Wow! That was fast! Thanks buster and drp for your kind comments.
Good-on-you for noting the stamp buster - I held things up at the post office while the clerk rooted around in the back room to find enough Karsh stamps for all my cards. I will scan my card and post it with info next week - don't want to spoil the surprise for those who haven't recieved it yet.
I've recieved one card this week (so far) from Warren - I'd love to see a big print of this - it would be imposing.
After receiving a good seven or eight nice cards I got motivated to get mine together. Last night I printed, this morning I pulled the prints from the drying blotters, and at lunch I made up and addressed the backing cards.
Once I got the kids to bed I revved up the dry mount press, and 'glued' all the components together.
For me this was another 'blast from the past' image. We are coming up on Canada Day weekend in another day or two, so I dug back to see what was the earliest Canada Day images that were easily accesed. I found a few rolls that I shot when I was 18. Looking back on them 23 years later, wow, I am glad I stuck with it and at least somewhat improved, because my shooting technique as seen from what was on those contact sheets was awful. The next year I moved away to go to Uni, and seeing the world beyond my home town seems to have done my photographic eye the world of good. Contact sheets from just a few years later are a good deal easier to view from todays perspective.
The other blast from the past was using up another long outdated paper. Last fall I found a still sealed 25 sheets of 8x10 envelope of Kodabromide single weight finish E grade 3 paper, at my favourite camera store, for the grand price of $2, with no guarantees that it was any good. Lo and behold, it was good, little if any fog other than on the top sheet, and the grade today was about 2.5.
The last blast was using up the last of my old Ademco dry mount tissue. The packaging read ' made in Great Britain by the Adhesive Dry Mount Co. Ltd. 26 Stamford St London, SE1.' It had a batch code of 1-3351, and a packaging code of 4J 1251, so I think it was made all the way back in 1951. Instructions indicated that it should seal at 154-167F, but the shellac in this stuff is so dry by now, that I found that it worked best with still slightly damp prints, and with the press running at 315F to force some steam into the old stuff to breath a last gasp of adhesion out of it.
Received a card from Akki14. You were looking for an "old-fashioned look", and I think you accomplished that goal. I wonder how this would look with a little sepia or brown tone. It might look really old-fashioned then.
Thanks for the postcard, and the remembrance of my trip to Oxford last year.
Ah I am really anti-sepia. I am a weirdo. Plus, not all old photos went sepia and I don't really like how sepia now equates immediately to old. As demonstrated, there's other things that can factor into a vintage style. I'd suggest trying to tone it yourself but I'm not sure how happy the calligraphy marker would be in a water bath or toning bath...
I am SO bad, I've realised I've built up a pile of 6 postcards I've not mentioned receiving! drpsilver's old pump house. I love that old demijohn. I've had a strange fascination with those jars since I was little. For some reason there was one abandoned in between our house and our neighbours'. I wandered off when I was quite young to go look at it then wandered off some more... had half the neighbourhood looking for me. I think we did eventually rescue the jar in question and cleaned it out and I hatched a huge jar of sea monkeys/brine shrimp in it for a science fair project. Silly little story for you there
Next was David Brown's flea market photo. Lots of memories in this too, reminds me of the flea market I used to go to in Pennsylvania when visiting my relatives every summer. They went for hippy tiedyed tshirts with the grateful dead bears on them, though.
Warren's (wazza) Big top looks very fleshy... my husband thought it was some abstract of a human body at first glance. Sort of belly buttons and womanly curves.
Lillian's (sly) pretty snowdrops. I've only ever seen this picture online as your icon and as the background to an alt process exchange letter. I like seeing it in person now. Love all the little bubbles on the glass of the vase.
And today I got Mark Fisher's and rst's cards. I like the square format card from Mark... and interestingly the postal system has added a little white mark (scratched emulsion again) just next to the mark on the roofing felt(?) near the hinge of the door. I almost thought it was part of the image. Very cool little door. Rst - I like the bicycles. I might be getting my own soon and I like looking at all the different kinds. I saw millions of them in Oxford and no two were alike. I keep picking up little things in the background too. I thought the sign behind was empty but now I see it's a map, there's the closed up carousel too. It's just very interesting to look at.
Thank you all for your cards so far
__________________
~Heather oooh shiny!
Last edited by Akki14; 06-26-2008 at 06:31 PM.
Reason: adding in bolds
What's not to love about the postcard exchange? Every morning I almost accost the postman to see what he brings.. and he hasn't failed me yet!
Between last and this week there's some beauties.
Adrian your foreboding landscape is really gorgeous, it reminds me of many an Irish summer.. Wazza I have to admit it took me a moment or two to work out what it was, but as soon as I did I loved it, very unusual angle. David I keep going back to your Jesus t-shirts, there's something about them I just love, really gorgeous shot. Heather.. The old postcard style works just perfectly! It looks like something out of an old sci-fi movie, great photo! Mark I love the textures in your door, I could see a series of those and more like them going across my wall.. Lillian your snowdrops are amazing.. the print is so so clear, and the bubbles, I'm with Heather on this, they're just beautiful. Rudiger I have to admit yours is my favourite of all so far, it looks like a carousel of bicycles and just keeps grabbing my attention time and time again.
This is all so much nicer than looking at the gallery isn't it?
__________________ Síle
Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit... Oscar Wilde
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Today two more cards came in. david b"Flea market" with fading perspective and real sharpness in the front. What a lens.Nicely done. kingjon Latte stones ?What are they used for? Very nice image, I would have propped up the contrast so the leaves and texture on the stones would pop out.Summicron is outstanding.
Thanks Greg
__________________ Looking is a gift, but seeing is power.
Received Mark Fisher's card today. I love the crisp sharp lines that seem to work together. I guess it is the strong geometry of the image that really appeals to me.
Thank you for showing me an example of thiourea (aka thiocarbimide) toning. I have been experimenting with various brown toners, and have lots of yellow/gold/red prints but little brown. Your print comes close to the tone I am looking for. So I will get the chemistry necessary to do some thiourea toning. Mark, I am curious what paper you used for this postcard.
Regards,
Darwin
Last edited by drpsilver; 06-26-2008 at 11:29 PM.
Reason: typo
I got Davids "Flea Market". I like these kind of images. And I like that this is done with my personal contrast settings. Thanks a lot.
Then there was Warrens roof top. That is a good idea. In the first moment I thought hey what is it. Then if you look closer it is clear what it is. Nice.
And Jonathan sent "Latte Stones". I am with Greg, that I little bit more contrast would be good. But I am sure that a lot of people think that I print way too contrasty. So Jonathan, you sent us an image of these stones without telling us anything about them. Now what shall I think of this?
Then one day there was a big surprise in the mailbox. I do not believe in parapsychology but slowly I start believing in thought reading over large distances, because this is the second time (it happened earlier in one of the print exchanges) that someone sent me an image which I first saw on APUG and thought "hey, I would like to see an original print of this." This time thought reader Lillian sent the beautiful "Snow Drops". I like this image very much. The glow, the bubbles, diagonals, contrast, everything. Thanks.
So what was the fifth card Ah yes, my own card arrived. Well a bit of carbon toning would have helped. But I found out too late.
Sheila and Heather, thanks for your kind comments on my postcard. I had a hard time deciding which negative to print. But it seems that I was not totally wrong.
Thanks to all, this is again a great round.
-- Ruediger
Darwin....I used regular multigrade RC. You need a pretty strong bleach mix for this paper and it is a little difficult to get it consistant across 50 prints! Funny thing is that I made a fine print (or at least as fine as I can manage!) with Oriental Warmtone fiber and it looked nasty with thiocarbimide. It worked very nicely with selenium, though. It was surprisingly like the thiocarbimide RC prints....a nice, rich brown tone.
Sile: Thanks for the idea for a series. I might give it a shot.
Also, this is the nicest exchange so far....keep it coming!
Alan sent me a garden gnome. I will put the card under the apple tree in our back yard. At least on sunny days.
What a nice idea to put the title on the front Heather. I like the idea of your card at all and for me it works very well without toning.
And then Greg sent "Tools". It is funny, but with some postcards you take them out of the mailbox and without reading the back you know who sent them. This is one of those examples. I had it in my hands and knew this one is from Greg. I did not turn it around until I went through the rest of my mail but then out of curiosity checked that I was right. Very nice and you also manged again to nail down the contrast exactly to my liking. Thanks.
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