The Rising Tide

The Rising Tide by Jason deCires Taylor is a temporary installation situated beside Vauxhall Bridge on the beach below Albert Embankment.

Located a mile away from the House of Parliament, the four horsemen of the apocalypse is a political statement on the impact of fossil fuel and the reluctance by our leaders to tackle climate change. The sculptures, which features horses with heads modeled after oil well pumps, are only visible during low tides. Two of the riders in business suits looks away in defiance.

The Wellcome Collection's stunning new spiral staircase

Anyone who has followed my Instagram account will know how much I love spiral staircases. From traditional 17th century cantilevered stone staircases like the beautiful Tulip staircase in Queen's House to the majestic Brewer staircase at Heals and modern classics like the one in City Hall. If there's an interesting staircase, particularly the spiral kind, you will bet I will be there photographing it.

King's Cross St Pancras tunnel

The new Pancras Square has been connected to King's Cross St Pancras underground station by a tunnel since July of last year. It is well hidden - so much so, that in fact, I've walked past the tunnel a couple of times without ever realising it was there. Not that I never needed to use the tunnel itself as it isn't exactly a short cut to anywhere particular interesting (unless you are a property developer/speculator).

Still, in a redevelopment that has thrown up its fair share of bland and uninteresting design, the tunnel is perhaps, along with the redesigned King's Cross Railway Station, worthy of a visit for anyone interested in architecture (or at least pretending they live in a Star Trek fantasyland). The 90m tunnel is equipped on one side with an integrated LED light wall which displays a radiating form of light show.

The entrance to the tunnel is at One Pancras Square building. It is located at Pancras Square, part of a massive redevelopment and gentrification of St Pancras & Somers Town district.

Bali: A GoPro holiday

Hello! It's been a while since I wrote on here. We've just returned from our holiday in Malaysia and Bali. Malaysia is the country of birth where I last visited 7-8 years ago, so it was more of a catch up visit (mainly with food).

This was my first trip to Bali and it was amazing. Long story short, we stayed at Kuta for a couple of nights, more out of obligation than necessity. A bit of advice - avoid Kuta and Denpasar as a whole, as the area is a bit of a hell hole and brings out the worst in Bali and tourists.

We moved on to North Bali and stayed at Pemuteran for a couple of nights. The B&B we stayed in is Taruna, a small family run business who were keen to help out with the planning of all our activities. While Kuta is populated by families and surfers, North Bali is far quieter. The people are friendlier and you meet all sorts of European backpackers. Pemuteran is a great base for those wishing to dive in Menjangan Island or visit the beaches of Lovina.

For this trip, my Nikon stayed at home. In its place was a GoPro Hero3+ action camera. We had a couple of reason for bringing a GoPro instead of a high quality image shooter. Firstly, we wanted to travel light and secondly, a waterproof case for a SLR costs more than a GoPro itself. And finally, I just wanted to get my hands dirty on trying out video shooting and editing.

In any case, here's five minutes of our Bali trip, edited down from tens of hours of footage using GoPro's excellent Studio 2.0 program with their Hero3 reel template. Bring on next year!

Photosynth

Microsoft Photosynth is an app created by Microsoft and University of Washington, designed to create panorama 3D-dimensional models based on multiple images. Using the free software available from their website, users can stitch and synth their images and then share them on the Photosynth website. 20GB of storage is available for users.

Two type of images can be created - a panorama, which is created using an Image Composite Editor and the Photosynth app, or synth - a collection of high resolution images, which is more detailed, but lacks the seam-less transition of a panorama image. Here is an example of a synth I made using stills I took last December at Sushisamba in Heron Tower, captured on a Canon S90 and synth'ed and uploaded using the Photosynth desktop client:

And here is the panorama version of the same images when ran through the ICE application first before uploading to Photosynth:

The recently released Windows Phone 8 app also means that Windows Phone 8 owners can finally join their fellow iPhone and iPad users in capturing and creating Photosynth panorama easily and directly from their smartphones. Owners of the Nokia Lumia 920 and iPhone 4/4S/5 owners will get better results, as these phones contains the necessary gyroscope hardware, which combined with the accelerometer, will provide a more precise information over the devices' 6-axis movement in space.

HTC One UltraPixel camera review

The new HTC One, has a lot going for it - a fantastic design, an ultra crisp 1080p display and crazy fast specs. But when HTC announced their new flagship in London two weeks ago, they also surprised the tech world by announcing that the One would feature a 4 megapixel camera sensor. Now, 4 megapixel might not sound a lot, but I have always been an advocate of scaling back megapixel for raw quality for smartphones and digital compacts where it is just physically impossible to cram a large sensor. (Many thanks to the good people at Three UK for loaning the HTC One)

In an age where the megapixel myth is more popular than ever, it took a lot of guts for HTC's designers and management to have actually decided on this, and I admire them for it. From a marketing perspective, this new strategy could easily backfire. But in a post PC smartphone world, where the majority of images are shared and viewed on smartphones via social sharing networks like Instagram, Flickr and Facebook, this renewed emphasis on less resolution in exchange of higher quality images makes total sense.

Disclaimer: This review is based on a HTC One running on a pre-release firmware (version 1.26.401.6). I have been told that the firmware that is due to be released with the retail HTC One will feature a few camera tweaks. I will update this review accordingly when the new firmware is released.

The sensor, which HTC calls the UltraPixel, is a backside illuminated (BSI) sensor measuring 1/3" in size - the same size as most typical sensors found in slim smartphones. But that is where its similarities ends. Because the sensor only packs 4 megapixels of data, HTC was able to increase the pixel size to 4 µm2, roughly less than half found on a SLR's sensor but almost double the normal pixel size found on other smartphones and some leading digital compacts like the Canon S110 and Fujifilm X10. This is a fair upgrade, as HTC's own previous One X has a camera sensor with a pixel size of 2 µm2. The same goes for the Lumia 920. HTC's strategy in having a physically larger pixel is in contrast to Nokia's preference to using multiple sensor pixels to create a single final pixel, in their PureView product.

From a physical point of view, it was the only way to get a reasonable quality imaging module into a slim phone, such is HTC's obsession with thinness. Unflattering reports of Sony Xperia Z's low light performance may also have vindicated HTC somewhat. Whether or not the public would buy into this remains to be seen, and it will take massive amount of effort and marketing to educate a public who has already been conditioned to believe in big numbers.

HTC has also fitted a standard five elements 4mm (28mm in 35mm equivalent) f/2.0 lens with optical image stablisation (OIS) to boot. Combined with the new sensor, on paper the HTC One should be capable of delivering some neat low-light photography. A single but powerful LED flash sits on the side.

I Love London competition

London baby! (taken from Sushisamba @ Heron Tower)

Yo Londoners. CBS Outdoor, the media agency behind the popular Look for Longer competition that is holding another competition. This is a photo competition aimed at promoting your love to London (yeah, I know, we were kinda hoping for Look for Longerer, but this will do, for now...). A Samsung Galaxy Camera (its basically a funny looking camera'ised version of the Galaxy S III) is up for grabs. Winning pictures will also be exhibited to London Underground commuters on their advertising tellies.

Up for the creative challenge? Well, if you think you are, grab a camera (any camera!), explore and shoot this great city. After all, we love London don't we?

Source: I ♥ London

Nokia Lumia 920 camera review

Nokia has a lot riding on the Lumia 920. Their flagship Windows Phone 8 device is supposed to be the device to propel them back into recovery. The Lumia 800 which I praised a lot last year had plenty of faults, one of which includes the sub-standard camera expected from Nokia - but hei it was a stop-gap device, one they engineered and got onto the market in nine months. The Lumia 920 on the other hand, is pretty much their first real made from scratch Windows Phone smartphone, one not bound by previous pre-Windows Phone era projects.

Nokia also prides themselves as a big camera company, one that makes smartphones with the absolute best imaging hardware - that many of their fans insists will bring about the downfall of dedicated photographic companies like Nikon and Canon. The Lumia 920, the second of their device to has the PureView brand attached to it, is one such device. Never mind that physics dictates that a device the size of the Lumia 920 can't possibly bet as good as a five year old compact or even the PureView 808, we were told that it was technically brilliant.

No, it isn't.

Shoot! Existential Photography

Shoot! Existential Photography is a special exhibition at The Photographers' Gallery in Soho, London. It examines a popular attraction that appeared at fairgrounds around Europe after the first World War where people would attempt to win a photograph of themselves by shooting the centre of a target with an air gun. A successful bullseye will trigger a camera nearby. It's the ultimate in self portrait photography.

The exhibition inspects the number of artists, photographers and general public who celebrates this unique game. On display are works by the Swiss artist Rudolf Steiner. Steiner would literally shoot a picture of himself, with the bullet hole being the aperture of a pinhole camera, in a series called 'Pictures of Me, Shooting Myself Into A Picture'.

In Defense of Instagram

St. Paul's from Bankside

This is a blog post I never thought I would ever write. Funny how a few months can make...

See, six months ago I was that guy on Twitter who did not get Instagram, even writing it off as a fad - a mistake that dear Mark Zuck would regret ever making. But after signing up a few months ago out of curiosity, it is now the second most used social network after Twitter. In fact, it will probably soon usurp Twitter as my favourite social network, what with Twitter clamping down on clients and other minor irritations. Proof, if you will, that one should never write things off completely or be closed minded.

Giant robots

It is actually not difficult to see how Instagram, once I had the guts to try it, easily won me over. Once I got over the initial urge to use the default and, more importantly, optional image filters, I've come to realised that if you approach Instagram as a social platform, it really isn't any different to Twitter. In fact Instagram is more or less Twitter for pictures. While Facebook and Twitter continues to grow bloated with features we never wanted, Instagram simply wins because of its ease of use and focus on visual communications.

Fcuk the Olympix

Sony Xperia P camera review

As a major player in the top end digital imaging industry for many years, Sony has always done well with adapting their technology downwards. Remember when Exmor back-illuminated sensors were exclusive to their high end Cybershot prosumer cameras? Now almost every smartphone on the planet has a Sony Exmor-R sensor, from the Galaxy S III to the iPhone 4S, and, of course, Sony's own Xperia S and P smartphones.

The phone I have in my hands currently is the Xperia P, which I will be reviewing here shortly (update: it's up!). Sony has been coy about the exact nature of the camera used by the Xperia P. All we know is that the sensor used here is a Exmor-R CMOS back-illuminated variety, which helps with low light photography. But we know nothing of its equivalent focal length or lens speed. It supports autofocus, 1080p30 video recording, face and smile detection, macro (close-up) photography and sweep panorama.

In addition to sweep panorama, the camera is also capable of capturing images in 3D format, including panorama 3D. Unfortunately I do not own a 3D TV or display so I have no way of testing this feature. The two-step camera shutter button is a little small and fiddly, but it does fire up the camera app from sleep in a couple of seconds. There is really no discernible difference to the autofocus performance between using the hardware button to the on-screen on. Speaking of autofocus, I found it to be rather temperamental, often having issues focusing on close ups.

The camera performs particularly well in areas with plenty of natural light, though it does struggle with dynamic range and colour. Despite looking great on the Xperia P's display, images generally sport the typical Xperia-look, with dull colours and average contrast dominating giving images a 'wash-out' look. While the camera was able to capture a good amount of detail, noise are evident even in shots taken in daylight. The lack of built-in HDR mode is disappointing, as it would solve the issue concerning dynamic range and contrast. Overall I thought the images produced by the Xperia P was slightly worse than the Xperia Arc and HTC One X, but still good enough for an everyday camera.

On the plus side, unlike Sony's (and Sony Ericsson's) previous Xperia smartphones, the Xperia P's camera is positioned away from the edge, so there is less chance to ruin your shot by accidentally blocking the camera lens. In any case, enjoy these image samples, thankfully, with no fingers in the way.

Holidaying with the HTC One V: Camera Review

I just returned from a bank holiday break in Dorset. Accompanying me was a HTC One V (thanks Three UK for the loan!) and my Lumia 800. Throughout the short break, I used the One V's camera extensively and was impressed by the camera's performance relative to its price point as an entry level device. While the image quality is a downgrade compared to the Lumia 800 and One X, the One V performed well for a phone with a tiny 5MP sensor. Even then the One V offers more accurate colour and white balance compared to the Lumia 800 on auto setting.

The 5MP sensor here is a BSI variety, meaning that the sensor is back-illuminated. As a result, together with the 28mm f/2 lens, the One V handles low light photography better than previous HTC devices. The One V comes with an assorted number of options including panorama, filter effects like distortion, vignetting and 'depth of field' (which aims to simulate miniature faking on tilt shift lens), ISO, white balance, face detection, geo tagging, macro mode and low light photography.

The camera app also allows for image capture while video capturing. Images captured this way are outputted in 1280x720 resolution, which is the same resolution of the video captured. Incidentally, videos are captured in 720p30 resolution with continuous autofocus.

Like most modern smartphones, the One V also comes equipped with built-in HDR mode. HDR works by allowing the camera to capture three simultaneous images, an overexposed, underexposed and 'normal' image and then using the information on all three images to produce a single image with high dynamic range contrast. The tiny image sensor on the HTC One V suffers from poor dynamic range, and HDR will help with improving this, at least on paper.

In truth, there is a trade off when using HDR mode. Due to the need to capture three successive images, any small movements will often result in a blurry HDR image. This is a reason why DSLR users uses tripod when capturing images needed for making a HDR image. Unfortunately due to the slower processing and capturing speed on the One V, the blurry movement effect is more pronounced on the One V than on previous smartphones I have tested like the One X and Galaxy S2 with third party app.

While the dynamic range does improve with when using HDR mode, I found the result to be very artificial and over processed, often looking like something that can be done via boosting the dynamic range of a single original image using software.

Do check out the extensive number of untouched image samples after the break.

How Photographers Really Spend Their Time

In response to 'How photographers actually spend their time'.

This is the new reality.

Kanon Wakeshima @ Hyper Japan 2011

Kanon Wakeshima is a popular J-pop artist with a penchant for Gothic Lolita fashion. She was in London for the weekend of Hyper Japan 2011 and we had the opportunity to catch a 20 minute set by her. I am not much of a J-pop person myself, but Jenni seems to be a fan of her (part of the reason why we decided to go to Hyper Japan). You can purchase her albums here. Still she is a great entertainer and performer, and I was very fortunate to be able to shoot her. Below are some pictures of her set, with more pictures hosted here.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc excels in low light photography

Yesterday I attended an event in London showcasing new artists. It provided me with an opportunity to test the XPERIA Arc's camera. What can I say? The Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc excels in low light no flash photography. It won't be replacing your DSLR or high-end compact yet, but it is able to provide usable images like the one above. I will be posting a post in due course where I compare the XPERIA Arc's camera with that of the Nokia N8. For good measure I will throw in samples from my Canon S90 as well. ;)

Finally, check out the 720p video below of a set by Tiger Love. I've removed the audio track due to copyright and also because it sounded awful (not the band - but the audio recording quality from a tiny microphone). Still the video recording demonstrates the continuous auto focus of the XPERIA Arc's camera, as well as its ability to record in low light situations.

Canon S90 vs Nokia N8 follow-up

So that Canon S90 vs Nokia N8 thing was a huge hit. Nice to see plenty of misinformed Nokia fans trolling the post when they have NO clue. Just like a lot of them have no clue about Windows Phone, but I will leave that to Nokia blogs to take the brunt of the misinformed assault on the partnership.

Now, let me clear up some stuff. The N8 has a good camera, for a phone. But comparing it to a high-end compact? Don't make me laugh. I say this as a person who actually bought (and still use) the N8 for his birthday back in October 2010, purely because it was supposed to have this so-called fantastic camera module that apparently has even entry level DSLR beaten. I was wrong.

Another thing, a camera doesn't make great images. The person behind the camera does. Give someone like Ken Rockwell a disposable camera, and he can make much greater pictures than I can with a Leica M9, Nikon D3 or whatever. A good camera is supposed to only make it easier for the photographer. The N8 does not make things easier.

In fact the camera application is a frickin' disaster. A photographer's main job is to capture picture, not battle with a UI that crashes and generally throws a hissy fit. I was at an event this evening with my friend who writes for dailymobile.se. She also happens to own a N8. Like me she bought it for the supposed brilliant camera. She had so many problems with her N8, that by the time she got her N8 restarted, I have already finished taking 50 images.

The point of the post wasn't about making good images, it was all about image quality, and to debunk the stupid myth that the Nokia N8 is a digital camera killer. It is laughable to read that people think it is comparable to a good compact camera with fast lens and large sensor, much less a DSLR! The idea is so stupid it isn't even worth entertaining a rebuttal.

There were some complains that I didn't post comparison pictures. Well I did, the one - but even then some of you didn't actually notice. Should have gone to SpecSavers eh?. Well I went to the liberty of making some additional comparison pictures, which I shouldn't even bother. But I did.

All set to auto, with no flash, handheld shot:

And you know what? I will keep updating this post with even more comparison shots. Just wait.

Canon S90 vs Nokia N8

Here it is, the Canon S90, arguably one of the best digital compact ever released. Forget what Nokia told you about how phones (like their flagship imaging phone N8) has surpassed digital compacts. The S90 not only spanks the N8 but does so in such a manner than one should laugh at anyone who ever treated the N8 as more than it is - yet another camera phone.

Where to begin. Well the S90 is easier to use. The N8 is a touchscreen smartphone with an awful camera application, that does not even bother to remember the settings you last used. There are no manual controls on the N8, where as the S90 has full manual controls and features that makes even some entry level DSLR blush with envy. More importantly, the S90 has buttons, and buttons always beat touchscreen. Always.

The S90 has two rings of control.The control ring allows you to easily control whichever function you want. Simply spin it and that's it. I've set the S90 onto Aperture Priority mode, and use the ring to select the aperture, and the back ring to exposure. The Canon is such a genius this almost always works. It is easier to use than my Nikon D90!

I hate writing about specs, but the S90 has the specs where it matters most. It has a very fast lens - in fact faster than Canon's flagship G12 prosumer digital compact. The lens on the S90 allows twice as much light as the G12, Nokia N8 and even my £500 Nikkor 20-35mm f/2.8 lens.

The Canon has the same sensor as the S95, G11 and G12 - a 10MP 1/1.7" CCD sensor, far bigger than those found on most none-EVIL compacts. The N8 on the other hand contains a smaller1/1.83" and packs more megapixels. Because of the S90's superior lens and sensor, the S90 can capture more detail on its 10MP sensor than the N8 could, and to do so with very little noise.

So what's missing. Well the S90 does not do HD videos, which will be a bummer to YouTubers - but a blessing to me. I like it that my D90 is shit at doing HD videos, and the same applies with the S90. I am glad that it doesn't, because digital cameras should shoot images and video cameras should shoot videos. Convergences means having to apply trade-offs. What next? MP3 playback in cameras?

The S90 isn't equipped with a hot shoe. This irked me at first, but then I thought why bother with a hot shoe on such a small compact. Besides the S90 is so brilliant at low light photography that I don't even bother with its xenon flash most of the time.

So what is this 'review' really about? Well, it is about busting the myth that smartphones are close to even succeeding good compact cameras. Yes, a N8 is convenient in that it allows me to only carry one device. But if you value memories, then you wouldn't mind carrying an extra photographic device. Sure the S90 isn't cheap, but you can easily augment the purchase by getting a cheaper phone.

All in all, if you are in the market for a pocket camera you can do a lot worse than the S90. While the S90 has since been surpassed by the S95 - it is still pretty much 99% the same camera, one that has retained plenty of value and sought after by photographers.

The Canon S90 vs Nokia N8 macro sample below is a real eye opener. The differences between the two cameras are astounding:

Auto, no flash, f/2

Auto, no flash, f/2.8

More Canon S90 samples:

AV mode, f/5.6, ISO500, 1/500sec

auto, flash, f/2, ISO800, 1/30sec

Manual, no flash, f/2, ISO400, 1/30sec

Manual, tripod, f/2, ISO400, 1sec

Day 7: 365 days

Day 6: 365 days

Day 5: 365 days