Assignment #17, Post Cards, Open for Submission

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 8:43 pm

The assignment is to produce a post card that is real in so far as:

1. True to format, i.e., 4" x 6" or 4-1/4" x 6"

2. Taken of an actual tourist attraction

3. Of a quality that would be appropriate for actual use and production.

I am suggesting two approaches to this: The family approach, or the Romantic approach.

The family approach: Take your family to a nearby museum or tourist attraction. While your family is touring the site, you walk to the gift shop and look at the post cards in the rack. After you get an idea of what shots they are looking for, go out and shoot to meet that demand. Remember that you have to shoot to format.

That evening rush to your computer and print out one or two post cards for each family member. Have them snail mail the shots to grandparents, friends or other family members. If you wait too long they will not want to sit down and write the post card. This is a good family outing.

How to find the tourist attractions: I went on line and found the tourist guide for Dutchess County, NY (where I live). They list the major attractions and I counted it and there were 53 as I recall; or enough to occupy 1 day a weekend for an entire year.

See: http://www.dutchesstourism.com/historic.asp

Our county is semi-rural to "distant suburban" and I think that it is not too much different than most areas. I doubt that any of you live where there are NO attractions.

The Romantic Approach. Take your honey to a nice, nearby bed and breakfast hotel. These hotels should have a postcard to promote their facility.

While you are there, and while recovering from your carnal excesses, roam the property and take some suitable post card shots.

The nice part of this is, in addition to providing a fertile ground for seminal artistic expression, that the owner of the facility is almost always on the premises and is usually quite friendly. If you shoot digital and have a lap top you may even be able to make a sale.

What to charge? Labor charge equal to the room rate (no money changes hands)--this is an easy thing for the owner to do as he is "spending" no money.

Possible shots:

1. Front of the building showing attractive grounds and (probably) a sign.

2. Attractive grounds

3. Dining room

4. Guest room

5. Any interesting aspects of the property or building.

Top find bed and breakfast places, Google: "Bed and Breakfast" [Your County] [Your State].

When I did this I got several compilations.

For the post cards, set yourself up as a distributor for MWM Dexter. They pay a generous commission and are very reliable, honest and offer a high quality product. See: http://www.mwmdexter.com/

Tell them your are photographer and would like to be a distributor. They will send you all the required information.

In any case, you are to learn to shoot for a specific need. To a specific format. In a lot of ways this is easier--you have a road map of what to shoot. It is also more difficult as you need to work within certain parameters.

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 8:51 pm

the only things near me are the Bike museum and the NEIL armstrong attraction that has quite the little abstract building....might be able to make the bike museum look good.

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:12 pm

NateStahly wrote:

the only things near me are the Bike museum and the NEIL armstrong attraction that has quite the little abstract building....might be able to make the bike museum look good.

You haven't looked very hard. But the bike museum sounds awfully good to me.

http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=17565

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:17 pm

your right packard I guess i was looking in all the wrong places....you have opened a new window of search for me. becuase i can search my surrounding towns with that site and beable to know where im going instead of just stumbling on a good shot here and there. Thank You..

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:23 pm

i wish i had my camera around when the my old hometown NEW BREMEN,OHIO becuase after last summer we have the WORLD RECORD for the world largest pumpkin pie....this town they only serve Ice Cold Beer and Hot coffee at 6am when they started to cook it...here is a link with photos..thought i would post it..
http://www.newbremen.com/NB_Photo_Album/albumDetails13.cfm

Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:48 am

NateStahly wrote:

i wish i had my camera around when the my old hometown NEW BREMEN,OHIO becuase after last summer we have the WORLD RECORD for the world largest pumpkin pie....this town they only serve Ice Cold Beer and Hot coffee at 6am when they started to cook it...here is a link with photos..thought i would post it..
http://www.newbremen.com/NB_Photo_Album/albumDetails13.cfm

That's great. You know you could have shot those pictures; better probably.

Also consider Colleges and Universities. They often have postcards showing their most important buildings.

Google is a powerful tool. Google your town, the county and the state separately. Also stop in at a local hotel. They will often have brochures for local attractions.

You'd be surprised how interesting your home town is.

Also check the archives of your local newspaper. There may be some historically important events that occurred there and you can re-visit the event spot and show the current conditions there.

Maybe we'll get Dr. Pablo to show off his PC lens and images of Harvard University. I'll have to ask.

Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 8:10 am

yeah i wish i had my camera then with me....wouldnt mind seing photos of harvard. this will be my first assiignment and i will try my best..

Premium Member Joined: 29 Oct 2004 Posts: 5758

I just got back from my vacation in Mexico a couple hours ago, and this approach was very much in my mind for the many photos I took. I'll share some different 'postcards' from my trip.

Joined: 18 Oct 2005 Posts: 440

great assignment, if I go off on this one, i might never return as southern new mexico has a TON of postcard oppertunities... Where do I find the due date for these?

Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 7:43 pm

Codejoy wrote:

great assignment, if I go off on this one, i might never return as southern new mexico has a TON of postcard oppertunities... Where do I find the due date for these?

You may post as of August 1st. Nominally the assignments last for 2 weeks; for practical purposes you may submit as often and as late as you choose.

Remember to work within the post card parameters for both size and "postcardishness".

Joined: 18 Oct 2005 Posts: 440

this raises an interesting point for me. I am trying to figure out what u mean by post cardiness, i mean with an 8mp camera i can print as big as 8 1/2 x 11", so isnt printing it postcardyness just rescaling the image? orrrr do you mean that there are some details that are lost at that size, so readjusting the composition to maintain the detail (i.e. zooming in closer to a sign for the lettering to be legible at postcard size?)

Im going to mull this over and hope that im somewhere for postcard shots within the family/romantic parameters.

Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 7:10 am

Back to the "post cardiness" issue. Are we allowed to make it look like a real post card with added text and effects?

Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:14 am

Postcardiness, definition: Adjective; of or relating to the appearance of a post card.

Specifically, if you printed out your photo and trimmed it to post card size, and you slipped it into the post card rack at the tourist attraction, it should look like it belonged there.

If you showed it to someone they would look at the "post card" and ask where you got it from, rather than where you shot it.

Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:18 am

Mampara wrote:

Back to the "post cardiness" issue. Are we allowed to make it look like a real post card with added text and effects?

Look at my other post; but yes, anything to make it look like a post card.

Joined: 02 Jul 2006 Posts: 134 Location: chicagoland

do we need to put a border or a caption on this? or can we just post a picture?