Postcard Exchange Round 22 - Comments and Feedback

I received Ruediger's card on Thursday - Into the Light. I love the mouse-eye view and the two handrails, like tentacles pulling me into the unknown. Thank you Ruediger.

Matt

I've now recieved a handful of cards - hanging off the edge of the continent here means I'm always a few days behind everyone else - even other Canadians.

A building detail from Wheelock - I think from Robert McCann. Nice tonal range.
"Into the Light" by Rudeiger. I like the low viewpoint.
Fishing by Johnny Walker - a photo that illustrates why BC is the best place to live.
Meltronic's pastoral scene with deer - very peaceful, and the perfectly posed deer is amazing.
"Footprint, Sand, Pebbles" by oxleyroad - The longer format works well with the contrast in texture between the 2 sides.
"Canal St" by Moopheus - graphic, good details chosen.
Dave Martiny's random plant - gotta love the lovely edges to those leaves.
Vlad's "Opium" - interesting selective focus.

My cards went in the mail yesterday. After reading all the differnt suggestions on how to optimize labels I decided it was less challenging to handwrite tham all. Previously I've made labels, but it's always driven me nuts to copy and paste and get things lined up right. Giving myself permission to take my time and address a dozen or so on those evenings when I'm sit in front of the TV, was much less stressful.
My fellow Canucks all got boring stamps on theirs (sorry) but everyone elsewhere got oddball combinations. I used up old stamps I found at the back of the drawer bolstered by small denominations as needed. Lots of licking! If you don't like the photo, you can always look at the pretty stamps.

Laurent said:

I received 5stringdeath's "Summer, Saint Louis, MO" today. Nice capture of an interesting moment. It's amazing to see all these people looking at the same object at the same time.

Thanks !

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Wow I'm amazed it made it to France so fast! Thanks for the comments

Hi all

So far I have received cards from:


Black Dog
Dave Martiny
gurkenprinz
johnnywalker
meltronic
Mike Wilde
Oxleyroad
paul_c5x4
piu58
rst
vyshemirsky

There is also one card where I'm not able to identify the sender. It's sent from the US, and the the writing on the back is quite limited. It says something like 'Wheelock VT 2010' and and indication as to what is up on the image.

Thanks to everyone for sending, I'm working on getting darkroom time for my own cards.

Latest Arrivals!!!

5stringdeath: Interesting choice with the placement of the pole. Brings back good memories of going to the amusement park when I was younger.

Blackdog: Another nice summer shot, that brings back childhood memories. A family friend across town had a trampoline and I was always a real treat when we got to visit.

ccross: A cold wintery scene, in contrast to the two previous cards. I like it.

Roger

Just a short up-date regarding the cards I've received recently.
Thank you for all the great images.
-Rob
Harry Pulley's Night Clings
Ian's Royal Albert Hall
Andrew Carson's Osleyroad
Canal St. New York
Johnny Walker's son fishing
Into the light by Ruedigers
Dave Martiny's San Diego
Black Dog's Moment observed
Elephant House
Jaguar Mascot

The one from Vermont (VT) is a puzzle - but Robert McCann (aka sepiareverb), lives in Vermont, and posted his cards on Feb. 16th. He's the only one on my list hailing from that state, so it makes sense it's from him.
The image is a bit of a puzzle too - boarded up building? makeshift door on henhouse?
Lets hope Rob chimes in to clear up the mystery.

I received to day the very nice card from hpulley. The grain serves the image very well.

Thanks !

Images in hand to date:

Dave Martiny – Random Plant – A very nice image, and good use of tonality when it was printed.
The crisp rendering of the water droplets and the tiny part of the out of focus background let us discern quickly what we are looking at. But the beauty of the patterns and tones pleases our eyes at once, even before the brain has figured out what it is looking at.

Gurkenprinz – Second Life. Graffiti on objects in an abandon factory. Oh you have hit on a subject that I too love to photograph. The shadowing on the left ‘eye’ gives a great hint to the three dimensional object you have captured. The texture of the rocks in the foreground aids in placing the object.

Meltronic – Lovely pastoral scene reflected in the foreground. The loss of symmetry with the power lines disappearing to white in the sky, but showing in the reflection is my only hint of criticism. A bit of burn on the sky likely could have brought out the power lines in the sky.

Moopheus – Candy store figurines – I quite like this image. Whimsical, with a nice palette of tones. I enjoy the framing, with the cutting off part of the right hand figure’s face. I did not see the original scene, but I would have been interested to see how the image printed with perhaps half a grade higher contrast to allow light areas to print a bit lighter.

Oxley Road – Footprint at sand’s edge. This is a great image that shows the capabilities of monochrome to render all sorts of textural and tonal ranges. I quite enjoy the use of the sepia toning, and the embossed mark of the maker is a distinct plus as well. It is a testament to the discerning eye of the maker that this scene was brought to us to appreciate at all.

rst – Into the Light A captivating image. I don’t mind that it was taken from the floor at all, and the placement of the ‘horizon’, where the floor ends, and the printing of the image as a square enhance the mystical spin this image can have. Where does it lead, and how big am I/is this space were the two visual queries I first asked when looking at the image. I quite like needing a second take on an image to fully absorb what it has to say.

Great to hear Rob and Laurent have received my cards. Canada Post is doing better than I'd expected.

hpulley said:

Great to hear Rob and Laurent have received my cards. Canada Post is doing better than I'd expected.

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And I also received you postcard on Monday, very nice, thanks.

Roger

rtbadman said:

And I also received you postcard on Monday, very nice, thanks.

Roger

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Great! This has already been a lot of fun, will probably sign up for the max next time.

I received 3 more postcards recently: Ruediger's "Into the Light", which reminded me of the tunnel with the light at the end that people who have had near-death experiences are purported to see, but I never realized there would be handrails; Moopheus' candy store figurines - nice tones and composition, and I think would be a good photo to try a bit of hand-colouring; and Sly's "Snowing Again", a lovely snow scene of a field and fence.

My cards are finally printed and in the mail. I'm so happy!
As usual, I have received an amazing collection of beautiful photographs:

Mike Wilde Beautiful set of three photos. I love reading the little stories behind each photo. Nice job of contrast masking on the first image! What I don't understand, how do you manage to print three photos for each exchange? I am getting totally exhausted from printing just one set!

Fleath Photo of rubbish. The photo just glows. You've done real alchemy here - made some gold from rubbish. Nice job!

Rudiger's Into the Light. Very unreal picture. It looks more like an abstract charcoal drawing.

5stringdeath Summer in St. Louis, MO. Arghhhh! What a refreshing look. After several months of winter I'm ready to just jump into this picture and enjoy the sun, warmth and fun of the fair!

Oxleyroad Footprint, Sand and Pebbles. This photo makes a very nice abstract. I love the toning! You've done it just perfectly. And you did not have to mention the scratch - I did not even notice it until I read the description, it does not distract from the beauty of the picture at all.

JohnnyWalker Fishing trip. I think you've got the better catch in this trip than your son. All the fish is gone by now, but you still have the photos and memories that will last forever!

vyshemirsky Opium. What a philosophical photo! I love the sharpness, the detail, the softness of the background and of course the description on the back. Very nicely done!

Dave Martiny Untitled. Desperate? I wish I could be this desperate sometimes! Just excellent abstract of tones and lines.

Moopheus Land Idol. Beautiful flowers and the statue!

hpulley Night Clings. Sharp, grainy and absolute stillness in the air. What camera did you use?

ccross Away for the winter. This looks like a poem. I love winter snow photos. Can you share now you made the black border? It looks fantastic.

Mick Fagan Drowned tree. Excellent detail. I love the milky water! How do you like your Shen Hao? I'm thinking about getting one myself sometime in the distant future...

piu58 Elephant house. Just like everyone else, I was fooled by the photo. I thought it was some kind of a church. Nicely done!

meltronic Photo of the deer. Actually, at first I did not see the deer, I thought it was a panorama of a lake and grandiose tree. The silhouette of the deer gives it a very nice touch! Great job of the borders! It must have been a lot of work cutting them out.

Also, one mystery card from Vermont. I assume it's from sepiareverb. By the way, the subject is also a perfect mystery! Nice abstract.

I took Night Clings with a Canon EOS 1N RS, Delta 400 pushed to 1600 and developed in HC-110 for extra grain.

> What I don't understand, how do you manage to print three photos for each exchange? I am getting totally exhausted from printing just one set!

I usually sus out potential images for postcard exchanges well in advance of needing to print, and list them on a page tacked to a cork board board beside my dry desk.

So when the time to print comes, I am not humming and hawing on what to print.
Just open the right neg filer page plus contact sheet binder, look over the first one that rings the bell for the time, and start.
Fish out the neg, load the right neg carrier, spin the right lens into place, and change the diffuser if necessary. Analyse to guess at the right contrast filtration to start, and set the lens aperture for a likely exposure of about 12-16 seconds.
Print the image in f/stop increments between 8 and 32 seconds using a great little printer rig that blasts the 7 strips for these times as 7 1"x5" segments side by side on a single 5x7 piece of paper. Confirm from test strip if I need to change fitration, or make a mask to help aviod dodging and burning on every print.
I develop for 3" 1:3 in agfa 100 - a diy mix clone of Dektol if printing on FB, or 2" 1:2 if RC.
Make notes of the best time when wet. Let dry, and (if rushed) microwave them dry to get a handle on dry down. Adjust time to account for dry down, usually just for FB.
Make notes. Cut paper to size, if needed before the mass printing session.

Mass production comes as a second session. I expose about 16 -18 at a time, and lay them face down after exposure, out of line of the enlarges light spill on the dry desk.

I develop the almost 5x7 prints in a well filled 11x14 tray all 16 at a time. I flip them into the developer face down as soon as the one under it it wet. One hand is wet, one hand stays dry until all exposed prints in the stack are in the tray. Then I turn the stack, and start flipping them continously stack to stack. I flip them out into a well filled stop bath- acid if fb, running water if rc, and then an rc rinse before going into a gallon of TF-3 1:3 for fixing in a deep 11x14 tray, and flip again, like in the developer. On to second fix, rinse, hypo clear if FB.

I wash 16 at a time with a tray syphon and a 20x24 tray, and regualrly clear print piles.

So in one night after work I can get though printing about 32-34 prints.

Obviously FB takes longer than RC. I have a clothes pin line over the sink that lets me corner clip the RC prints. Under the sink I have horizontal mesh screens that lets me dry FB face down.
FB is harvested off the screens the next morning and squashed between 2 peices of plywood held by clamps for a few dary to kill off most of the curl.

I make a note of the image and compile the notes in the morning at work, and when enough printing is done I string 3 sets of printing notes together, and then print tehem off and cut the info notes up. I have dry mounted the notes printed onto cardstock in the past to put DW FB postcards though the mail, but that is a lot of work.
I have also printed onto labesl, as others have already discussed.

I printed a lot while hanging out with my 8 and 11 yo kids over the week between Chistmas and New Years when they were off school and I was vacationing.
I printed 7 different images in those days for over 230 5x7 size prints, and actually have the next round of 3 fers ready to go, and one print for my planned round of 3 fers for the round after that on hold ready to go.

Mostly I print postcard images ahead to get me into the darkroom. It is sometimes a few weeks between when I even set foot in there these days.
Then I get the occassional commercial assignment, but printing them is usally not a fun.
Otherwise it is the responsibilities of being Dad, hubby, and the project manager for a small team at work that occupies my busy time by day, and a lot of night and weekend times.

I’ve received card(s) from 8 people so far in this exchange:

Dave Martiny - “Untitled” - nicely seen, and well printed too
gurkenprinz - “Early Morning in India” - beautiful light and such a feeling of motion
meltronic - “Pastoral Scene” - mysterious, and is that a deer?
Mike Wilde - three prints again this exchange - “Post Industrial Abandon” - I don’t know whether it is the light, or the paper, but this looks like a print from the 1960s - “Leo’s Fish & Chips in St. John’s” - I really like the expressions - “Toronto’s Yonge at Dundas circa 1985" - suits the paper well!
Moopheus - “Williams Candy” - it looks like they are winking at me
Oxleyroad - “Footprint, Sand and Pebbles” - subtle colour, and interesting forms
rst - “Into the Light” - a very nice pinhole image
sly - “Snow Fence” - a very nice contact print - I feel cold just looking at it

8 down, 20 to go

Thanks to everyone for participating.

Hello again

Two more cards have arrived.

5stringdeath: "Summer, St. Louis, MO" and hpulley: "Night Clings".

Thanks

hpulley said:

I took Night Clings with a Canon EOS 1N RS, Delta 400 pushed to 1600 and developed in HC-110 for extra grain.

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Thank you hpulley. Nice camera and definitely nice job of pushing this film! It's funny how digital users get obsessed with just a little bit of grain while you managed to create a great atmosphere by adding quite a bit of it

Thank you Mike for such a detailed description of your process! It's great that you are able to keep all these responsibilities and manage to find time for the darkroom fun. So far I've been printing the postcards in just one session, that's why it's been a bit overwhelming. I'll try the smaller batches next time. Thanks!

I love grain. Perhaps I'll use some Delta 3200 pushed to 6400 or 12500 next round...

anikin said:

Thank you hpulley. Nice camera and definitely nice job of pushing this film! It's funny how digital users get obsessed with just a little bit of grain while you managed to create a great atmosphere by adding quite a bit of it

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Yesterday I received Sly's snowing again. Al large format photo! I like the card very mach. It is a contact print taken with a Crown Graphic camera.

Two more for me as well:
Sly Snowing scene. I love the light wintery tones of this contact print. Oh, and love the stamps with insects on the back!
ignatiu5 Spires. That's university? I thought is was some church or a mosque! The moon makes a really nice touch!

piu58 said:

Yesterday I received Sly's snowing again. Al large format photo! I like the card very mach. It is a contact print taken with a Crown Graphic camera.

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Same here received yesterday .. thanks!

Lot's of cards received, many great images. My cards are in the post office today, with any luck they'll make their way across the world over the next few weeks.