Postcard Exchange #26 Comments and Feedback

[kraker]

More cards received since my last update:

bluejeh sent a very nice study of rocks, even though I can't get the slow rotation trick working.
bluejeh2, in contrast, has sent a shot full of straight lines, also very nice. Lovely lighting, looks like early morning.
rst has given his Zero2000 some rest and went to the park with a Zeiss Ikon. A great shot, and... I think I've said it before, really love the paper you use.
Mike Wilde was again generous enough to send not one, not two, but three photos in an envelope. Image one is my favourite (but I like all three images, rest assured). It's great to see how this paper still performs, but also how it makes a negative from 201x look like a print from some 50-odd years ago.

I've printed my postcards today. At last. They need to be addressed and I need to invest some money in stamps; I will let you know when they go out, but the biggest hurdle has now been taken . I've chosen to print just one negative, for which I apologise beforehand to the bluejehs. Before choosing the final negative and print (and this might be interesting to Mike Wilde), I tried printing a negative onto some old (don't know how old) Agfa Brovira paper. Fogging however was pretty bad, so that specific experiment has to wait for some other time. For this round, it's fresh stock Ilford Postcard paper.

[mooseontheloose]

Two more cards arrived today:

Rudiger's "A Walk in the Park" -- I like that the subject of the title is out of focus. You can almost hear the wind rustling through the leaves!

Phil's Capital Building -- you're right, the fountain is less than impressive, but the tower is nothing to sneeze at!

Thanks guys!

[Mike Wilde]

I'm now back from a weeks worth - 110km - of a backcountry canoeing vacation to find a nice bunch of postcards mixed in amonst the junk fliers in my backlogged post box contents:

Black Dog – An RA-4 colour print showing that yes, the UK does see a touch of snow from time to time. It can first strike you and an ‘unframed’ image, but further study puts more and more content into your head. Nice and sharp, for sure, and not to much contrast in a situation that can be prone to such a problem

Box Brownie Abandon car – Ah, someone’s old ‘roo shooter rig. Nice composition. A good hint of background to give the scene a location. It does not pull too much attention away from all of the details of this modified before its death car.

Bluejeh – The rock with pebble shaped holes – A neat abstract taken from a natural unmodified scene. I quite like it from just about any orientation. The unbalanced edge approach would normally be criticized, but there is so much strangeness in the image that your eye is not drawn to it.

Bluejeh (2) Suburban Post-Modernist reflecting pool landscape. Nice framing. And a good range of tones as well. Nice reflections in the pool, and tonality in the overhead clouds as well.

Jim O The Empire State Building surrounded by negative space. Good definition of tones in the clouds, and in the window details in the otherwise dark foreground elevate this print above what might be called a successful grab shot. The foreground is not presented as a total silhouette, which considerably strengthens the image to me. I have a strange purple swipe of a stain at one end of my print , which is one of the neat artifacts of travelling though the postal system, I presume.

rst – A walk in the park- At first glance I thought this might be a good pinhole, but a closer examination of the fine detail in the foreground leaves dissuaded me of the pinhole thought quickly.

I like the way that the sharp foreground deliberately frames the interesting, but slightly out of focus background content in this image. The matt paper used to present this image works well with the subject content.

[Mike Wilde]

Molli's card arrived last night. Excellent mask like image of some sort of old gold hued paper.

Well suited to times here - we just finished the big Caribean carnival parade we call Caribana.

I had a batch of old Kentmere from late 50's early 60's, like yours. Mine was a matt silvery finish.
Alas it was fogged very badly, and grey on grey just did not work, so it was binned.

[JimO]

walk in the park from rudiger - i'd love to take a snooze on the grass!!!

man in the street from johannes - nice shadow, printing and details in whites & blacks! i'm jealous.

hornby island rocks from judith higham - uh, pebbles - no, rocks - no, pebbles - no... great seeing

simon frazer university from ed higham - nice seeing, compostion and reflection, very interesting

on the surface of things from molli - wonderful subject, nicely printed - and attractive.

thanks to each of you... i'm lovin it! (did i steal that?)

[rst]

Thanks for the kind comments.

In the meantime I received some more cards:

labcoat - a nice print of ... cows. And the one in the front looks like cows are slow thinkers.

JimO - NYC Empire State from Brooklyn Bridge. I like that framing of that huge building looking so small in this image.

anikin - Frozen Trio. Somehow to me it seems that I ended up in an infrared postcard exchange. And I like that.

rst - sent an image I could have taken.

htimsdj - sent a nice study of line and pattern from Cleveland Museum of Art. Very nice card, but I could not find htimsdj (who invented this name) on my list and it turns out ... this is a later comer from round 24. Too lazy to look up that other thread, so I leave that comment here.

Cheers
Ruediger

[mooseontheloose]

Two more cards arrived today:

labcoat's tourist couple's self-portrait. How many of us have done this exact thing? I like the fact that the background has nothing to do with what they are taking a picture of (not that it would show up anyway!)

anikin's Frozen Trio. I love getting infrared shots in the exchange, and am glad to see a successful example with the Auro IR820. I definitely need to play with that film more!

[kraker]

Received labcoat's tourist self-portrait photo. Guilty as charged, yes, we also take one or two pictures this way when on holiday. It's a great photo, an observation of daily life in this day and age. Really, a great shot. Thanks.

And... the outbox is empty. My postcards went in the mail today. Pfew. Time and time again, I dream of being early "this time 'round", but I don't seem to manage, somehow. Maybe next time...?!

[mooseontheloose]

Kraker -- your card arrived today. It really makes me laugh -- I just love (curious) sheep! The black one at the back of the herd is particularly good. And of course, it's a striking photograph as well -- the fence in the foreground, the brooding sky -- great composition and printing! Thanks!

[MattKing]

I have been delinquent in not commenting on the fine postcards in this round. My apologies.

Since my last comment I have received cards from 13 participants in this round. The following are their APUG names, the card titles (or my best guess on titles) and my comments:

anikin - “Frozen Trio” - whimsical use of IR imagery
bluejeh - “Hornby Island Rocks” - well seen, and fun too!
bluejeh2 - “Simon Fraser University Pool” - beautifully geometric
BoxBrownie - “The Inglewood Terror” - the subject made me smile
drpsilver - “Textures, Shoreline Park” - intriguing vignette - printed well to emphasize the textures
George Nova Scotia - “Truro Reservoir” - another nice use of IR - in this case a “historical” one
JimO - “Empire State from Brooklyn Bridge” - great choice of viewpoint
kraker - “Counting Sheep” - moody and fun - at the same time!
labcoat - “Pedestrian at the Crossing” - interesting shapes and beautifully dramatic tones
Mike Wilde - “Lake Ontario’s Shore”, “Church of the Silver Ball” and “Toronto Skyline” - Three more interesting prints from Mike on oldish paper. I think I’m most fond of the colour print - “Toronto Skyline”
mooseontheloose - “Miyajima Torii at Night, Hiroshima” - atmospheric and sobering - and printed to suit
Oxleyroad - “The Back Garden” - full of interesting detail, and makes nice, subtle use of the near IR sensitivity of the film
rst - “A Walk in the Park” - nice use of selective focus

So far I have received cards from 15 people - with 9 to come.

Thanks all for participating.