Noise Control

In the good old days of film, we worried about "grain"; film grain! We demand "fine grain" film, we processed our black and white film in fine grain developer to achieve finer grain!

Came digital and instead of grain, we are face with "noise"; digital noise or image noise.

Unlike film grain which can usually make your picture look sharper and create more impact in black and white photos, digital noise make picture look awful!

When I was working with the papers, Kodak Tri-X was my "standard" all round B&W film. I shot all type of subjects with just one film type and often exposed at ISO 400 to 1,600 without worrying about graininess of my images!

Travel Cameras

After seeing what I shot on our recent Europe trip, I was asked what are the best cameras for travel.

The trouble with such question is that everyone have different requirement and travel destination! So let me just tell you what made me bring for my last trip.

In 2010 a good travel camera will have the following quality:

1) It must be relatively light weight.
2) Take interchangeable lens.
3) Digital, with video.
4) Larger sensor than a point & shoot.
5) Able to shoot RAW.

Well, all my film cameras; including my Leicas are OUT!

My trusted Nikon D300 failed 1) and  3)!

Point 1) is very important because we had been warned by May-N that there will be A LOT of walking! Last thing you want is to lug a heavy DSLR and lenses while you try to break the 200,000 steps per day record in London!

London Catch Up...

When we were in London my wife and I caught up with two special person that we have not seen for years!

Sim Hock Neoh is Le General's big brother, the last time we saw him and his wife Carol was in 1994 in Singapore!

At his web site which Lamont Moon designed, you will learn that Sim Hock, "grew up in Penang, Malaysia and began his artistic education from an early age, strongly influenced by his beautiful and inspiring tropical surroundings.

He moved to England in 1965 to further his studies and enrolled on a Fine Art course at Sir John Cass College of Art in London. After completing this he travelled extensively in Europe and the US, continuing to paint. He also taught and lectured on traditional Chinese art."

Good Bye London...

With only a day left in London we asked our self what we want to see, we decided; HARRODS! I know it is a departmental store, but a London icon no less!

Take a look at what Wikipedia said about this store!

"Harrods is a luxury department store located on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea , London, UK. The Harrods brand also applies to other enterprises undertaken by the Harrods group of companies including Harrods Bank, Harrods Estates, Harrods Aviation and Air Harrods, and Harrods Buenos Aires.

The store occupies a 4.5-acre (18,000 m²) site and has over one million square feet (90,000 m²) of selling space in over 330 departments. The UK's second-biggest shop, Oxford Street's Selfridges, is a little over half the size with 540,000-square-foot (50,000 m²) of selling space.

The Harrods motto is Omnia Omnibus Ubique—All Things for All People, Everywhere. Several of its departments, including the seasonal Christmas department and the Food Hall, are world famous.
Throughout its history, the store has changed hands several times. Most recently, on 8 May 2010, Mohamed Al-Fayed sold the store to Qatar Holdings for a sum of £1.5 billion.^"

Back in London...

After two hours of stress free train ride we are back in London! If you wanna travel between London and Paris, this is the way to go!
 
The next morning May-N is taking me to meet the Imaging Manager of the British Museum, he is going to show me how they digitise their heritage objects! Oh.. May-N work as a I.T. Team Leader at the same museum :)

Wikipedia told me that:

"The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present."

It was a nice walk from the Russell Square tube station to the museum. It was a clear, cool sunny day; we pass the imposing Hotel Russell.

The Hotel Russell was built in 1898 by the architect, C. Fitzroy Doll. The hotel's restaurant, which is named after the architect is said to be almost identical to the RMS Titanic`s dining room which he also designed. - Wikipedia -

Russell Square is opposite the hotel, and I finally got to see the famous pigeon's fountain bath in the park! Duh!