Can you Send Watercolour Paper Safely in the Post?

I have actually sent a lot of postcards unprotected through the post. From such diverse locations as Canada the UK, Northern Europe, Africa, South Asia, Brazil and even far northern Queensland with just the stamp on the back and an address, without problem. A few took a while to arrive, particularly through the Covid 19 lockdowns. In one late delivery, I had forgotten to add the postcode!

Being watercolour and paper many people worry they are not strong enough and will suffer water damage to smudge or lift the painting. Yes, water damage is a real potential problem but within Australia, the Postal Service does have a pretty good track record. Of course, providing the recipient has a waterproof mailbox!

Concerning the robustness of any watercolour postcard it depends mainly on the thickness and weight of the paper. Cotton-based watercolour papers are actually quite robust but I have not tried sending anything less than 200 gsm homemade postcards. Most of the commercial cards are either 230 gsm or 300 gsm. As far as I know, none have arrived scuffed, creased or damaged. Some wood-pulp-based paper in cheaper watercolour pads feels a lot softer and may require posting in an envelope.

Speaking of which you can always put your postcard in an envelope. Standard envelopes available for letters might prove a little tight. Just refold the top flap to accommodate the card’s width. Given envelopes are also made of paper they will not guarantee that there is never a possibility of water or physical damage.

As far as future provenance is concerned, I romantical have the view that future generations, even art historians or curators might enjoy researching the postmarks and stamp designs. Even today something sent through the post is considered quaint and more authentic.

RAW Sunrise post processed three ways

These are all processed from the same RAW file. The Sunrise only glimpsed between the clouds this morning and I did manage one shoot, but it is overblown on the horizon and a bit glum elsewhere else, A typical flat RAW file from a high contrast scene. so I decided to see what my software could independently do with the same basic task of balancing the image tonality. Hover you mouse over the pictures to see details.
I think this just goes to show that while I may prefer to do the tonal tweaking myself but by using AfterShot Pro’s perfectly clear single click adjustment will give me a very good idea of what is possible. The rest is personal preference and judgement.

Is Seeing Believing?

This video is from a paper being given at SIGgraph Asia 2011 by  Kevin Karsch, Varsha Hedau, David Forsyth, Derek Hoiem called Rendering Synthetic Objects into Legacy Photographs.

Unlike the photoshopping and fiddling with blemish stuff that is giving photo manipulation such a dubiously bad reputation, some of the work with augmented reality and object rendering is really based on sound understanding of the theory.  In Kevin’s case above clearly the process is following the source of light and shadows in a truly natural way. I am all for this type of technical improvement but we may have to tolerate more public scepticism of good “photographic” methods as this and similar techniques become tools of the less ethical fakers.

By the way, incorrect shadows and lighting on a subject are the easiest way to detect shoddy photoshoped heads on the wrong bodies etc. Now it is our job, as honest photographers to be open with the methods we apply (and I’m certain the above methods have some very great legitimate application), whilst at the same time helping to detect and expose the low-lives who are out to deceive us?

Strike three, "Blog This" from flickr requires resetting

Hmmm..... the blogger beta is not such a good idea... the "blog this" button from flickr doesn't work with blogger beta either.... well it does give you a half decent warning and link to change your blog setting.

The trouble is, you to have to delete the old blog setting and add a new one (there is no way to change your blog so I guess most folk will realise this is necessary eventually. It did take me a while to figure out)


As part of that process (if you have not already done it) you must grant flickr access to your google account so flickr can may make posts on your behalf. If you are worried about this sort of thing it will pay you to read the learn more link.