Postcard Exchange Round 41 Comments & Feedback

[piffey]

Cards sent out. Received two so far myself -- thanks to aluk and another member I can't remember since they're sitting on the table at home. Wishing I would have signed up for MAX -- next time I know! Really new to printing and had a great time getting these all done in the darkroom last weekend. What a great idea this is!

 

[aluk]

Thanks all for your comments, already received a couple of postcards as well. This round was printed on good old Ilford MGIV glossy paper!

 

[drpsilver]

28 June 2017

It is time to offer my comments on the cards I have received to-date (in no particular order).

The photo of Sensoji Temple from mooseontheloose is very nicely composed symmetry that invites the viewer into the temple. Well done.
The informal portrait from tim_walls succeeds at capturing the spirit, and power, of photography.
The card from iandvaag is another informal portrait during "spring" in Saskatoon, Canada. For me spring and snow are mutually exclusive ideas. (I visited Saskatoon when staying with relatives in Medicine Hat.)
A very strange image from mfohl of an arm protruding from a wall. A very creative way to light the area around a restaurant entrance. Nicely printed maintaining distinction between the highlights. This card unfortunately was "manhandled" by the post office on its trip to me.
The print from aluk of an empty park transmits a sense of solitude. This photo could work well printed square, excluding most of the sky.

Thank you to all for the nice images you sent. I have selected a negative, all I need id time to print.

Regards,
Darwin

 

[kraker]

Three cards received so far:
mooseontheloose, early evening shot of Sensoji Temple. As always, a pleasure to receive and to look at. Great detail, lovely tonal range, and a nice scene to look at and examine.
Tim Walls, AЯ; an absolutely lovely shot, captured the look and the smile at the right moment. Very nice!
aluk, grey morning. The atmosphere of early and grey morning shows in the sky and in distant objects. The benches all standing at slightly different angles. Rain from the previous night. Yes, lots of atmosphere captured in this print.

My cards are printed, have been for some time, I just need to find a few hours to write or print a description on them and address them. Let's see if I can do that within a week from now...

 

[kraker]

My cards went in the mail today. I hope they soon make it to their destinations.

 

[drpsilver]

09 July 2017

I wanted to let the exchange know that my cards were delivered to the post office on Saturday. You should get them soon. May the postal gods be with them on their journey to your mail boxes.

Regards,
Darwin

 

[tim_walls]

@kraker - I received your postcard today! (Or should that be panoramacard? Anyway, something more than postcard needed to do it full justice.) Travelling through the city was definitely the right choice to make; before this I'd never heard of the RealitySoSubtle cameras, I'm genuinely kind of amazed this came from a pinhole (and that that guy was standing so long...)

If you weren't already convinced it's a small world, just last week I was in Eindhoven and took a day drip to Rotterdam; I suddenly realise I should have hopped off the train at Breda . Enjoy Iași (a beautiful city), and if you ever find yourself stopping over in București never hesitate to ask me if you need a tour guide!

 

[mike c]

Have graciemansion's card, his photo has all the basic's for a fine photograph, roof tops and Manhattan and stormy sky, me thinks that is a good starter for just starting to print postcards.
tim_walls, yes your card made it all the way from Mt. Everest to my Everest st address, that's quite a climb!!! Really like the candid sharpness of this post card esp. the loose hair about the face.
Last is iandvaag's Reflections Beneath, a very cold wet and solitary walk there, reminds me of my Uncles house in Minnesota.

 

[MattKing]

Mine are now all in the mail.

 

[aluk]

Received MattKing's Sticks and Ice this morning, and iandvaag's Reflections Beneath a little while back... so far that's three very un-summery scenes from the Canadians (including my own) for the summer round! Any psychoanalysts care to offer their thoughts?? But lest you think we Canadians have only winter on our minds, I also got mooseontheloose's A Broom for Every Season (the first postcard I got this round). I like how this scene conveys a sense of serenity even though brooms are otherwise such mundane items - a really nicely composed and printed image.

I've also received piffey's card featuring a large smiley face in a crowd, with nice grain and good contrast; I wonder what was going on here? And a real smile from tim_walls and Aya - a lovely candid shot. drpsilver's spilt coffee reminds me that interesting photos can be taken over breakfast (if we make it through, that is), or perhaps on the way to lunch as mfohl seems to have done. Last one (so far) is kraker's wide angle pinhole shot of Almere. I too had never heard of RealitySoSubtle cameras, but looking into them I find myself thinking that I too would like one (the 'need' stage may yet follow ).

Thanks for all the great postcards received to date, and for your comments on mine.

 

[MattKing]

I too received kraker's Almere pinhole shot, and I too really like it.
My wife liked it too!
It was so powerful, it caused me to give in to APUG classified temptation, and soon Optiken's 6x12 capable pinhole camera will be making its way to me.
Glad my card has made its way to one of its destinations (actually two, if you count the one I sent myself).
As far as Canadians and ice are concerned, I would point out that we here on the wet coast don't get much of it, so for us it is relatively novel. In addition, as is my usual attempted practice, I printed that in the work-up to the last round of the postcard exchange. I need to get prints done for the coming round soon.

 

[tim_walls]

And I received two more postcards yesterday, yay .

@drpsilver - this takes me right back to my university days :-D. Not just the spilt coffee, although there was plenty of that - my alma mater uses the exact same font (or did), I actually had to double-take to realise it wasn't from my old uni!

And @MattKing - thank you for the riot of texture, and the (I now understand traditionally Canadian ;-)) reminder that Winter Is Coming. I've experimented with a few orientations before sticking this to my postcard wall (well, door to be precise) - I've decided portrait with the sticks to the bottom looks perfect, I wonder if it's the 'right' one? .

 

[mooseontheloose]

Couple more postcards arrived here in the land of the rising sun:

drpsilver's "Oops my coffee spilled!" - the spill itself is in such a perfect formation it looks like it was created purposefully
kraker's "City of Almere" is a great, kind of lonely image taken with one of my favourite pinhole cameras, the RSS 6x17. I really need to shoot with mine much more often! Maybe I'll do a panoramic print myself for one of these exchanges....

 

[LarsAC]

Cards are finally printed and written, ready to be sent!

Lars

 

[mike c]

Have four cards here
kraker; got himself a new camera and took a great photo while in Almere and saved some time driving in traffic, good choice...
One of the folks at Harman, Sue, has a beautiful photo from Scarborough Yorkshire England. Did not think England had this type of coast, looks like a scene from a Greek Island in the Mediterranean Sea.
Drpsilver, spelt coffee and cup has it all, morning ritual for me.
Matt, Sticks and Ice, at frist this card looked like crumbling concrete and rusty steal rebar, looking closer I see the chilling facts as they is.

All great cards, Mike

 

[tim_walls]

Two new cards arrived yesterday, yay!

Firstly, a really lovely photo (with a lovely message too) from Sue at Harman - love the tone and high key on this. I actually know Scarborough, after living in north East England for about 10 years, but I didn't recognise this at first - if I'd had to guess where it was before I read the message I'd probably have said the south of France... The power of photography! I hope you took the chance to eat some Whitby Scampi while you were there, Sue .

And a very welcome splash of colour arrived from John_A - my first thought was "The Goonies!" A lovely reminder of childhood...

 

[iandvaag]

Time for me to report in with the cards that have arrived so far:

MattKing; “Sticks and Ice” - Very nicely done. I’ve tried shots like this, but to much less success. The glossy paper does a service to the subject.

Piffey; (Smiley costume) – Beautiful juxtaposition of the man in the sunglasses and the costume.

Mooseontheloose; Sensoji Temple – Very striking. The square format and symmetrical composition pair well together.

Aluk; Grey morning at the Hofgarten (Munich) - This photo reminds me very strongly of the Legislative Building in my home town (Regina, SK, Canada). It feels very much like springtime.

tim_walls; AЯ, Thailand 2017 – Beautiful portrait. I like the catch-light in her eye.

David - Harman Tech Service; Wardle Lock – Looks like a tight squeeze! I really like how no one is facing directly at the camera.

drpsilver “Oops, My Coffee Spilled!” - When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When life gives you a spilled coffee, make a beautiful photo of it.

Thanks all!

 

[mike c]

Sent off my cards, far and wide and some close.

 

[kraker]

First, a thank you to those who've commented on and acknowledged arrival of my panorama.

A few more cards arrived here since my last update:
drpsilver, Oops, my coffee spilled. Just a beautiful shot, accidental spillage or planned for the photo? Love it either way.
MattKing, at first glance I thought I was seeing pieces of concrete and steel, rusted, broken down, disintegrated. Nice to study before checking the title. Okay, sticks and ice, yes, well, that's another way to look at it, and indeed, upon closer investigation, the rods are wooden, not steel. But I can still see either concrete or ice. So, yes, very interesting, intriguing composition.
Sue at HARMAN with an scene that I had not immediately recognised as British. My first thought was Greece or vicinity. Goes to show, even though I've visited the UK numerous times (and will again in a few weeks time), there's still a lot to discover. Apart from the view, also the checkered floor pattern combined with the dark and light chairs works really well here.

Great round so far! (Isn't it always?)

 

[LarsAC]

Dear all,

Finally sent mine yesterday. Received 10 cards so far:

mfohl: Interesting lamp - a piece of art!
moosenontheloose: Brooms at rest - nice tonality. One of the first cards received - convinced me to order some Ilford Portfolio for the exchange.
piffey: Your card made me smile
Robertblue: Artistic, looks great. What kind of process is this ?
MattKing: Icy and abstract composition!
kraker: Great idea for a 6x17 a as a contact print.
iandvaag: Nice tones, interesting symmetric composition.
Sue / Harman: Indeed surprising this is in the UK. The composition without people in it makes me wonder what will be played next ...
drpsilver: sad to see coffee spoiled. Need some in the morning to get started
tim_walls: Lovely portrait! I like the skin tone and her somewhat mysterious smile.
aluk: Next time you will hit better weather in Munich. Really reminds me of German weather.

Thanks all - looking for more cards !

Lars

 

[ozphoto]

I received a couple of cards on Friday:

• The Emoticon - Piffey: made me smile and reminded me of the movie where the guy just runs for the sake of running.
• City of Almere - Kraker: this card wins the "Australian Border Force" prize. Seems it was opened to ensure it wasn't "prohibited, dangerous, contained drugs, guns and other weapons." Thankfully it also didn't need duty paid! I hope they enjoyed your postcard as much as I do - love 6x17 images, and it has been many years since I used one.

I've been on a photo-shoot the past 10 days, so this week I'll be attempting to choose my image and print it up for posting.

 

[Black Dog]

Thanks for all the cards I've received so far.

 

[kraker]

• City of Almere - Kraker: this card wins the "Australian Border Force" prize. Seems it was opened to ensure it wasn't "prohibited, dangerous, contained drugs, guns and other weapons." Thankfully it also didn't need duty paid! I hope they enjoyed your postcard as much as I do - love 6x17 images, and it has been many years since I used one.

"Mail from the Netherlands, surely not to be trusted! There's a guy over there, sends black and white prints all around the world, would you believe that?"
Well, it makes for a nice story, glad that this "service" is free of charge.

 

[tim_walls]

So I have received two more cards - you'll be glad to know your cards have made it far mike c, and close LarsAC .

Mike's shot from an eponymous canyon has a wonderfully organic feel to it, dare I even say sensual or erotic? And Lars' has wood (ahem) at the other end of the spectrum, crafted by man's hand rather than nature's, chained and then maybe not given the love it deserves - but all the better for the photo. I particularly love the tone of middle plank and the way it contrasts with its surroundings.

(There is something about padlocks that always makes me want to photograph them...)


That brings me up to 10 so far, yay! Although I've run out of blu-tac for sticking them up...

 

[piffey]

Received my card from LarsAC... unfortunately they also sent me the card for ozphoto! The address is right (Aussie), stamped by the post office and everything. Not sure what they were thinking, but will be getting it into an envelope and passed on to ozphoto's address on the card.