Postcard Exchange Round 66 Comments and Feedback

I'm going to go through the cards I've received, not in order.

Too Many Wheelbarrows, Jim Christie, lovely print, beautiful tones, Canon Pro 100 printer, excellent quality.

At Ease, Ansel Mortensen, nice glossy contact print from vintage 4x5 negative Ansco Safety Film!

Do The Twist, DRPSilver. Almost unbelievable tree trunk, beautiful tones, every zone is there. Well done!

Sculpture at LA Defense 2023, Daniella. Crazy silhouette of sculpture against a high rise building. Terrific composition. Very nice photo!

Diamond House Mfohl, snowy abandoned house with an outstanding window. Well seen! I love the windows in the front door too.

White Bay Power Station, GBroadbridge, I love detail in this photo of electrical controls, one is labeled Cave Claw ?, Canon pigment print, Excellent!

Bent Railing, Absalom1951, Great print, lovely rusty metal. Almost looks Cold War!

Ghost Trees, ChrisR, beautiful swirling color photograph, brilliant technique, Abstract but almost instantly recognizable. Love it, beautiful print!!

Dublin Gulch, Michael Howard, Miner's quarters cut into a rock face. Reminds me of the Pueblo structures I've seen at Mesa Verde. Hundreds of years apart but somehow similar. Nice photo!

i'm behind the 8 ball for this round... i am aiming for the end of the month to have them in the mail!!!

I got three nice cards today.

A cyanotype from rduraoc. A shared negative, but well done in the cyanotype. Looks like a used car place, with a hot rod up on top of the porch.

From drpsilver, "Do the Twist", a trunk of a tree, but what's left is very much twisted. Taken in the Lakes region of the Sierra Nevada. Very nicely exposed and printed.

And "Stay Woke" from sjc1952. A shot of some street art on what appears to be the back of a restaurant or pub. A young woman amidst several skeletons/skulls. This is a shot I would have taken. And I like how you included the ambience. Nicely done.

Thanks Rui! Thanks Darwin! Thanks Stefan!

Two cards in the mail box today.

Portal 2 - @Michael Howard - Well, that doesn't look too cosy. Would have been a tough life living in cave like that. The print and paper bring out the coldness of their life.
"Jag" - @mfohl - Car shows are fun, and that car in particular is obviously looked after - The clouds reflected on the bonnet really show the shine.

Thanks!

Received a cool card from @hwv - "Einsteinhaus Caputh" - lots of geometry with and excellent stair-rail shadow that looks a bit confusing the longer you stare. .... Stair stare.... Thanks!

Received a beautiful postcard today from Don, @Don_ih "Tractor" looks like a nice old Ford tractor, view of lovely fields.

Today I received don_ih's Used Auto Parts II. A fun shot of a business that says "Japanese Used Auto Parts". Funny, but most of the cars there don't appear to be Japanese! Yes, I have seen this in another post card: it was presented as a cyanotype, Nicely exposed and printed. Thanks Don!

mfohl said:

Yes, I have seen this in another post card:

Click to expand...

But you haven't

Not exactly.

In the last few days, I've received two more cards:

SJC1952's "Stay Woke"...a wonderful street art scene. Gorgeous print, beautiful tones!

Don_ih's "Traffic Cop"....A serious, yet whimsical roadside "folk art" installation of a scarecrow policeman with a radar gun...I hope it helps slow speeders down!

In the last week or so I have received more postcards:

mfohl a composition in rural Ohio with lots of geometric shapes. I love the tones in this photograph.

@hwv's Einsentein's Caputh. I must admit I had never heard of Einstein's Caputh. This photograph has captured the light and shade beautifully, and with Acros 100.

rduraoc's cyanotype of what looks like a car lot with classic cars? I love cyanotypes and I love this print. I've been meaning to experiment with cyanotypes for an age. This print has motivated me to give it a try.

Received "Stay Woke" from @SJC1952 beautiful 5x7 print on Fomatone fiber paper. I love this paper. Perfect print, lovely tones, depicts street art painting and surrounding. Really terrific print.
My wife the former Curator of Art, said that she really liked it.

A batch-update from my side:

- @Don_ih 's "Used auto parts II", a variation of the negative he sent out to the "Let's all print one negative" initiative, although with a quite different set of cars
- @hwv 's "Einsteinhaus Caputh", a rather geometric image that almost makes it abstract
- @drpsilver 's "Do the twist", love the balance and the contrast between foreground and background, and the texture in the "twist"
- @SJC1952 's "Stay woke", at first glance it was difficult to figure out if this was a drawing or a photo - well caught!
- @bedrof 's "Stone formations", very, very well printed with wonderful textures.

This postcard exchange continues being a great learning experience, and a lot of fun!

mfohl said:

I received two nice cards.

The first is Clouds and Mountains by vbenares. It is one of those automatically processed and mailed cards. It is a really cool shot of clouds in a mountain scene. You can see hardly any of the mountains except for two spectacular snow covered peaks on the right. Where is this? Where did you get the shot from?

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How nice to be mentioned! The peaks are from Baranof Island, Alaska. Taken from a small boat.

I hope the print was okay. I neglected to send one to myself, so I don't know how well the image was printed.

I think the bridge support you sent is great. Shapes, lines, and contrast are entrancing. Thanks!

This week I've received several beautiful postcards from jvo:
"at the cloisters in NY" carved in wood from Strasbourg, (ca. 1490)" a wonderful example (in a photograph) of medieval art.
There are two portraits from James's "agreeable strangers" series, a meditation on a hurricane alongside a portrait of Robert Capa and a photograph of a wooden figure looking to the left, entitled "are you sure?" There is also a beautiful example of light on "mirror lake". What strikes me most about the postcards is the quality of the photography. The lighting, tonal quality and compositions are all what you would expect from James. Thanks James.

Today, I received @drpsilver 's "Do the twist". Beautifully sharp and contrasty shot of a tree in the Sierra Nevada region. Thank you, Darwin!

I also received @drpsilver 's "Do the twist" last week. A beautiful portrait format print; there is something quite evocative about old tree stumps, and this lovely example stands in front of living trees, almost as a reminder of mortality.

I received two more cards
@drpsilver "Do The Twist" an interesting stump that had grown twisted and shaped by the environment. It has lovely tones and is beautifully printed.
@Don_ih "Used Auto Parts II" Another beautifully printed black and white image of times gone by, autos that now sit quietly as decor, unused.

I have my cards labeled and I hope to stop by the post office this week sometime. It's hard to get there when their open hours are the same as mine. I might have to drive over to the next town on Saturday before noon.

pamphoto said:

autos that now sit quietly as decor, unused

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Judging from the turnover of cars in the yard of that place, all the cars get used. It's part of a thriving hotrod culture.

My hotrod is a 10-year-old Dodge Grand Caravan....

Don_ih said:

Judging from the turnover of cars in the yard of that place, all the cars get used. It's part of a thriving hotrod culture.

My hotrod is a 10-year-old Dodge Grand Caravan....

Click to expand...

Ahh, That changes the perspective. Interesting. Glad to hear they are still in use. Thanks again!

I received one card last week: @drpsilver "Do the Twist". A beautiful printed image of a lonely stump at the side of a footpath in front of a forest of his healthy companions. It's one of my favorites this round until now.

I received a very nice card from jvo today, Home for Two. It is a photo of an old, solid urban Baptist church. Two figures are seen in the image, at least on of which is homeless. Very well seen (and executed), thanks James.

Arrived back from a 10 day trip and found the following gifts in the PO Box.

"Do the twist" - @drpsilver -Looks like a giant hand had grabbed and twisted that tree trunk before it snapped. Toning worked well to emphasise the texture.

"Einsteinhaus Caputh" - @hwv - I'd never heard of this place and looked it up on Wiki - how interesting! Nice composition with interesting use of light and shadow.

"Cyanotype" - @rduraoc - This negative pops up in my dreams a lot . Cyanotypes can turn into a rabbit hole of chemicals papers and toning. I hadn't considered doing a postcard as I thought paper texture would hide detail, but your paper worked well.

Thanks everyone!

I received "Home for Two" yesterday from @jvo really nice photograph. I was visiting a friend's coin shop today. There were some unfortunate folks who snuck in, and were warming up. My friend is a pretty tough guy, he let them be at least for a while.

Very well executed photograph, thanks.

I received the wacky tree from @drpsilver - I'd like to see just how big the pencil sharpener was!

I finally received the Used Auto Parts cyanotype from @rduraoc - thanks for using the negative for yet another activity. You print arrived totally intact, by the way - not even the corners are dulled. Every time I get a cyanotype, it reminds me how long it's been since I made any. I should really revisit it.

I've received several postcards. Somehow this round each photo was reminding me of some other event in my life.

@AnselMortensen "At Ease." I too wonder if this was a play, or if they were the photographers doing headshots? Interesting photo and it made me think of grandfather, who served in WWII and the Korean War. The orange USPS barcode ended up going across the white part of the stage--it looks like it belongs.

@Michael Howard "Portal 1." Several years back, I visited the dugout area where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived on the banks of Plum Creek. There is a replica at a museum in Walnut Grove, MN. This photo reminded me of a much rockier version of that dugout!

@mfohl "Jag." I had to do a reflective assignment in my high school photography class and I hated it. I'm always impressed by how people get great photos of cars! Nice shot.

@Don_ih "Empty Church." The whole front of this church looks so much like a face! The big window eyes, the triangle nose and half circle mouth. I am charmed by small churches but I'm often nervous to stop and take photos. Probably dumb.

@drpsilver "Do the Twist." This reminds me of some of the trees I saw in the Black Hills of South Dakota. That was the first time I noticed twisting tree trunks, and now I see them constantly.

@rduraoc cyanotype. I had to look at this one closely to see the area code of the phone number on the building. At first glance, it reminds me of a car repair shop in my city. Also dig the cyanotype. I mostly do them on fabric, so it was nice to see it on paper.

@jvo "Home for Two." The darker tones in this piece hid the people at first. It took me a minute to see them (it was the caption that made me notice the person in the lower right first). I admit, because one of my very close family members has been unhoused on and off throughout my life, I feel conflicted about photos like this. Too often, they feel exploitive. But in this piece, my eye is drawn to the vertical lines of the poles (no parking, the baptist church sign) and the high contrast on the church front. My focus is on the church, and what the church may or may not be doing. It doesn't feel like a cliche.

My October and November took weird turns, but I FINALLY got my postcards printed today. I didn't realize how tricky the photo would be to print until I did it. There's dappled light and weathered wood and whew. Not sure I really nailed it, but I want to get it out so it's done enough. Should be out in the next few days!