Revitalised POSTCARD EXCHANGE Group

BWGirl said:

really do not know who took this...it's a city scene, and I can see a clock tower in the background. It was mailed in the US.

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Looks like the Custom House in Boston to me. Probably taken with a Nikon N80 on something like Delta 100. I bet Larry Gebhardt in New Hampshire can tell you more.

That was mine. I will send you another copy as I have two left. I just love our postoffice. What did they do to the thing - melt it?

L Gebhardt said:

That was mine. I will send you another copy as I have two left. I just love our postoffice. What did they do to the thing - melt it?

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It has a big chunk torn out of it. They sent it along in a plastic bag that says..."WE CARE
Dear Postal Customer:
We sincerely regret the damage to your mail during handling by the Postal Service. We hope this incident did not inconvenience you...." yada yada yada... :rolleyes:

Thanks, Larry.

they did a job on that!

L Gebhardt said:

That was mine. I will send you another copy as I have two left. I just love our postoffice. What did they do to the thing - melt it?

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Marvin Runyon's legacy. Looks like they didn't call him "Carvin' Marvin" for nothing. http://www.blogofdeath.com/archives/000941.html (5th paragraph).

L Gebhardt said:

That was mine. I will send you another copy as I have two left. I just love our postoffice. What did they do to the thing - melt it?

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Got it today...in one piece!!! Looks great! Thanks, Larry!

L Gebhardt said:

That was mine. I will send you another copy as I have two left. I just love our postoffice. What did they do to the thing - melt it?

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I just got mine today as well (Denton, TX, US). Wonderfully executed, splendidly geometric and pleasingly tonal image. If the winds of providince remain at my back tonight, I'll be able to mail out my domestic cards tomorrow.

At this rate, I should begin working on the June round of postcards immediately.

-KwM-

"Not tonight, honey... I've got postcards."

vignettes from a postcard cycle.

Midway through the second printing run on this postcard cycle, our three-year old son has started managing our family's time. "Daddy! Today, I want to go with Mommy to the kid pit [kwm: indoor play area at the mall] and McDonalds, and you can go into the darkroom and make pictures!" all with the enthusiastic and helpful smile of a budding mid-level manager in training.

Wife comes in, wants me to help her study. "Not tonight, honey. I've got postcards."

After a few nights of watching me annotate postcards, son protests going to bed and keeps running back to where I'm working, "I want to help daddy do postcards!" We finally convince him to go to bed, and thought the issue had been laid to rest, so to speak. The next morning as he headed off with his grandma he suddenly remembered something and clammers up on a shelf of a built-in bookshelf and gets a box of family photos. With the photos under his arm, he sprints down the hall, grabs his crayons, spreads everything out on the table where I work on the postcards and starts annotating the back of the photographs with his crayons.

Finally, two postcards from being finished, I'm sitting at the worktable, peering down through my magnifier, writing in tiny printing on the back of each card with my wife Dianna sitting next to me, studying. Our precocious toddler is off playing with grandma and it's a sunny, peaceful Saturday afternoon. I've got thirty minutes to do those two postcards while we still have time to see a movie before our childcare window disappears -- way more than enough time. Suddenly, a staccato rapid-fire series of doorbell rings stirs our concentration. At the door, I find a neighbor's elderly mother who got confused and worried when her daughter didn't come home when expected and started knocking on neighbor's doors looking for someone to sit with her. There we sat, cooling our heels, drinking coffee and chatting about this and that while the last two postcards are sitting on the table. Within forty-five minutes or so, her daughter and son-in law came home (or rather, the daughter, son-in-law and the police they called when they returned to find mama gone), and we got everything sorted out.

Later that night, the last two postcards were finally complete and ready to mail. After telling him for weeks that I'd let him mail out all the postcards when they were done, Alec (our three-year old) and I made a late-night run to the postoffice, one of his and my favorite places. The main post office is one of those huge federal office buildings with lots of funky architectural features from the seventies, Terrazzo floors, and row after row of beautiful (to us, anyway) ornate post office boxes.

Alec ran/danced from one end of the post office to the other, gleefully singing random syllables just to hear the echoes. The place has very lively acoustics. Aside from someone in the back corner, poking around one of the rows of PO boxes, we had the place to ourselves. Anyone else coming in would have probably smiled ear to ear as they saw him jumping up and down, receiving postcards from me one-by-one so he could extend up on his toes and pop each one into the mail slot, almost out of his reach. As I called out the city where each postcard was going, Alec lit up, trying to imagine what each place was like.

"This one's going to Palmdale, California."

"This one goes to Aurora, Colorado."

"Des Moines, Iowa"

"Malad City, Idaho"

"Gaithersburg, Maryland..."



-KwM-

kwmullet said:

After a few nights of watching me annotate postcards,

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so what exactly does one put in the annotations? title, location, equipment, the usual? Or anything special?

allan

Oh.. mostly just the usual stuff, but slow going since I had small windows of opportunity and had to write tiny to fit it all in (film/camera/film processing details/printing details/mount stock). As per a previous thread, I wanted to use the most archival method possible to annotate them, so that (in my mind) ruled out any ink, labels or laser/copier toner.

Originally, I wanted to search through the posts of each recipient and put something appropriate and unique on each card, but that idea only lasted for two or three cards.

-KwM-

kwmullet said:

As per a previous thread, I wanted to use the most archival method possible to annotate them, so that (in my mind) ruled out any ink, labels or laser/copier toner.

-KwM-

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I saw the comments about the pencils. Is that what you used?

allan

kwmullet said:

"Des Moines, Iowa"

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Hey, that's me

kaiyen said:

I saw the comments about the pencils. Is that what you used?

allan

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So then you just annotate, put the to/from addresses on there and that's it?

I figured I should ask these questions now since I hope to inflict my photographs on people in the next round.

allan

kaiyen said:

So then you just annotate, put the to/from addresses on there and that's it?

I figured I should ask these questions now since I hope to inflict my photographs on people in the next round.

allan

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Speaking as a relative newbie, I've only been in this one postcard exchange, the common elements are the addressee, the sender, a greeting and usually a bit of information about the process, location and/or materials. Methods of annotation varied from mechanical pencil in my case, to pens, running the postcards through a laserprinter or inkjet printer or printing up annotations on labels.

Most of the postcards I've gotten have been on Ilford RC postcard stock, but this time around I've gotten one alt process card and one Azo card mounted art paper. I've heard that the Ilford postcard paper has been discontinued, so as the supplies run out, more and more folks will come up with their own unique ways of crafting postcards.

Myself, I printed this round on Ilford MGIV FB and mounted it to premium hemp paper. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. Printing took a long time, though. Next time, I'll do a master 8x10 print of an image that works as a 4x5, tone and maybe wax it, copy it onto a 4x5 neg and contact print the cards.

I found this postcard exchange to be the single most enjoyable creative exchange since I used to play in a community orchestra decades ago. Have fun!

-KwM-

It will be a long time before I run out of postacrd stock. I went out and now have a stash of 20 boxes of 100. There are rumblings from one vendor they are going to have postcard stock made for us. That would be really nice.

As to the writing on the back, with the plactic paper of the Ilford postcards, I don't worry about using a pen.

my local suppliers never have more than a box or so on their shelves... and last time I was there someone had knocked the last box off... They didn't know if it had been discontinued but I usually go to another place which orders stuff in when requested so next time I'm there I'll have to get them to try and get some. Pity Ilford don't have a direct-to-the-public outlet, their main site is just up the road from here (work).

BTW Aggie, you have 5-6 years worth at the current Postcard Exchange usage rate! Wonder if we'll still be at it then?

Our local suppliers haven't heard of the Ilford postcard formated photographic paper. So I print on Zone VI 'Brilliant' FB. I'm guessing it seems to be robust enough.

Nige said:

BTW Aggie, you have 5-6 years worth at the current Postcard Exchange usage rate! Wonder if we'll still be at it then?

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oops, stuffed that calc.. try 16-17years...

not if I get excited about a rpoject again and do a large core dump of cards like I did before.

Foiled again!

I'm really sorry, but it seems I've yet again postponed the postcard printing for too long. I was going to do it yesterday evening and get them all in the mail today... Then my safelight bulb blew. All right", I thought, "I'll have to do it in the dark then". Mad a test print, developed, fixed turned on the light and discovered my developer didn't anylonger. It's quite possible I could have got them developed by doubling the time, but when Ilford MG RC doesn't develop fully in 90 seconds there's not much hope. And timing 90 seconds in total darkness is easy; seeing how much it takes without a safelight is wellnight impossible.

I promise to get them off by the end of February, and start on the next rund right away. I leave for two weeks in the North Sea again in ten minutes...

Ole said:

I'm really sorry, but it seems I've yet again postponed the postcard printing for too long. [...]
I promise to get them off by the end of February, and start on the next run right away. I leave for two weeks in the North Sea again in ten minutes...

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Cool... glad to see I wasn't the final straggler.

Looking forward to your offering, Ole!

-KwM-

Got yours today, Kevin! Very nice!!

I have a new mailing address. I will forward to Nige. Thanks everyone who sent me a card, I promise i will get at mine soon. Just to many shows to print for right now.