Elsewhere

Elsewhere

Oh Hey, New Blog

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you might’ve noticed that sometimes, on the rare occasions that I do post, I don’t strictly post about photography. Instead, I post code or lamentations over lost family members or other random things. Since this is a photoblog, I’ve decided that I should stick with photography here and start collecting this other stuff somewhere else. So, consider this the official announcement of [RobotSprocket], my new blog where I share everything else. I’ve just started it, so bear with me while I work out some...

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  • April 19, 2020
Elsewhere

Typeset in the Future

Beyond photography, I enjoy other pursuits. Such as design. And science fiction. So I was pleased a few years ago when I came across Dave Addey’s awesome site Typeset in the Future. It’s an exploration of the use of typefaces in iconic science fiction movies that’s completely-engrossing. So I’m somewhat pleased to know he’s releasing a book! It’s on my Christmas wishlist, assuming I don’t go ahead and buy it myself.   Bonus: If you’re a fan of the film Moon, check out production designer Gavin Rothery’s BTS post on his site: They Never...

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  • December 7, 2018
Elsewhere

Modern Luxury Dallas Feature

Lifestyle magazine Modern Luxury Dallas recently featured one of my photographs, along with a short interview, in their December issue. You can find the digital issue of the magazine here or jump directly to the article here.

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  • November 8, 2016
Elsewhere / Legal Rights

A Difficult Question of Copyright

I, like many photographers, routinely use Google’s Image Search in order to find people that have stolen my photos in order to issue DMCA takedown notices.  Recently, I came across a weird situation. Several years ago, I took this photo depicting some “found” artwork at the site of the then-soon-to-be-demolished Good-Latimer tunnel in Dallas’ Deep Ellum neighborhood: I photoblogged it in October of 2007 (and note that I don’t sell prints of it) and kind of forgot about it (that was almost six years and ~2,000 photos ago!). So, imagine my surprise when Google Image...

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  • June 5, 2013
Elsewhere

What the Hell, 500px?

Trying to figure out why this photo has such a high score on 500px.  It’s a pretty damn good photo, until you start looking at it and notice that the photographer has ruined it by Photoshopping a shark into it. Full photo: Stupid ‘shopped in addition close-up: It’s shit like this, 500px, that makes it hard to take your community seriously.  You’re starting to go down the Flickr rabbit hole of blind praise without critical thinking, circle-jerking and, eventually, irrelevance.  How long before “Award” comments become a common sight?

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  • December 6, 2012
Elsewhere

Pixoto, Why Do You Destroy Photos?

I routinely submit my photos to both 500px and Pixoto, mainly for my own smug satisfaction of racking up high image scores on both sites.  Earlier today, I uploaded my recent “Merge” photo to both sites.  Afterwards, while viewing their scoring progress, I noticed that while the 500px copy of the image is as crisp as it was on my own site, the Pixoto version was apparently down-rezzed.  What’s going on, Pixoto? Here are screencaps: 500px: Pixoto:

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  • September 21, 2012
Elsewhere / Video

Around the World in Five Minutes

Last year, Kien Lam did what many of us dream of doing—he quit his job in San Francisco, packed his bags and camera and headed out on a ’round the world trip.  This is the video he put together of that long journey.

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  • January 11, 2012
Elsewhere

The Jerkiest Comment I’ve Seen on 500px

Remember when your mom told you “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all?” Well, apparently some small-minded guy with a holier-than-thou smug attitude that goes by matahpi on 500px didn’t listen to his mom, because he felt the need to post this jerky comment on Ricardo Bevilaqua’s photo: Here’s the photo he was trashing commenting on: Ashi Lake, Japan by Ricardo Bevilaqua

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  • September 20, 2011
Elsewhere

The Worst Kind of Flickr Comments

If you use Flickr, you probably get these kind of comments, wherein someone just copy and pastes some nonce about having seen your photo in some group.  What the hell is that all about?  I get these comments and am like “Good for you!  You saw a photo!”.  I usually delete them and block the person, because if you’re not going to give me at least a real comment, then don’t bother.  I don’t care if/where you saw the photo. And, while I’m on the subject, I’m not participating in any of your...

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  • September 13, 2011