yesterday - 54 of them and a bit of a photographic boot camp - in fact a crash course in printing as I only got my enlarger a few weeks ago and this is only the second negative I've printed!
I've received some cards in the last week, all interesting and very welcome with Paul's 'Weybourne Signal Box' being my current favourite.
It's really fascinating seeing all the different approaches to photography, really worthwhile.
Thanks folks.

 

[Alex Bishop-Thorpe]

Got my second card for the round from Fleath; ah yes public transport in Adelaide - remember it well.
Great feel - Morphett Street Bridge?? And on my favourite paper also - missing the darkroom terribly here in BKK.

Yep, Morphett Street Bridge - we'd been at the Worldsend pub just up on Hindley and wandered down. The trams are brilliant for us at the City West UniSA campus, makes it easy to pop down to the central markets for lunch...

We've got a little community of mail-art people going just here in Adelaide with my friends from the art school, so I mailed out an extra dozen to those people too, that's why it came out at 70 for an exchange of around 50 people. Thank you everyone for the kind comments, and I'm sorry if the editioning in the bottom right is a bit weird, it's just a carryover convention from being a printmaker...and I was kinda proud I got 70 prints done.

 

[Alex Bishop-Thorpe]

I got a couple more in the mail today! I'm determined to post a personal comment for every one I get.

Paul's (paul_c5x4) signal box photo. I've never seen a pyro neg up close, nor, I think, a lovely pyro print - I'm quite impressed. I admit I didn't even notice it was a 4x5" neg until I looked closer - ahh those lovely framelines. Very nicely printed and a very good size. And, of course, a great photo. My first card from the UK.
Dave Martin's very well composed street sweeper photo. I like how this is printed too, the wider white border on the left is oddly nice. I like the lines of it all, and the bristles of his broom.
Mike's (mike c) photograph of clamming at sunset. Lovely photo, the more I look at it the more I like it. I like the landmass stretching out in the background, reminds me of the beach I grew up near. The sand's nearly silky.

 

[mooseontheloose]

This exchange is off to a good start -- two more in the mail today!

Nanette's coffee cup action works on many levels -- the angle, the chrome, the splash itself -- I really like this one.

Fleath's "Chantal at tram stop" -- I like the symmetry of this night scene, and I love the texture of this paper, although it'll never stay flat in the humidity we have here in Japan!