Compusential

Newton’s Apple Tree & the river Cam

frozenace — Sat, 28 May 2011 21:45:15 +0000

Newton's Apple Tree, Trinity College, Cambridge, UK

River Cam, Cambridge

Leica M3 Elmar 50 3.5 Bokeh test

frozenace — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 21:48:25 +0000

During London Marathon 2011, I decided to test out a roll of Ilford HP5 ISO 400 film using my newly acquired Leica M3 with collapsible Elmar 50 3.5 lens. At some point during the event, I decided to lift the camera in the air, set the focus to infinity and shoot away. However, since the focus ring on the Elmar needs to lock into a certain position, I actually managed to misjudge the focus, thus resulting in some fancy out of focus images. All of the images below are out of focus, apart from the first and last.

I wouldn’t recommend trying to figure out what the pictures represent, since the human mind has a way of messing around with perception. If I had my own dark room, I’m pretty sure that I could achieve the same results, although it wouldn’t necessary be possible to get a sharp image from an out of focus image.

Spring is finally here!

frozenace — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 23:46:39 +0000

Spring in London is finally here, and what better way to celebrate than by sharing some photos taken last year using Fuji Velvia slide film. If you are looking for color saturation and warmth, then slide film is the way to go.

Tower Green: Tower of London

frozenace — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 23:19:35 +0000

When a friend from Germany visited me last year, it was the first time that I visited the Tower of London. Having lived in the UK for 7+ years, it never occurred to me to visit the Tower, nor places like Madame Tussauds in Baker Street. Instead of getting a single ticket, I opted for a yearly pass which entitles the member entrance to five historic royal palaces, including Hampton Court and Kensington Palace. Conveniently, the Tower is located just a ten minute walk away from my office, meaning that when the weather is good, I can spend some time relaxing in Tower Green.

Vintage1968.com Timeless Bag Classics

frozenace — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 00:58:27 +0000

Daily Inspiration: Anish Kapoor’s C Curve / Crowded Tube

frozenace — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 21:07:49 +0000

In December, while I was on my way to see the Haunted Palace exhibition at Kensington Palace, I came to pass Anish Kapoor’s gigantic conave C Curve sculpture. It inverts the light when looked at straight on and gives a twisted view of your surroundings.

C Curve, Leica MP, Kodak Ektar 100

Maybe I should have picked a different day to visit this sculpture, or calibrate the photo editing software to brighten up the day, but British winters are certainly very depressing and the film captures the colour temperature spot on.

Although it really isn’t as cold as winter in Beijing or Germany, the consistent chilling and lack of sunlight can really depress people. Every morning when I stand besides the Northbound Overground platform, I see how hundreds of people fight their way onto a crowded escalator.

Canada Water Overground, Northbound platform

I would think that they are changing at Canada Water to pursue their high flying career in the ‘Wharf’. In the morning, most people seem disconnected from the world, going into auto navigation mode. Fortunately for me, when the train empties, that’s when I get on.

Pure Spirit Fashion Trade Event 2011

frozenace — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 21:25:23 +0000

Pure London and Pure Spirit combined are the UK’s leading fashion trade event. Over the past few years, my other half and me have visited Pure London to source high quality fashion accessories. This year, the trade show has expanded and taken up not only the Olympia Exhibition Centre, but also half of Earl’s Court exhibition Centre with a shuttle bus connecting the two.

Most of the fashion accessory brands could still be found on the upper level of the Olympia Exhibition Centre. Some brands such as Maison Boinet and Cuir et terre, makers of high quality French belts and bags respectively, were absent this time. This could have been due to an upcoming trade show in Paris.

From a commercial perspective, many of the hand made English brands such as Tamara Fogle have come out with innovative new designs aimed at the high end market. One of the most unique products I have seen are their German flour sack bags from recycled antique textiles. The price point for these bags are 120-620 GBP retail, making them relatively unsuitable for export as a novelty brand.

Oxford Street Christmas lights

frozenace — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 22:52:55 +0000

Computer dead again? WHY!?!

frozenace — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 22:24:47 +0000

Last week, my desktop computer finally decided to play up again, after 2 years of trouble-free service. This time, it’s my motherboard again, or I hope so (since I bid on another second-hand Asus Striker Mainboard on eBay) to resurrect the computer.

It might have made more sense to just buy a new desktop computer and try to restore my RAID arrays, which is pretty much impossible if the RAID controller isn’t the same as your current board.

No wonder NVIDIA don’t make any more motherboard chipsets, since their partners keep on messing up and then wondering why Intel won’t grant them another licence to mess around with their CPUs (http://www.intelsinsides.com/page/home.html)

A fun experience from my days back at the big NV was when we had to fly out 5am from London Heathrow to Paris for the big annual marketing meeting. At this said meeting, we sat from 9am all the way to 11pm topped with a near darkness ride through the Champs-Élysées and some meagre French food. To all my previous colleagues from the Bangalore marketing team, I felt really sorry that when asking for a vegetarian food option, the waiter cheekily came up with the answer ‘Wee have French Fries’.

Close to my current office at Line Industries, at least they have a proper French bistro called L’eau a la bouche, where you can have a massive selection of hearty meats/cheeses/olives etc. What you shouldn’t try is counting on fast service, a toasted baguette will set you back by at least 30 minutes, a marvelous achievement considering that there are at least 10 headless chicken walking around the store.

Stop start stop start stop… Life in London never stops.

frozenace — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:08:00 +0000

It is with some sadness to announce that I’m leaving Line Industries for another developer job in the City of London. I have been enjoying the last 21 months working on their CMS PubliSite and wish them well for the future.

This picture was taken with a Leica Summilux 50 pre-asph about 1.5 years ago by a busy Oxford Street traffic light.