Colombo Night Races

The Colombo Night Races were held on the night of the 17th December. Just wanted to share some pics I took.

This Album is the Non-Race pics
https://plus.google.com/photos/112145825437414596051/albums/5687628303329207185

Few pics of note, some new cars in the country

The First Land Rover Evoque in Sri Lanka

The new Audi A6 was the
official Safety car

Porsche Carrera - Unwashed.
I had a zoom lens, hence couldn't
 fit the frame properly

Lewis Hamilton's F1 car
from an earlier season

Most of the Race pictures are in this album

https://plus.google.com/photos/112145825437414596051/albums/5687645150625473761

Errr... WTF?

Had to go Retro for at least on pic :)

And into the wall she goes!
Look for the impact clip on youtube

The Motards were quick!

So were these boys!

Rohan de Silva was smoking! Literally!

And the SL-GT and GT4 pics in here. These were the adrenaline pumpers!

https://plus.google.com/photos/112145825437414596051/albums/5688188628944471409

Dilantha's Porsche rubbing its chin
on the pavement under hard braking.

The Dilango Racing 350Z!

Lambo Gallardo in Sri Lanka!

350Z's Brembos glowing under braking

Fights all thru SL GT

Someone else was smoking too!

Darin in the STi 10

Ashan hits the brakes.
Love the detail from the 70-200 f2.8 :)

Mr Nigel Perera
and his new sponsers

The Proton Persona

Few months ago, dad wanted a change, the Gen2 was over 5 years old, passing 40,000kms, and while the initial devaluation was quite steep, was holding value for some time. So he got a trade in offer from the agents, and swapped the car for a new Persona. Its coming close on 3000kms now, and while dad has done most of the driving, I've done enough that I thought I'd put up an opinion.

Initial impressions, I like the car. Quite solid. Nice feel. A little less imaginative in the cabin than the Gen2, but pretty nice. Looks wise, it works just fine. Nice touches like cell phone holders. They had included a proper glove box in this, which was good :)

Now, this particular car was a lower grade than the Gen2, which was full spec. So no leather seats, no cruise control, etc.

Notable, this car has the newer engine over the old Gen2, the one were the cam profile switching actually works, unlike the old one where the campro was just a name. This is the 1.6l, disks all round.

My feeling, this car is good. Quite comfortable, less sporty on the suspension than the Gen2, but quite good. Body roll is not too bad, but it doesn't like quick direction changes. It does hold the road quite well on a sweeping corner, but switching sides is not done confidently.

Brakes are somewhat mushy. Probalby equal to the Gen2. Probably taken from the Gen2.

Steering is still ESP, but its a lot tighter than the Gen2. One of my main complaints on the Gen2 was lack of steering feel, this at least does help with the illusion of steering feel a little. Dad doesn't like it tho :)

Other major complaint on the Gen2, gearbox. This is a much, much better autobox. Also they seem to have done away with that daft drive-by-wire throttle control, which is good.

I think this car is a little heavier than the Gen2, but since the engine is the same, its a little underpowered. The GB is good, so the initial bite and starting to move part is a lot better than the Gen2, but it can't keep on going from there. Or it might just be that they are going for a smoother acceleration pattern rather than savage acceleration. So it takes some time to get to a nice cruise speed, but is a very nice cruiser once it gets there. Sporty overtaking is not its forte, but it is a very relaxing drive. In no hurry, just smooth.

Now to that bit that all the non-enthusiasts want to know. Close to 3000km, fuel consumption shows 8.2l per 100km. Its done one trip outstation, probably covered 500km. Also that was to Nuwara Eliya District, not town, so lots of low range climibing on slow, twisty, potholed roads involved.

For those bad at maths, that means its doing better than 12. The Gen2 did slightly less than 10, over 9.5.

And it has winker mirrors.

Crazy times in the Lion City

To my utter shock (and it was quite a disorienting feeling) I actually won the first prize (Or was it second? Who cares?) at the Office Dinner Dance raffle draw, a return air ticket to the Singha Pura, the Lion City (More commonly known as Singapore). It did, however, come with conditions, the most relevant one said "Must be claimed in 4 weeks" or some cock like that. That wasn't happening in the middle of a busy time at office and during the Christmas season! Besides, my passport had expired.
But this is Sri Lanka and times are flexible things. After fuddling around, I asked if they could set up the trip in April (wanted to catch a long weekend so I wouldn't need to take time off from work). Further fuddling (Renewed the passport) and fuddling onwards, the office travel co-ordinators (who kindly took care of the details with the travel agency ppl) calls me up on Friday. I had asked for the tickets to be arranged in such a way so I could leave Friday night or Saturday early morning and come back on Monday evening (long weekend so Monday was an off-day) so I could come back for work on Tuesday. And on the said Friday, when I had given up hope of going, they called and said there is a ticket available on a flight leaving at midnight on Cathay, do I want it? After picking my jaw up off the floor, I decided to go for it.Had a few issues, like packing and figuring out lodging, but luckily I was in contact with my buddy Dilesh, who is a student at the NUS and said I could stay with him in his flat. Thanks to the wonders of the internet I was able to get the info out to him that I was coming after all, and get the address from him, and bothered Nadisha into going home an hour earlier than than the shuttles and giving me a ride home in order to get packed. Of course, fun things happen when you pack in a hurry, which meant I went to Singapore with my laptop and phone, but without my laptop and phone charger :Major FacePalm: Also, even tho I asked for my phone to have sms roaming turned on when I went, it never worked all the while I was there. But I remembered all my camera gear, which was very important! Specially coz it took up most of my hand luggage space. If anyone thought I was travelling to Singapore without my photogear, they are flat out crazy.

I was somewhat sleep deprived, since I had to be at the airport by about 9 to make the midnight flight (security) and the flight got delayed somewhat (apparently not just a Sri Lankan Airlines problem) and I was somewhat unsuccessful trying to sleep on the plane despite trying (Economy class sucks). But the food was good and I think I managed about an hour of sleep in the three hour flight. And watched some old episodes of Top Gear on the in-flight entertainment.
Anyhoo, landed, got my bags, called Dilesh from a payphone, found a taxi and headed off. The taxi dude apparently wasn't familiar with the area we were headed too. Google maps to the rescue fortunately! Got there with minimum fuss, and apparently Dilesh sleeps late on weekends coz he hadn't had breakfast. Which was lucky for me coz it meant I had company for breakfast.

I had a plan for this trip. Day one, zoo. Day two, Jurong Bird Park. Day three, shopping and head back home. However, this not bringing my phone charger (which was plugged into a power outlet at office) changed plans a bit. Decided to go and buy a phone first (on my budgeted todo list) and then head to the zoo. So got directions and how to use Singapores public transport system from Dilesh (who very fortuneately had a spare swipe card that let me use the system) and went up to the harbourfront station to make sure I got the hang of it.

So off I went to the specified station and found the famous Mustafa's looking for a phone. Not an experience I wanna repeat. The most "don't care" sales staff ever. Obviously don't work for commission. But somehow picked up a LG GW620. Not sure if its supposed to not have a CD, but mine came with a CD from some kinda Singaporean teeny bopper pop duo. Also didn't realise that the thing came with a 2Gb memory card and that damn fool salesman didn't tell me so I ended up buying another 8gb mem card.
Anyway, trying to come outta there, I got lost. I'm pretty sure I went under the street to the building on the other side of the road and came out that way. While wandering around trying to find the train station, I found another funky mall, advertised as the first eco mall or something. So since it was there and it was lunch, thought I'd get something to eat. It was ... interesting. There were lots of unidentified meats. Language barrier was a bit of an issue :) But finally settled one some duck rice thing. The conclusion is that chicken tastes better.
Anyway, found the station again, and proceeded upto Ang Mo Kio, where I was supposed to catch a bus to the zoo. Luckily, as I exited the station, I found a zoo arranged shuttle that carts people to the zoo from the station, and was about to leave, so I caught that.
Singapore Zoo is a funky place. Thanks to my jaunt around Mustafa's I didn't really get the time to do the full tour, so I really need to go back. Also the fact that I obsessed at the white tiger enclosure and spent an hour at the Elephant show didn't help. Also just missed the Polar Bear show, got there just as it was wrapping up. :( But still, got a few nice photos. That Lion cage was crazy, there is a place that people can view the Lions from that is basically just a glass seperating the cats from the people. Which doesn't look particularly thick. I shudder to think what will happen if a 500lbs lion decided to test its strenght on it! Quite possible if people keep using pocket p&s cameras in there, which was flashing away. Nobody is gonna get a good pic, coz of the flash reflecting off the glass. Hopefully the Lions will ignore it as if it was lightning or something.
Of note, white tigers are a dream to photograph. Even in dim light they light up so well :) The pic on the left was quite late in the evening. Kitty cats they are not tho, they have mauled a zoo-keeper to death after the man fell into the enclosure. See the wikipedia.
It was somewhat after dark when I found my way back into the campus. Missed the stop and got down at the next one, but found my way back ok. Was a bit worried there, since I didn't have a working phone. Wasn't very sure I was in the right place until I saw the stone rhinos at the resteraunt. Or were they hippos?

I think I'll cover the next day in another post, this is getting too long. So until whenever I feel like blogging again, the end.

Random thoughts on Style

One of those oft cliched phrases you hear in photography is “You must find your own style”. Its not something I've generally paid attention to. It sounds like something that applies to serious photographers, people who find Art in photography. Personally, I don't pretend to understand Art. Its too obscure, and isn't logical. Guess its the tech-rat in me. How people can look at a canvas that has what looks like the artist just took a few buckets of paint and threw the paint on and make declarations of how artful the work is always puzzles me. Likewise some photographs.

So how does one develop a sense of artistic style without a proper understanding of what artistic style is? I preferred to think of myself as a happy snapper. I take photographs, not develop art. Weirdly, that is a style. Its not my style to set up studios, place lights and try product photography. I don't like tons of post processing. A friend of mine has a style that leaves his pictures with very warm tones. He makes it look good, but its not really for me. Besides, its easy to overdo and leave your pictures looking very yellow. I rarely make my photographs sepia, or black and white. Rarely use the vignette effect for art.

But out of these don't, I realized, I was developing my own style. I look through my pictures and realize, my favorites involve movement. I tend to spend more time and and effort on pictures of movement. Fixed poses, group shots, profiles... these are things I don't spend a lot of time or care on. To capture movement, I often spend long moments peering through the viewfinder, trying to find the perfect moment to click to capture a picture that will either freeze the movement, but still convey the sense of movement, so go with a slower shutter speed and try motion blur, like water cascading over rocks. Whatever the technique, its all about the movement. Its also more of a challenge, since you have to grab the right moment, not spend half an hour setting up and capturing one frame. From there, my interests start making more sense. Motor-sports photography is about capturing movement. Wildlife, can go many ways, but my favorites involve animals in motion. Events, I'm not much into people posing. Which becomes apparent when half my pictures from a wedding turn out to be pictures of people on the dance floor. Parties, sports, catwalk fashion, performances, in general, things in motion. Explains my boredom with landscapes and arty wide angles, I guess. Why I like to be in close covering the event, rather than far back taking details or abstracts.


Limitation? Possibly. Its also a good explanation of why I like working with guys like Charli and Chamil. But then, by definition, style is a limitation. Its a boundary by which you define yourself. This is my style.

Living with the Atom™

Post apocalyptic connotations aside, it might actually seem like a doomsday scenario. The Intel Atom is its low budget, low power consumption series of processors for net books, and due to circumstances, I took the plunge into mobile tech and bought one.

Scenario : Home PC mobo burnout. Quite annoying. Also, 18-55 kit lens on my 450D is bust, and I wanted to replace it with a 17-40mm f4L. Also was planning on getting a new phone, keeping an eye on a Google Android powered phone with a full sized slide out keyboard. Also get a 23 inch LCD monitor to help with the graphics work and reduce power consumption at home. That's quite a strain on the old budget. Which isn't even getting incremented. But I digress...

So, compromises in order. Compromise one, chuck away the old machine and go for the laptop. I could have gone for the Atom powered desktop (the so called Nettops) at a much lower cost, but went for the netbook instead. Mobility being the key. Also, might give up on the 17-40 L idea and compromise by getting a Tamron AF 17-50mm f2.8. Kills me to give up on the L, but unless I can get a major raise, its not happening. Also wait for the newly announced Motorola Droid. 3.7 inch touch screen, fully slide out QWERTY keyboard and Android 2.0 OS. The phone is still serviceable so it can stay in service a while more until the finances stabilize, and until this hits the markets.

But anyway, Back to the Atom™. I decided to save a few bucks by going for an el cheapo Chinese no-brand model. Well maybe it has a brand, but the lit is in Chinese, so who can say? Headline specs, Intel Atom™ N280 processor, 1 GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 10.2 inch screen at 1024x600, WiFi, on board SD card reader, RJ-45 connector, two USB ports, webcam and mic. All for 45,990! (sarcasm, in case you didn't get it). No Optical device tho.
The main reason I went for this was that I was able to get a USB adapter that lets me keep using my SATA HDDs and IDE DVD-RW with it. Not having that was a deal breaker. I wanted plenty of HDD space! Gonna have to buy a couple more HDDs (Ahhh, more strain on the budget. Excellent. But need it to store my photos)

It really is a funky little thing. 1.26 KG with the battery, and the batt is most of that. Without the batt it weighs next to nothing. About 2.5 hours battery life on a full charge. Not spectacular, but usable. Beautifully clear monitor. Even if screen real estate is sorta at a premium and its not really a multitasking workspace. But then, its not really a heavy multi tasking processor, so ... Touch pad is something new to me. A little annoying with its limited size, but usable. Very nice tactile keyboard, but a little small. Also some of the control keys are all over the place so that make touch typing difficult, but its quite comfortable to type on. I've typed this entire post on it so far, after all :). But I knew this would be a problem so I gotta full sized USB keyboard and mouse. And made sure to get a keyboard with a USB hub in it so I can connect two more devices to it. This two USB port limitation is somewhat of a pain.
WiFi is a little on the weak side. I'm within two feet of my wireless router at home, but still not getting a full strength signal. Still to hit some of the free WiFi spots in Colombo and see the connectivity.

Performance is not bad. I know not to expect instant performance. But it quite happily runs Office, Firefox, ACDSee, and Lightroom, which is the most important thing. On XP with Service Pack three and .NET framework. The .NET framework slowed things down immediately, but I needed it to install Paint.NET. In these budget conscious times, best to stick with the freeware as much as possible. I will be looking to upgrade to Windows 7 and Lightroom 3 Beta, but lets see. Like I said, its not earth shattering, but quite reasonable. Boots up pretty quickly, under a minute I'd say. Which is a lot better than my office PC :) Very few issues so far. Quite happily connects to my 19inch LCD at work at 1440x900. Fits quite comfortably in my camera bag. The only real loss is in the gaming department, no more NFS, but older games run fine. I've got Alpha Centauri, Alien Crossfire running quite comfortably. Will probably install Zeus sometime.

So in summary, I'd say I'm quite happy living with the Atom™. :)