Digital BW, The Print

The print exchange has come a long way in the last 3 1/2 years. The 
first one was almost all pretty local and nearly all scanned film 
printed with home made curves and quads. We've obviously seen a lot 
of developements in printer, inks, RIPS (thanks Roy), new papers and 
lots of new digital cameras.

I just shipped the July 05 exchange...3 years ago, Martin Wesley told 
me not to stress if the prints were late...he said there was no such 
thing as a print exchange that shipped "on time." Thanks for the 
advice Martin...in 3 1/2 years only a couple have literally been "on 
time" and it's only recently that I have gotten over the stress of 
being "late"...that's what retirement will do for you <VBG>.

The diversity we have seen is incredible...this month's exchange, for 
example has 3 of the most dead neutral prints I have ever seen and 4 
dramatically toned ones...not even 2 similar workflows and real 
diversity of participation (the real value of our internet 
community)...prints from California (4), Tennesse, New York, Oregon, 
Alaska, Washington, Virginia, India, Norway, UK, and Belgium!

Thanks to all of you who participate...and welcome to those of you 
yet to give it a try. It's a real treat to see all this great work 
every month.

cheers,

Tom O'Connell

Tom,
dumb question from new guy on the block. I don't know anythng about print exchanges 
but am always trying to learn new b/w related 'stuff'. please tell me what they are and how 
I can see them.
thanks,
tom, neighbor from Los Altos Hills
--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Tom OConnell" <tomoc@y...> 
wrote:

> The print exchange has come a long way in the last 3 1/2 years. The 
> first one was almost all pretty local and nearly all scanned film 
> printed with home made curves and quads. We've obviously seen a lot 
> of developements in printer, inks, RIPS (thanks Roy), new papers and 
> lots of new digital cameras.
> 
> I just shipped the July 05 exchange...3 years ago, Martin Wesley told 
> me not to stress if the prints were late...he said there was no such 
> thing as a print exchange that shipped "on time." Thanks for the 
> advice Martin...in 3 1/2 years only a couple have literally been "on 
> time" and it's only recently that I have gotten over the stress of 
> being "late"...that's what retirement will do for you <VBG>.
> 
> The diversity we have seen is incredible...this month's exchange, for 
> example has 3 of the most dead neutral prints I have ever seen and 4 
> dramatically toned ones...not even 2 similar workflows and real 
> diversity of participation (the real value of our internet 
> community)...prints from California (4), Tennesse, New York, Oregon, 
> Alaska, Washington, Virginia, India, Norway, UK, and Belgium!
> 
> Thanks to all of you who participate...and welcome to those of you 
> yet to give it a try. It's a real treat to see all this great work 
> every month.
> 
> cheers,
> 
> Tom O'Connell

Tom-

I haven't posted a lot of material here so this forum can stay on 
course for it's business, and that is why I decided to give a little 
update yesterday.

Basically, it's very simple. You sign up and send me 14 prints, each 
with a workflow explanation attached and I send you back 14 from the 
other participants. I've been doing this for 3+ years now and the 
variety and learning possibilities are incredible.

You can see some examples of prior exchanges by looking in the photos 
section of the exchange discussion group (we haven't ever really used 
the messaging very effectively).

posting is voluntary, so not everyone has uploaded pictures, but you 
can get a sense of the quality...but it isn't the same as holding the 
print and reading the workflow sheet.

this is the url: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBW-
PrintExchanges/?yguid=56167233

Contact me offline if you would like to sign up for an exchange. I will 
be posting the signup notice for the SEPT 05 exchange over the 
weekend...actually you can sign up now, but I haven't fixed the exact 
due date yet.

cheers,

Tom O'Connell


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "tom_and_marj" 
<tomandmarj@c...> wrote:
> Tom,
> dumb question from new guy on the block. I don't know anythng about 
print exchanges 
> but am always trying to learn new b/w related 'stuff'. please tell me 
what they are and how 

> I can see them.
> thanks,
> tom, neighbor from Los Altos Hills