Postcard Project: Week 2

For background on the Postcard Project, please see the introductory post.

I shot the North Fork Dam today in homage to the following vintage postcard, which I purchased on eBay:

It took me a little while to figure out this card. The X’ed-out caption refers to the Quemahoning Dam, whose large reservoir remains important for drinking water and recreation near Johnstown. The “corrected” caption refers to “Norfolk Dam.” I had never heard of a Norfolk Dam in the area, and didn’t get any responses on Twitter. But I found a postcard at Value-it with the same picture and a correct caption: It’s the North Fork Dam, near Pickin' Chicken.  Vintage Johnstown has the corrected corrected postcard, and a photograph that may have been the inspiration.

I wanted to reproduce the original postcard as best I could, but there’s maintenance work going on at the dam, and if I shot it any wider there would have been a chain link fence and port-a-potty in the shot.

Both of the “good” postcards so far have been black and white… that’s not really my intention, but there’s been a lot of overcast white skies so far, and B&W is working better. Hopefully I’ll get some nicer skies as spring draws near. I’ll also note that the decorative borders on the online images are a bit generous; this is because the printed postcards will be printed full-bleed, and I’ll lose a bit at the edges.