Disqus - Latest Comments for Andrew Ferguson

Re: Japanese tombs now come with barcodes

Andrew Ferguson — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 03:27:34 -0000

Those are actually QR codes, not barcodes. Similar premise, more information.

Re: Design Won’t Save The World You Pretentious Fuck

Andrew Ferguson — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:52:20 -0000

I considered purchasing the original 'Design Will Save the World' but I decided against it.

This new one on the other hand, holy balls would I buy that so fast. Put it on a darker tone and you have my dollars.

Re: How To Get Filthy Rich On T-Shirts

Andrew Ferguson — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:16:44 -0000

Glad to see I'm not the only one sick of retard ripoff factories like bustedtees.

Re: On this day in history - William Gibson Was Born March 17th 1948

Andrew Ferguson — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:07:47 -0000

The two from The Affair are easily the best; I know cause I went looking and those are the two I bought. :P

Re: Enjoy the photos without the clutter

Andrew Ferguson — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 14:28:52 -0000

This sounds really cool!

Does it give you the option of viewing the large image on black or white?

Re: 2007/06/23/photography-toolbox/

Andrew Ferguson — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 13:55:30 -0000

I'm with Brian here, the photography blogs section is pretty skimpy. I can think of at least a half-dozen well written photography blogs that you haven't included there.

I'm a little hurt my photography blog got left out too :P

Also:

"Stuck In Customs - blog by one of the greatest DRM photographers on the net"

I think you mean HDR, not DRM.

Re: 2007/06/23/photography-toolbox/

Andrew Ferguson — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 20:53:42 -0000

I'm not a fan of Imaging Insider. They don't provide any original content, they just swipe other people's and slap Google Ads on it.

Their terms of service also claim ownership to everything they publish. Meaning the content they're taking?

I'm sorry, meaning *my* content they're taking?

I'm not impressed.

Re: Katie West - Hey, no problem, Andrew.

Andrew Ferguson — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:58:37 -0000

Hahaha! Is it bad that I wrestled with posting that for a bit? I'm sitting there thinking "What if my friend's friend, whose work I admire, gets offended?! What do I do!" Then I just figured, fuck it. You've been doing this long enough that you've heard it all before. I'd be kinda shocked if something I said had any effect on you.

It does really bother me, though. Mostly because I'm jealous of the advantage.

You, Katie Lee (flickr.com/photos/katielee), and Rebekka_ seem to be the only cases where talents overwhelm my pettiness.

Re: Katie West - Hey, no problem, Andrew.

Andrew Ferguson — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:50:21 -0000

I don't see nearly as many male photographers who do the only/mostly self-portraits route, so I've got a smaller sample set to judge from.

That being said, it seems like a higher percentage of the popular photographers are genuinely good. With the women I've seen online, the percentage of popular ones that are genuinely good is much smaller.

Within the context of modern society, it's a natural thing though. Attractive? Female? More attention for you! I guess that's what's most frustrating.

Re: Pirates of the Caribbean 4 Shooting Next Year

Andrew Ferguson — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:39:11 -0000

Thanks to your annoying-ass toolbar at the bottom of this page, I will be leaving your site now and never returning.

That is all.

Re: Highly Stylized Political Videos

Andrew Ferguson — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 14:27:47 -0000

The fact that the narrators are all british is amusing to me.

I'm glad to see that 'What Barry Says' has found a new life on youtube, though.

Re: Photography Blog Project: Favorite Photo and Background Story

Andrew Ferguson — Tue, 15 May 2007 15:04:29 -0000

Hey Jim,

New reader here, found you via Brian Auer's Epic Edits.

Saw your twitter about how you're thinking of how to spread the word on this contest. Here's some suggestions:

- Push the deadline back by at least a week
- Get in touch with the writers of the big photoblogs (DPS, Photocritic, Thomas Hawk, etc)
- Offer a prize for best photo/story
- Create a Flickr group
- Promote it in photography forums like dpreview

Hope that helps :) I'm working on my entry now.

Re: Has the Photo Market Been Irreversibly Altered?

Andrew Ferguson — Wed, 23 May 2007 18:46:19 -0000

I find the attitudes of a lot of people towards the profession of photography, particularly on sites like Digg, is what bothers me more than repositories of free images.

We're lumped in with the music industry, but we have no draconian RIAA suing the hell out of everyone like a petulant child.

Part of this Web 2.0 revolution and the way our society is trending is a massive shift in the things people consider 'basics' that should be free. They expect business models to be sustained on the backs of other, possibly richer, people.

It's still very confusing to me.

I did write an article about a respectful, legitimate way to go about finding great free photos using Flickr's search functionality and the Creative Commons license. You can read it at:

http://www.goldengod.net/2007/03/16/how-to-find...

Re: You’ve been working on photos too much when…

Andrew Ferguson — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:14:43 -0000

7. When considering updating the decor of your house/apartment, your primary concern is what type of lights to use and where.

Guilty. I'm also incredibly guilty of 1 and 2. The others, not so much.

Re: Photosynth the future of socially networked images or something bigger?

Andrew Ferguson — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 19:39:08 -0000

Argh! I just finished writing about this earlier this afternoon and your post would've been *perfect* to link to.

As far as I see it; it's a neat technology and I hope it releases it's API at some point. The base functionality is vaguely purposeless beyond the neat factor.

However, if you could use Photosynth to export to a fully 3d landscape in Second Life or Maya, that's more useful. Pair it with Google Street View and you can get user-generated street maps for anywhere, much faster than the Google Van can get there.

I'm curious to see what's made with it.

Re: “Self Critique” Project: When I Grow Up

Andrew Ferguson — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:16:58 -0000

I really like the idea of using the full flower as the background for shooting the bud.

I'm often quick to dismiss flower macro photography as a type of photography that has nothing new or exciting happen in it. Just the same stuff over and over again.

Then every once in a while, I see a shot that proves me wrong and makes me re-evaluate. This is one of them.

Re: 5 Most Common Digital Photography Mistakes

Andrew Ferguson — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:54:34 -0000

I'm the most guilty of sensor cleaning. I really need to get on that, but I'm nervous about doing it.

Re: 5 Most Common Digital Photography Mistakes

Andrew Ferguson — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:07:53 -0000

@Jim: yeah, everyone tells me that it's really easy once you get the hang of it.

I guess I just need to get over it and go pick up a blower. Probably sometime this week; we'll see.

Re: 2 hours, 10 minutes and 21 seconds…

Andrew Ferguson — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:06:22 -0000

With the title, I was expecting it to have something to do with the running time of a movie.

Happy birthday, Jim! Good luck surviving the suspense 'til then :P

Re: One of the Many Reasons I Love San Francisco

Andrew Ferguson — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:04:03 -0000

I'm just picturing this tiny little Dachshund weighed down with long telephotos on either side of him. It's frighteningly cute.

Anything is possible, I guess. This one guy convinced his cat to carry a camera:

http://www.mr-lee-catcam.de/index.htm

Re: The Dirtiest Words In Photography: Noise and Grain

Andrew Ferguson — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:01:22 -0000

One of the little quirks I've noticed about digital is the inability to have decent grain/noise in colour images. As you mentioned, it's much more common in black and white, but colour noise and grain still added to photos in the film days.

With digital, because of the way the sensors work, it results in really unattractive digital noise. It shows up only as red, green, or blue pixels, which looks obvious and tacky. On film, it's a very different, subtler type of grain that's more aesthetically pleasing.

Re: EXIF & Beyond: Dan Heller Interview – The Business of Photography

Andrew Ferguson — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 12:51:36 -0000

I haven't listened to the podcast yet at all. I'll have to add that to my iTunes when I get home after work today :)

Re: Top 5 Photography Related Movies

Andrew Ferguson — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:52:11 -0000

You truly are an evil man, Jim. Not only am I totally going to have to see all these, but I'm going to have to delete my half-finished post on the exact same subject :P

Out of curiousity, what do you think of "Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus"?

Re: Refreshingly Creative Long Exposure Photography

Andrew Ferguson — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:55:21 -0000

I love their lightpainting work. It's way beyond what I tried when I experimented with it as well.

Re: Quotes of Note: Robert Capa

Andrew Ferguson — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:49:06 -0000

I've heard it often as well, without knowing the source.

I wonder if he's also responsible for the invention of macro photography... :P

Re: Flickr Tools of the Trade

Andrew Ferguson — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:23:59 -0000

Flickr Scout! I love that little thing.

Flickrleech is useful too, but I don't use it very often.

Re: Photo Term Series Post #13: Barrel Distortion

Andrew Ferguson — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:50:21 -0000

I find it really difficult to determine whether or not there's barrel distortion just using my eyes. I have to tightly grid the image in Photoshop in order to tell.

I'm fine for colour and everything, but I can't draw a straight line to save my life :P

Re: Photo Term Series Post #14: Vignetting

Andrew Ferguson — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:51:23 -0000

You should probably warn people that purposefully vignetting your photos can become pretty addicting. Once I started playing with the effect in Lightroom, I began to use it often and eventually started overusing it before I managed to cut back.

I've been clean for three days, now.

Re: Reader Question: What lens do you use for your Landscape photographs?

Andrew Ferguson — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 13:08:41 -0000

I'll admit to being surprised that you use telephoto lenses for some of your landscapes, but it makes sense when I look at some of your work.

I expected that most landscape work was done with wide angle, fish-eye, and standard zooms, maxing out at about 85mm.

I think I've settled on the Canon 17-40mm as my lens of choice for my upcoming foray into landscape photography. I'd love to try Dan's kit of that lens and the 24-105, but I just can't afford the weekly rental costs on two lenses.

Re: Why I Hate HDR: Photo Technology Porn

Andrew Ferguson — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:20:17 -0000

Wow, that's a lot more eloquently put than my stance of "I hate HDR because it looks like tacky crap."

I've disliked HDR since I found out about it; partially because it's used a crutch and partially because it universally results in throwaway images.

I compare HDR photography with those guys who do spray-paint art on the streets using stencils and such to make airbrushed temples and whales in space. It looks neat, but there's something aesthetically wrong with it that you can't quite explain. And as soon as you look away, it just slides out of your mind.

The only people I've run into who advocate HDR are people who use it themselves, like Tony Rath above. I do agree with him though, it can be a useful, tasteful tool.

Of course that's still theoretical in my mind; I have yet to see a tasteful HDR photo. And before anyone asks, yes I've seen the work of Flickr user Stuck in Customs. He's good, but HDR seems to be preventing him from becoming better.

Re: My Worst Photographic Habits

Andrew Ferguson — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 17:05:28 -0000

Solid article, Jim! I think we're all guilty of these sins and more. Some of the time at least.

Getting into photography has made me much more time-conscious in my life overall. There are more great photos than you can capture even the smallest fraction of a percentage point in your lifetime.

I'll definitely be sharing this one with my readers :)

Re: Today Marks the 1 Year Anniversary of the JMG-Galleries Blog

Andrew Ferguson — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:45:06 -0000

Congratulations Jim! Here's to many more years of your high quality writing and photos :)

Re: The Fall (+ Stefan Bucher interview)

Andrew Ferguson — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:00:36 -0000

I wish the book they put together wasn't quite so rare. I've spent months, off and on, trying to find myself a copy. Unfortunately, there weren't many and everyone seems content to hang on to theirs ><

Re: The Fall (+ Stefan Bucher interview)

Andrew Ferguson — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:00:36 -0000

Re: Austin musician Don Walser dead at 72

Andrew Ferguson — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 02:01:12 -0000

Hey man,

Thanks for the blogroll link! Much appreciated :)

Will be adding you to my links shortly

-Andrew

Re: “New Digg Topics” Story Made Popular Before Submitted?!

Andrew Ferguson — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 19:04:43 -0000

What probably happened was that they wrote it up and made it popular as soon as they submitted it.

Then, twelve minutes later, they noticed a typo. Since they have access to the backend, they log in and spend two minutes fixing it.

Since the front-end is not built to display edits, it simply updates the submission time to fourteen minutes after it became popular/was originally submitted.