Postcard Exchange: Round 9 - Comments and Results

[rst]

... Did you send yourself a card?

Yes, I thouhgt it will be funny for my wife to find my card in the mailbox - since she is also so curious about the postcard exchange ...

And then I collect all the cards I get including mine to have the complete set and it just is more authentic if I get my own card with a stamp and a bit worn-out into the mailbox Well others might think of it as a mad idea.

Hope my card will hit your mailbox soon, UK should take no longer than two or three days.

ciao
-- Rüdiger

 

[Pete H]

Two cards today I love the way a good B&W image brings out textures.
Tom's has a spiral in the texture of the paintwork which leads the eye to the cleat, and in Ruediger's the stonework is quite palpable.

Thanks both!

 

[ingobohn]

It has! Your card was the first one I received. I put an entry in the forum las day 9th.

Oh - I am sutpid. I forgot the post already...

 

[BWKate]

Stayed up really late writing out all my postcards (31) in all. They will be in the post today, Yippee!
Rudiger: That's a great idea to send yourself a postcard! LOL

 

[eric]

Just got 3 in the past week! You guys are fast. Anyway, I have mine (1/2 of them) printed but I couldn't get to the post office so I just ordered postal stamps on-line. So hopefully, I can start mailing mine by early next week.

 

[ingobohn]

Yieha! Got 3 new cards today...

"Rusty Truck", Tim Trapp: Unfortunately my card is also blighted with a label and an orange barcode on the front. But nervertheless, great theme. Like it very much. Maybe a sulfur toning would support the rusty look even more.

"Fishing boat hull", Tom Kershaw: If you would have not explained it on the backside it would have been hard for me to recognize, what this is. Remember: I grew up in the mountains (Balck Forest) not at the coast. ;-)

"Krypta Speyrer Dom", Rüdiger Stobbe: XXL-Postcard! ;-) Aficionado of pearl paper finish... Great detail shot of the Krypta. Must take a look at it as soon as I am once again in Speyer. 1/15 sec free hand, wow.

 

[Chuck_P]

I got a card from Ingo today with an interesting composition of shadow and steps. Thanks.

Got my labels ready and will finish printing this weekend.

 

[Buster6X6]

Today I received Brian's Card ( Jeffeb) Very nice shot, little girl is in a perfect position for scale and point of interest. So that's three so far
Keep them coming.
Cheers Greg

 

[ingobohn]

Got 2 new postcards today...

"Busy Bee Ride", Mark Fisher: Brilliant detail shot. The grin ist funny, but the icing on the cake is the "victory!"-hand in the lower right corner.

"Mouth of the Fraser", Matt King: Toning fits perfect to that motif. Quiet and silent pic! Maybe cutting the right end of the river a bit stronger (so that the two piles are not that centered would be a variant!?

 

[BWKate]

Yesterday I received 3 cards!!! Couldn't get onto the computer because my son was downloading a free trial of World of Warcraft that took several hours.

I received from Buster6x6:A very cool shot from last year's apug conference of 2 fellows waiting for customers at some kind of meat or fish market. It has a timeless quality and could be from Europe.

Jeffb: A lovely shot of a small girl looking at machinery at a Science Museum. Love the scale!

MattKing: A very lovely shot of the mouth of the Fraser River which is a very special place for me. I used to live at 70th and Granville and would go to the Fraser River Park in the winter and shoot B&W. I just looked at the contact sheet from that shoot and I'm going to reprint some of them. Thanks Matt for reminding me of that special place!

 

[MattKing]

Brian (Jeffb): I received your card two days ago - love the scale, and the sense of illumination.

Ingo (or should it be ibo?) and Kate: Thanks for the kind words. The postal system is amazing - West Coast of Canada to Germany in three days - the same time it takes to go to Victoria, also the West Coast of Canada .

Kate:

The site pictured is actually one arm south of the arm of the Fraser near 70th and Granville (where I too lived for a couple of years). It is south of Lulu Island (aka Richmond). The land you see in the distance is probably Westham Island. Glad the scene brought back good memories for you.

Thanks again,

Matt

 

[Pete H]

Two more cards yesterday:

Buster6x6: A beautifully concise story.

Tim Trapp: Serious rust. It reminds me of an incident at school. The student's car park held a fine collection of rust buckets held together only by love, spit and chewing gum. While we were standing around chatting a friend casually put his hand on the bonnet of a 2CV and leant on it ... he went right through.

Shame about the bar codes: on Buster6x6's it is printed directly on the image which is better than the strip of paper on Tim's :rolleyes:

 

[Chuck_P]

Received two cards yesterday.

"Busy Bee Ride" from Mark Fisher---the close-in perspective suits this character quite well.

"A girl and a mill engine" from Brian Jeffrey---I like this composition and the girl seems to be captivated by the movement of the wheels.

Brian, when I was in the navy from '86-'90 (after spending some time at Western Kentucky University from '82-'84 in the photojournalism school), I had a Canon A1 with motordrive and five lenses and a nice domke camera bag that was stolen from me while our ship was still stationed in Portsmouth, VA. Since the time it was stolen, around 1988, whenever I see that a photograph was taken a Canon A1, that horrible moment always comes back to me when I discovered that all my camera gear was stolen from me.

I've long since recovered from the loss and I remember how much I liked that camera system when I see that someone is using one. Nice photograph.

Chuck

 

[PepMiro]

Yesterday, I received 3 more cards:

Tom (Fishing Boat Hull): Great detail and original composition. If you had'nt put the description, it would be an abstract photo.

Rüdiger (Speyer dom, krypta): Very nice architechtural subject. This forms are allways beautiful It reminds-me the Córdoba Mesquita (Spain). I like also the contrast between the part where sun arrives directly and the rest.

Pete: Great image of a scene agains the sun, that is technically very difficult. I like the sharpness and the great tonallity scale. I like also the calm sensation that transmits.

Josep

 

[Tom Kershaw]

Received Rudiger's great card a few days ago. Very sharp for a hand held f/2, 1/15 exposure, and thanks (Rudiger) for the comment.

 

[rst]

Hey, today I received my first ever postcard from ... Andorra. I wonder what these poles are for? Is it "just" art or does it have some cultural/social background?

On saturday there were two more cards, one very nice brown toned card from Matt which I think transports the mood of that scenery very well. And a card from Greg which I think is one of the funniest cards I ever got and it immediately reminded my to what you wrote into your signature "Looking is a gift, but seeing is power."

And thanks for the comments on my card.

-- Ruediger

 

[simulatordan]

Hello All,

The first cards have started to arrive:

Rudiger Stobbe:- Speyer dom, I like the abstract quality of this, nice range of tones, and sharp for a handheld shot at 1/15 second

Tom Kershaw:- Anything marine I find fascinating, great texture in the deck paint and the 'graffitti'. The cleet hold the attention too.

Peter H:- Really dramatic this one, the perspective of the cobbled road compliments the shadows.

Ingo:- I had to spend some time working this one out; it was well worth it well seen, good fun.

Jeffeb:-It's all been said already by others,really well thought out. Interesting juxtaposition of the young girl and the ancient machine; that's what museums are about isn't it?

This is a fantastic start to the round. I hope we can keep the momentum going.

Regards Daniel

 

[reellis67]

This is my first time so I wanted to do a limited number to see how it goes and I'm looking forward to it. I have to use 5x7 Ilford paper but I intend to trim down to 4x6 so there will be no white border on my cards. I have six printed so far but ran out of paper. I may have to cut an 11x14 sheet to several 5x7's to finish the remaining 5 cards. Not sure what information people are interested in knowing so I'll try to include the stuff any Apuger would like to know.

Chuck

Chuck,

Be sure to add postage for those 5x7 cards. They will want the regular mail stamp for that size rather than the postcards stamp that you can use on the smaller cards. I did 5x7s one round and luckily checked the size requirements before sending. Since postcards don't carry a return address, if you don't put enough postage they may not get back to you or get to the recipient.

- Randy

 

[rst]

... I did 5x7s one round and luckily checked the size requirements before sending. Since postcards don't carry a return address, if you don't put enough postage they may not get back to you or get to the recipient.

In Germany the short side of the card might be up to 12.5 cm, if it is longer than 12.5 cm you have to pay more. 5x7 paper has a short side of around 12.8 cm and I already had printed my cards before I checked. But lucky me, the lady at the post office must have liked my cards, because I only had to pay the low price

-- Ruediger

 

[Chuck_P]

I finished my cards last night and will be preparing them for mailing today.

I don't know how many of us are using a 'cold light' type of light source such as the Aristo cold light lamp in my case, but I found just printing 11 cards to be frustrating because of that annoying problem of the heating and cooling of the lamp, which can make for inconsistent print exposures from print to print . Without a highend timer such as a metrolux, that is designed to compensate for heat fluxuations in the lamp, I can only imagine my frustration doing 30 or more prints. I know that each person will not know the difference, but to the one doing the printing, me, it was annoying to say the least.

All that aside, I have a had a great time receiving prints from others and am looking forward to getting mine out as well.

Chuck

PS.
Randy, thanks for the tip, but I will be trimming all mine down to a 4x6 image, they'll look they were printed on a borderless easel.

 

[PepMiro]

Hey, today I received my first ever postcard from ... Andorra. I wonder what these poles are for? Is it "just" art or does it have some cultural/social background?

-- Ruediger

They are sculptures made in 1.993 to comnemorate the 25th years of the foundation of Social Security (CASS) in Andorra.
The title is "Auto-generator structures" and the author is the Mexican artist Jorge Dubon.

Josep

 

[Pete H]

I too have received Josep's card today. The sculptures are interesting, but I would happily go there to climb in the mountains (perhaps when the cloud is higher). The composition with the central sculpture placed in front of the valley works well.

 

[HowardDvorin]

Hello,

I have received six cards so far. Each one is beautiful. Tim,Tom, Brian Mark, Rudiger, and Tugo. This is my first postcard exchange and is is very exciting to see work from photographers all over the world. As time goes on I will try to write to each of you.

I have started printing my own postcards. The darkroom part should be finished this weekend.(1/20 and 1/21) Then I will start addressing and mailing the cards . Any hints are appreciated.

Thanks to each of you.

Howard

 

[HowardDvorin]

I have another question. I would like to display these cards. Can anyone make any suggestions?

 

[TimVermont]

My first two cards have arrived. An excellent zig-zag of shadow on stairs from Ingo, and a very nicely scaled shot from Brian. My thanks to you both.