I had the fortune to get tickets for the evening show of ‘The Dark Knight’ on IMAX yesterday even though it was the day of release here. I went along with 4 other friends, one of whom managed to get the tickets for the rest of us.

All of us were quite excited to watch the highly anticipated movie and I must say that it wasnt a let down.

I’m going to try and make this review as spoiler free as possible so as not to spoil the movie for the ones who havent watched it yet.

The movie was action packed from the very beginning and didnt waste anytime in doing unnecessary introductions. The immediate flurry of activity from the starting of the movie ensured that the audience were hooked on to it and didnt lose interest in the movie. All the action scenes in the movie were very well executed and contained minimal flaw, if any. The scenes involving the Tumbler and the newly introduced ‘Bat-Bike’ were extremely well shot and the use of the futuristic weapons and technology in both the vehicles kept everyone gaping in amazement at them.

The story of the movie started off fairly straightforward but slowly skewed off at a complicated tangent by introducing new elements and people which would’ve confused the average movie goer. It was still understandable but only by paying careful attention to what was going on and even if you missed out on one vital scene, you would be completely lost. I personally felt that the story was alright but my only worry was that they have left the ending in a such a situation that they would have to terribly complicate the plot of next movie to guarantee an acceptable conclusion for the series . Spiderman 3 was ruined in a similar way and I sincerely hope that the director and script-writers have some tricks up their sleeves so that the dont ruin the movie.

Acting performances in the movie were excellent. The late Heath Ledger did an excellent job in portraying the Joker as the psychopathic mad maniac he was and his talent will be sorely missed in the next movie. Christian Bale’s acting was very good as well, switching from the gentle Bruce Wayne to the vicious Batman smoothly. Morgan Freeman is a genius and I dont I really have to sing any more words of praise about his talent, he is a natural actor and can pull off any role with expertise. Credit has also to be given to Aaron Eckhart for his performance as Harvey Dent and Two Face, the latter being slightly scary due to the overdone visual effects.

Cinematography was highly impressive with the chase camera angles for the scenes with the Tumbler and Bat-Bike. The aerial angles were some of the best I’ve seen and I was thoroughly impressed by them. The audio was good, although I felt that the addition of the extra bass to Batman’s voice was a but annoying after sometime. Nevertheless, the extra bass reassured the audience that Batman was ‘the man’ and you would be stupid to mess with him.

Overall, one of better action movies I’ve seen in awhile and I would definitely recommend this to Batman fans. If you are not familiar with the Batman world, you might find the story confusing but it is still worth watching for the great action sequences. 8.5/10.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

On Tuesday Night, I had the chance to go and watch the filming of the Graham Norton Show live in London, thanks to a friend who managed to get 4 tickets.

The show started at about 1845 but we had to get there by 1800 so that we could seated in time. We had priority tickets which allowed us to jump a majority of the queue. The show kicked off on time with a warm up presenter who was quite funny and introduced us to the various elements of the filming of the show. After his brief talk, Graham Norton himself came onto the stage and went on about this slightly disgusting but funny story of his previous weekend. With that story done, the main show was about to start, the title music started playing and we saw Norton come to the stage again but with much more of a spin and style to his walk this time.

The filming of the show lasted for 2 hours but we didnt even feel the time pass by. The guests of the show were Oscar winning French actress Juliette Binoche and chef extraordinaire Gordon Ramsay. The entire show was hilarious had the whole audience laughing their hearts out. The fact that the show is based, not on just interviewing the guests but several different elements as well, makes it very humorous and doesnt get boring. At the beginning of the show, Juliette seemed a bit lost and Gordon seemed to enjoy discreetly making fun of the French which she didnt understand. But over the course of the show, she realised that it wasnt a straightforward interview show and joined in on the fun which made it even more enjoyable.

One of the first things that struck me when I walked into the studio, was the lighting system. There were about 100 different lights hanging from the ceiling, each affecting the overall lighting of the show a little. I was overwhelmed by these spectacular and spent a good amount of time simple examining them and the accessories they had. The cameras used were very impressive as well. They had around 5 cameras on the ground and one camera on the crane. Watching all the crew do their job made me realise that Graham Norton is only a small part of the show and that a huge amount of effort goes into making each episode.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience which we finished off with a great meal at Chinatown.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Its been about a week since my exams got over and I’ve made some interesting purchases over the course of these days.

The first and most important one would be the Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon DDR MC Electric 35mm f/2.4 which I’ve nicknamed ‘Jenna’. I managed to win an auction of it on Ebay for just over £60 which I thought, was a decent deal. I havent really had a chance to try the lens out and push it to it limits but from what I’ve seen so far, its had some very impressive results. The first thing I noticed about the lens was that it felt good which is a mark of a good lens. When you hold it on your hands, it just feels right and solid. The piece which I got was in mint condition with one very minor scuff on the side. It focuses very closely, upto a reproduction ratio of 1:2 and can be used to shoot some impressive macro photographs. It resembles the standard focal length of 50mm on a crop-sensor camera and is useful in everyday purposes. I can also remove it from my wishlist now and I’m proud to have achieved another milestone on my wishlist. I will be posting some sample shots taken with it very soon on my Flickr Photostream.

Another gadget that I’ve got my hands on is the Logitech Z-2300. I didnt buy it but one of my good friends bought it and hence, I was able to test it out. They are 2.1 speakers and come with an absolutely massive sub-woofer. The sound quality is excellent, very crisp and makes you feel like you are in the middle of a concert. The sub-woofer is second to none and has a bass powerful enough to rattle the windows. It is also very very loud and can probably over-power some of the popular home audio systems. The sound retains quality at all volume levels which is one of qualities of high-end music systems like Bose, etc and its good to see that quality in consumer level goods, thanks to Logietch’s THX certified sound quality. A highly recommended purchase for any audiophile.

And my final and latest acquisition is a Phottix Wireless remote for my camera. It works excellently and as good as a Canon wired remote. It supports Bulb mode and if you hold down the button on the remote for 3 seconds, you can release it and the camera will still continue to take the photo until you press the button again. This is very useful feature so that you dont have to hold it down to take long exposure photos like Star trails. It also works perfectly with the burst mode and even though I probably wont use it with the burst mode, it nevertheless sounds quite exciting. I hope to make more use of it soon.

The Greatest Show on Earth, the Summer Ball is this Saturday and I’m looking forward to it!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I’ve often been asked which my favourite games were and I’ve always responded by saying that there are too many to list. But today I thought I might write down all the games which I thought were good and I was surprised to find that there were only few games that I genuinely enjoy playing and wouldnt mind playing again. I might have forgotten a few games so I’ll try and update this list whenever I feel the need to.

1. Half Life 2

Words cannot describe the sheer level of awesomeness of this game. Before I bought this game, I did read that it got many awards and such but never expected it to be so amazing. The entire gameplay experience is just perfect with a deep and involving storyline, superb graphics, the best AI enemies ever, characters who you start to relate with and the list goes on. I cant honestly point out a single flaw in the game, and if any game deserved a 10/10, it would be this one. The episodic content definitely improved the story and I cant wait till Episode 3 is released. It is probably a sin to say that I havent finished the original Half Life, simply because I cant stand its graphics after having witnessed the amazing graphics in Half Life 2 but hopefully, the BlackMesa mod should fix this.

2. Max Payne 2

Another legendary game by Rockstar. One of the first games to incorporate ragdoll models in games which resulted in very realistic models and shooting experience in the game. The story of the game is insanely good and when combined with the classic traits of Max Payne improved with better technology, it provides for what can only be called as a too awesome to be true gaming experience. Once again, everything was just so perfect in the game, the characters, the sounds, the presentation, the details in the maps, its just overwhelming. Max Payne 2 left everyone wanting more but I doubt a third one will be released anytime soon.

3. Grand Theft Auto III

Even though I’ve played GTA IV which has been touted to be one the best games in the history of videos games, I dont think it has the same charm as GTA III for some reason. I cant pinpoint the reason why I like GTA III so much, I just guess its the atmosphere and the feel of the game which I fell in love with. The characters of the game are some of my all time favourites and even though the protagonist couldnt speak, the game ensured that you felt like you were in the Liberty City yourself. The leap from the topdown GTA 2 to GTA III was immense and the level of change is probably something that the gaming world may never witness again. GTA III will definitely remain as one of the games had a huge influence on the world of 3D games.

Honorable Mention - Transport Tycoon Deluxe

I’ve probably spent about a year of my life just playing this game. I can still remember the days when I used to sit in my school computer lab when I was 7 years old and watch my teacher play the game. I eventually convinced him to teach me how to play it and after that, there was no looking back. My dad used to sit up nights with me while we played the game together, trying to maximize revenue while minimizing cost. Those days did disappear after awhile but I’ve had a renewed interest in this game over the last few months and have once again got addicted to it. You can download the game for free from here.

If anyone feels like this list needs any additions, please feel free to list your favourite games in the comments.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Following several weeks of lusting after Biryani and curries with my English friends, we finally decided to go for an Indian meal a couple of days ago. The restaurant we decided to go to was aptly named ‘Curry India’ and was located at Crouch St. in Colchester. The first impression of the restaurant was good, it had good ambiance, a delicious smelling aroma greeting us and seemed posh.

There were 8 of us, and funnily enough, I was the only Indian in this gathering. The restaurant had a set dinner meal which the waiter tried to market to us but I wasnt falling for his tactics, we said we would order from the menu instead of this so-called “set dinner meal”. The menu was extensive with several obvious spelling mistakes, some of the more prominent ones were Masala being spelled Mosalla and Biryani spelt as Biriany. It did annoy me slightly but I thought it was permissible since they were about 5000 miles from India.

I did lower my expectations before ordering so that I would not be disappointed with the meal. Being the Hyderabadi that I am, I ordered Persian Chicken Biryani since I thought it would bear the closest resemblance to Hyderabad Biryani. My friends were a bit more adventurous ordering things varying from Mushroom Biryani to Gammon Steak.

The ambiance of the restaurant was pretty good, there was old Hindi music playing away in the background as we have in the Dhabas by the highways. The lighting was dim but yet not too dark which allowed me to have proper conversations with my friends across the table without having to squint to see who I was talking to.

The service was decent with seemingly enthusiastic waiters although we did have to wait for an unusually long time for the second round drinks that we had ordered and had to remind them before the got us the drinks.

The food arrived fairly quickly, it looked and smelled wonderful and all of us couldnt wait to start munching. As for my Biryani, it was quite disappointing because it wasnt even Biryani. It was what I would called fried rice by Indian standards. I did eat all of it, mainly because I was quite hungry.

What I expected -

Hyderabadi Biryani from Paradise by jennn

What I got -

Okay, maybe the pile of rubbish is probably exaggerating it but the meal definitely wasnt the authentic Indian food that I had come for. It could probably pass off as Indian food to the English but they werent going to fool me. Of course, I do have to consider the fact that the majority of the people in the restaurant were English and believed that this was real Indian food and appeared to be quite satisfied by it. They also probably dont have the same ingredients as one would get in India but whatever be the reason, I wasnt pleased. If it wasnt for the great company provided by my friends, the entire night could’ve been ruined. I definitely had a good time, but mainly due to the social factor and slightly due to the food. However, I have to say that the social factor was also probably influenced by the good ambiance so the restaurant did provide to the good evening if not directly.

Final ratings -

Ambiance - 7/10
Food - 4/10
Service - 7/10

Overall rating - 6/10

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve had meetings for the various clubs and societies at University and I was duly elected President of the Gliding Club, President of the Photography Society and Vice President of the Politics Society for the next academic year. I’m quite thrilled by these posts which I have undertaken and I shall do my best to ensure that I help all the societies equally.

I successfully spent the International Shutdown Day without using the computer all the day. I had to take photos of sports for most of the day so it was bit easier to refrain from using the computer since I had something to keep myself occupied with. I did feel the urge to use it in the night after I’d finished all my work but I managed to keep myself under control. And I hadn’t really missed many happenings on the internet as I saw on the next day.

Thanks to a friend, I finally got the chance to play the most coveted game of the year, Grand Theft Auto IV. I played the game on a Xbox 360 but I didn’t really care which I console I played it on as long as I got to play it. My first impressions of the game was the highly improved graphics from the previous games and the physics. Enough cant be said about the new physics engine which is very realistic and gives a whole new feel to the game. We also played the Multiplayer for sometime which was great, we had a bit of a lag but otherwise had a new and exciting experience. I tried to do a mission and I almost completed it when I got killed at the very end. I just cant get used to the dual joystick use in consoles since I prefer PC gaming. Regardless, if you’re going to get only one game this year, make sure it is GTA IV. You can watch a very good 10 minute video review of the game here.

I’ve made some changes to my wishlist, I’ve now amended it to include items that I actually want as opposed to things that would simply be nice to own. Take a look at the updated Wishlist here.

After many months of thinking, I bought myself a Flickr PRO Account yesterday. It offers unlimited upload of photos along with several other incredible features at a very reasonable price of approximately $2 a month. I shall be embedding the Flickr Gallery into the site soon. You can take a look at my Flickr Stream here.

We’ve got exams from next Monday and honestly, I have hardly studied anything. I really hope I get things done soon.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

We had planned for months to watch the movie in its day of release and successfully stuck to the plan by going to the evening show on Friday. I also got a chance to use my free ticket which I got at U2 3D to watch the movie.

The movie was totally awesome, it is one of more ‘manly’ movies I’ve watched in a long time. There werent too many scenes with Iron Man in them but that also kept us anticipating his appearance more. The story is quite good but it could’ve been improved, I guess thats what sequels are for. The story wasnt smooth in its progression, as in, it had moments where everything seemed to happen quickly and times when it was slow. But that was only a small drawback in the movie.

The character of Iron Man/Tony Stark was very well portrayed by Robert Downey Jr., he seemed to fit into the role of Tony Stark/Iron Man perfectly. The humourous side of him combined with a serious business outlook and the charm of a playboy all went well together and the performance by Downey has to be applauded. Iron Man is shown as a ‘cool’ superhero who can pretty much achieve anything he wants.

The quantity of visual effects in the movie is probably less when compared to other modern movies but the quality is impeccable and well executed. The action scenes make you feel right inside the movie and have an excellent soundtrack to back them up.

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and will probably watch it again given the chance. And also make sure you stay right upto the very end of all the credits for a scene with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Tony Stark. The movie gets 8.75/10.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Last week has been quite hectic with essays to give in, last minute paper work to be done, etc, before leaving for the Easter break. We have one solid month of vacation which is pretty good although can also be a reason for boredom. I, however, will most probably manage to rid the boredom since I will travelling to different places around the United Kingdom over the next 2-3 weeks.

I had to write and submit a 2500 word essay for Politics which was okay. I got the results for my Economic Analysis test and Intro to Economics assignment results and I got 99 and 72 respectively. I had to attend several society annual general meetings since it was the end of term. I was elected to the position of Vice President for the Politics Society for next year.

After a bit of a hassle, I received my printer yesterday. It is a Canon Selpy CP 330 and is truly portable in the way that it has a battery and can be used to print directly from the camera wherever you are. Its quite compact and is pretty fast too. It is a Dye Sub printer and uses a thermal technology to print instead of inks which is what makes it portable. It can print upto 4*6 which I think is enough for quick prints. The print quality is excellent too, with vivid colors and sharpness.  And on a side note, I have to thank ebuyer.com for their excellent service since they collected the first faulty printer I received and sent me a new one the next day.

I watched a couple of movies, ‘The Fifth Element‘ and ‘A Scanner Darkly‘ and both have their own positive and negative points. ‘The Fifth Element‘ had a pretty crazy storyline but I still liked it a lot, it had a good blend of Sci fi and comedy which is something you dont see often. And with Bruce Willis added to that, there is now way it can go wrong. ‘A Scanner Darkly‘ had some really amazing visuals, great work by the animators. They had to edit each frame of the movie individually and it must have take a lot of effort and dedication to do it. I cant say I liked the story too much though, it was okay, but a bit too weird for my liking. ‘The Fifth Element‘ is a must watch for any Bruce Willis or Sci Fi fan while people who like movies with a new feel will enjoy ‘A Scanner Darkly‘.

University life has been good the past term and probably better than the first term since I’d met so many more people and was involved in several activities. I’m looking forward to the vacation, one, for the break (deserved or not) and two, for the vast photographic opportunities.

Have a Good Friday and Great Easter!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Few of you may have read a post I wrote almost a year ago about ‘5 Features we can expect in future cameras‘. I must admit I was quite a newbie to the technical aspects of photography that time and really didnt know much about the practicality of photography. I was an excited new photographer wanting to try out all the possible different forms of photography in the easiest way possible without really paying much attention to each type. As a result, the list contains things that are probably not particularly useful to the professional photographer but are useful for the everyday photographer who is satisfied with a simple and easy method of photography. That being said, I thought an overview of the list would be useful to see how it could be modified, what things are already achieved and what are on their way.

Photo Copyright of Boris Sverdlik

1. GPS and Google Earth Integration
This was one of the features I’d wanted in cameras before. I cant imagine why I would have wanted because practically, it does not have much value. You can indeed still buy GPS addons for cameras but I dont see any reason to have them built-in. It would only increase the price of the camera unnecessarily for everyone while being useful for the few people who would actually use them. It *might* become a part of cameras but I dont see any need for it.

2. 3D Models
This is the feature of a software rather than of hardware. Indeed, it would be pretty cool to have a 3D model of places like Microsoft’s Photosynth but it doesnt have much to do with the hardware of the cameras but rather a software which should be able to read the visual content of each photograph and link them together.

3. Direct Internet Upload
Eye-fi, a new announced but yet to be released SD Card with build in Wi-fi can do this. It sounds promising and will be quite useful for people. And since newer dSLRs like the Canon 450D accept SD Cards, the Eye-fi card will also be useful for semi-professionals. Read more about the Eye-fi card here. And for the professionals, the Canon users can get the wireless file transmitter which, although costs as much as a camera, might turn to be useful for transferring photos while shooting in the field to the base station for instant review. Nikon users need not give up hope as they also have the option of adding a similar wireless file transmitter to their cameras.

4. Built in HDR Optimiser
HDR or High Dynamic Range photos constitute a small proportion of the world of photography and are sometimes quite controversial regarding their nature since they are highly manipulated photographs. HDR photos do look good, but only if processed correctly. I’ve seen hundreds of HDRs which are really ugly to look at since they werent tone mapped correctly. Therefore, to make a HDR photo look good, you have to spend a decent amount of time getting the processing right. One click processing is definitely not the way to go for HDR and therefore, the so-called HDR Optimiser would be useless. Exposure bracketing is probably the most help a camera can do in the making of a HDR image.

5. Live LCD and Video Recording DSLRs
Before getting a dSLR, I was quite worried about the fact that most dSLRs dont have a Live LCD. But after getting one with Live LCD, I’ve realised that once you use the optical viewfinder, you fail to see the need for a Live LCD. Live LCD is useful certain situations but I can live without it. However, for those who still insist on using a Live LCD, Sony’s newest dSLR, the Sony Alpha 300 and 350 both have a very effective Live View system which can rival a Point ‘n’ shoot. You can read a quick review of Sony’s Live View system here and the mechanism of how it works over here. As for video recording, dSLRs are meant to be the best in shooting stills and if you introduce video recording, you may have to give up some of the quality of still images. Maybe a simple video recording system wont hurt and I’m sure that it is being researched right now.

And there you have it, a complete update of my old post after acknowledging the requirements of photographers and the practical uses for the features. If you havent read the original post, you can read it here.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Mind blowing.

We were running late for the movie since the bus was stuck in traffic, when we bought the tickets, we were already 10 minutes late. But when we went into the cinema hall, they said that they were having some ‘technical problems’ and would be ready in a few minutes. And while we were waiting, they gave us free drinks, which was quite nice of them. And soon, just before the movie started, there was a Star Wars titles style text going across the screen. At first, we didnt know what it was for but after looking at the couple a few rows in front of us, we realized that the girl was proposing to the guy. The guy was obviously surprised but also definitely impressed by the Star Wars style text and agreed. And it turned out that the so-called ‘technical problems’ was the problem of getting the proposal movie to the run.

The movie then started, or rather, the concert started. The 3D effects were great, I could feel the excitement in the air. The movie was composed using footage taken at the Vertigo concert in Sao Paulo. All of the footage was taken using the largest collection of 3-D camera technology ever assembled for a single project. The movie is 85 minutes long but more than 100 hours of raw footage was edited through to get the perfect final movie. But personally, I didnt feel like anything was edited out, the whole 85 minutes felt like a complete concert experience. The camera angles used were perfect and the composing of every single frame was done in such a way to ensure that you felt like you were there. At times, when Bono stared directly at me and offered his hand, I felt that I could reach out to him and grab his outstretched hand. The 3D titles and text flying through the screen during the last couple of songs were pretty spectacular.

The sound was great, with a near-perfect surround sound system. I could see that a lot of effort had been put into the editing to ensure that the location of the sound and the location on the screen were co-ordinated. The audio was very realistic and several times during the movie, I forgot that I was in a theatre and felt that I was in a U2 concert. And at one specific shot when the entire audience was shown jumping in rhythm with the music, I felt the impulse to start jumping too. I caught myself singing the lyrics out loud quite a few times during the movie but didnt bother to stop and kept singing. My favorite songs were ‘Where the streets have no name’ and ‘With or without’, I did like the other songs too, but I have to say that I’m more of a fan of some of the older songs by U2.

I would say that it was as good as a concert, the positive part being that I got a better look at the band than I would’ve at a real concert and I didnt feel tired at the end of it, and the negative part being the fact that I wasnt at a real concert and didnt have the physical experience of a concert. I would not mind watching more concerts or movies shot in a similar way. It is as close as you can get to U2 without going a real concert, and is definitely worth the watch, for both die hard U2 fans like me, and even the casual listener to U2 songs. And even if you dont like U2, you could watch the movie for the 3D experience and might start liking them after this. It gets 8.75/10.

And on a side note, we got one free ticket each for any movie we wanted to watch in the future and also got the keep the 3D glasses.

Bono, Edge, Larry and Adam, you guys are legends. U2 forever!

You can read more reviews and information about the movie here, here and here.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!