This month’s Oculus column features a postcard that photographer Ellen Jaffe sent to “a little girl very important to me, living in the city two years ago while I lived in Greenport. To share my world out here with Ella, I sent her a postcard every day that year.”

The daily postcard could picture a chicken on a local farm, or the carousel in Greenport, or maybe an egret at a pond. Ellen happened upon the shaving brushes, pictured here, at a yard sale, and she quickly shot the collection on her iPhone. “No settings to worry about with that handy device,” Ellen said. Ordinarily, her camera of choice is a Leica Q professional digital camera. The iPhone is her diary, always in hand and right for this project.

With images safely tucked into her camera, she transfers them via iCloud to her MacBook. From Photoshop, she prints 5×7 inkjet images onto heavy photo paper, and then the fun begins, Ellen said. With pen, colored pencils, pastels, crayons and watercolors — little touches to delight a little girl wondering what her Enni is doing — plus a stamp and a little help from the U.S. P.S., Ella and Enni were united every day.