That was quick.....

Well, the new cards arrived today which is great as I was not expecting them until Wednesday.
I am really pleased with them and have posted two of my favourite ones here. The first is the little boy with all of his toys and the second one is of a little boy dressed up for a football match and I think this one is close to being my all time favourite card ( another one ! ).

Forgotten Faces on Flickr

New material

I managed to win some new cards on Ebay last week and am eagerly awaiting their arrival. They are mostly of children and many seem to have come from the same family which is an added bonus. There are a couple of gems in the batch including one of a little boy with lots of old toys.

There are lots of individual cards being sold on the net but if I collected this way it would cost me a fortune. Most of them have a starting price of over £1.00 and could go on to make a lot more. Buying in batches brings the price per card right down and although there may be some not so good ones in the batch it is the best way for me to increase my collection.

So, look out for the new batch which should arrive early this week and uploaded to Flickr by the end of the week.

Forgotten Faces at Flickr

My most viewed card

As it stands at the moment this is my most viewed postcard on Flickr...



This card has 1254 views as of today and the nearest one to it has 562 views so this is way out in the lead.
I can see why as it is a favourite of mine too, it just has everything !

Storage !!

After scanning and uploading these images to flickr I have in the past transfered these cards to albums but it soon became clear that I would soon run out of space to store these so today I have purchased some storage boxes for my cards. This keeps them tidy and maybe in time I might be able to transfer to albums when I get some more space.
They look so much better in albums and are a joy to look through when I feel the need but as they say...needs must !

Off we go again !!

Well, finally managed to start scanning again and uploading a few more pics to FF. I have not long been back from holiday on The Isle of Wight and while there managed to get a few people postcards from a book fair at the Botanical Gardens in Ventnor. Just uploaded three of them and will do the rest later.

Must get on with my other blog as well before my brain goes !! I have been finding it quite easy to remember my childhood and all the people and places but I daresay that one day things will not be so clear.

Feeling a bit guilty !!

Yep, I really am feeling a bit gulity for not having got to grips with my Flickr site over the last few weeks and also this blog. Maybe I should explain a bit.

I work for a company called Waitrose which is part of the john Lewis Partnership. Waitrose is the food chain of this partnership. Now, when you have worked for this company for 25 years part of the deal is that you get 6 months leave on full pay. Well, I started my long leave at the begining of March and apart from doing a bit of family history research I have been doing a lot of stuff that I have not been able to get round to in the past. Also some time ago I started a user group on Ebay for Grumpy Old People. This proved very popular and took a lot of my time. I then let it slip a bit so over the last few weeks I have doing a relaunch of that group. Click the link to join but you have to be a member of Ebay.
Grumpy Old Peeps

I am still collecting the old postcards and will very soon devote some time to getting them uploaded. I am glad that there is still a lot of interest in the site and I am still getting lots of mails.

The Vintage Seaside Group I started on Flickr is doing very well with regular uploads and new members. There are some really great images on there so I am pleased about that.

Well, thats it from me for now

I will be back !!

Just in case anyone was wondering why I have not posted any pictures recently on my Flickr site I thought that I should explain.
I seem to spend all my time rummaging through other peoples pasts and i thought it was about time i had a look at my own. So, since Christmas I have been researching my family history. Although it seems its the "in" thing to do at the moment I still decided to go ahead and I am glad that I did. Its time consuming, frustrating but more than anything facinating.
I might blog my search here but I need to organise what I have already discovered. So, if you are interested keep an eye open here some time in the future.

I still have hundreds of photos to post on Flickr but I need to concentrate on this project for a while. When I feel I need a break from it I will start uploading again.

You don`t aways get what you want !!

I won an ebay auction recently for 100 people cards and I was eagerly awaiting their arrival. When they arrived a couple of days ago I discovered they were all German. Although the quality was extremely good I only collect British cards ( although some foreign ones may have slipped through).

Fortunately the seller has agreed to take them back and refund me the price as she did not mention the fact that they were foreign in the auction listing.
Never mind, I might stop buying more cards until I have finished dealing with the ones I have....famous last words !!

Image sizes on Flickr

One of my contacts on Flickr suggested that I increase the image size that I upload as it would give more detail. Not being one to ignore advice I have given it a go and have mixed feelings about the result. I have just obtained an external hard drive with another 250gb so the extra memory required is not a problem but although you can now see much more detail you can also see more of the imperfections that these cards inevitably have.

Overall I think that maybe it is a good change to make and the extra detail outweighs the other problem so I will continue with the larger size.

I have to admit that I have been " cherry picking " the cards that I have been uploading recently which is not what I intended at the outset of this project so today I have gone through 20 cards and just uploaded them without sorting. Some might not be as interesting as others but it gets me back on track with my original intentions.

Forgotten Ostrich !!

I get some nice emails from many of the people who view my postcards on flickr and sometimes get sent pictures to look at. I received a mail today from Eric with a link to a picture on Flickr. He thought I could put it on my blog ! So Eric, although not stictly in keeping with the other images here it is...a forgotten ostrich ...


Thanks for that Eric, its really a great image from the past.

Forgotten Faces at Flickr

New year

Well, its now 2008 and I have just started uploading again and hope to reach 1000 photo`s by the end of Jan. I uploaded a few recently purchased cards yesterday and have a mountain still to go through.
The site is still being visited on a regular basis and is now coming up to 15000 views. I have recently installed a couple of add ons to the site which provide some statistics of how the site is viewed. You can see one of them in a graph form on my profile page.

So, lots to do in the new year and lots more postcards to buy !!

A happy new year to anyone who reads this blog.

Forgotten Faces at Flickr

A quick update

Well, not had much time to udate this blog recently. Been uploading a lot more cards and I am aiming at having 1000 by the end of January.
Its difficult when sorting through my cards which ones to upload and which ones to leave. I did promise myself that I would put all of them on Flickr apart from the really damaged ones but I just can`t help being a bit selective.

Coming up to 13000 views on the site now so that is very pleasing. Also I have recently purchased some very nice cards. My recent favourite is this one showing people on a horse and carriage outside St Petrocs Boarding House in Ilfracome, North Devon. Thanks to one of my contacts I was able to discover the exact name of the house shown on the card.



I have also been contacted by the Curator of Photographic Technology at the National Media Museum in Bradford. He is staging an exhibition next year on Street and Beach Photography and I have agreed in principle to lend him some of my cards. I will update on that later next year.

With Christmas just around the corner I will not be doing too much on Flickr but early in the new year I shall be striving to hit the magic 1000 images uploaded.

A stroke of luck !

I have just recently received two separate lots of cards that I won on an online auction. They were both from the same seller and as I was sorting through them I discovered two cards of the same family but each of these cards was in a different lot. Now, if I hadn`t have won both lots these two cards would have been separated for ever. This would have been a tragedy as they show a families children growing up.
So, any postcard dealers reading this please take note...try and sort through your lots and try and keep any related cards together. It is important as I think we all have a responsibility to the people and families depicted on these cards.

Read about these children on my Flickr site.

Forgotten Faces at Flickr

A bit of a mystery !

I have noticed that one of my cards has attracted a lot of interest over the last few days and I am trying to work out why !
It is a nice card but I can`t work out why it has had over 300 views in such a short space of time.

The photo was taken on Bank Holiday 1914 so if this was August Bank Holiday it may be linked to the outbreak of World War One as Britain declared war on Germany on 4th August 1914 and as we have just had Rememberance Sunday it could possibly explain the interest shown. Other than that I am mystified !

Past the 10,000

Well, today the views on my Photostream at Flickr have past the 10,000 mark which is pleasing to me as it makes all the scanning and uploading worthwhile. I am pleased that people like to look at these pictures from the past and gives me encouragement to continue with this project.

Oh no ! Another Favourite....

Just when I thought I had chosen my favourite card of the last few days another one turns up in the post !!
This is close to the top of my favourite card list. Check out the details on my Flickr site. Link below..


Forgotten Faces at Flickr

Favourite card of the last few days

I have purchased a few cards over the last few days and some arrived at the weekend. Out of them all this is my favourite card from the last few days.
Although the poor horse looks to be in a sorry state ( I have a feeling its not real anyway ) this photo is a real piece of social histry.



Currently 9445 views on my photostream at Flickr

Forgotten Faces at Flickr

Colourizing my black and white photos

Well I have just received a mail from the guy who asked if he could colourize some of my black & white postcards to tell me that he has completed some and overall I am pleased with the result. It does bring them to life and although I prefer the original black and white image it has been interesting to see what these people may have really looked like at the time. I have uploaded the images here.
What do you think ?






Forgotten Faces at Flickr

Colourizing my black and white photos

I had an interesting email the other day about my photos on Forgotten Faces. It was from a fellow Flickr member who likes to restore and colourize black and white photos. He has asked me if he can colourize some of my photos and gave me the link to his web site where he displays the end result.

Well, I had a look and must say that I was very impressed. The colour, in most cases is very natural and does seem to bring the photos to life. Although I prefer the original black and white image I have given permission for this person to colourize some. It will be interesting to see the results and I will upload them to this blog.

Check out his pictures here

This is just one image that I have borowed to put on here...






Forgotten Faces at Flickr

Currently 8619 views on my photostream at Flickr

The most popular card on my photostream

Flickr keeps track of all the views and comments made on your uploaded images and gives you a list of the most popular. There is an overall " most popular " based on the amount of views each picture gets and the amount of comments left and there is a " most popular " just based on views alone.
The most popular card on Forgotten Faces is the one shown here and it comes out on top in both scenarios.

Forgotten Faces at Flickr