HTC One HDR Mode

(With HDR above, without HDR below)

Okay, so I've played around with the HDR mode on the HTC One a bit now (and eaten a nice Zizzi Pizza), and to be honest?  It isn't HDR as one would expect, it does indeed spend a bit longer taking the pictures and the results are *slightly* more colourful, but they don't look a huge amount different to me...slightly more vibrant colours, and almost all over/under exposed areas are filled in with more detail (admittedly), true blacks are certainly *slightly* blacker, but I'm sometimes hard pushed to remember which was which when I'm flicking through the images (true for the pizza shot (bar this illustration), but the combined exposure on the landscape below image basically saved it) for a well lit, semi-macro shot the exchange you are going to be most worried about is potential for fixed detail traded for very slightly worse focus/some blurring (making it hard to pick between them - as both have their own flaws) -

(above is with HDR on, below is HDR off)-

Landscape - Without HDR it's more moody, and truer to "reality", but the extra detail more than makes up for that (it's *clearly* a subjective thing though)...I think I'm going to put it on as my default shooting mode (as the final images are a bit richer - without looking silly) and see how I get on with the focus (as it could all fall to bits when I'm shooting something that moves around - unlike pizza and buildings)... ;)

Overall HDR mode seems (at this stage) to be slightly superior to "normal" shooting (imho), bracketing HDR and Normal each time seems a bit...well...*silly* though (or maybe that's just me)... ;)

Baby Poppy is registered...

So last Friday we took baby Poppy to be registered (after making an appointment to do so)-

- taking the opportunity (while we happened to be there) -

- to get some more books out of the library (as the registry office is in the same building)...filling out the forms (with exactly the same lady who registered Thomas) took about ten minutes, including niceties, and then we were free to wander around Reigate town centre for a bit, scoring Thomas a Dr Who action figure in one of the charity shops and Poppy a nice Lamaze panda bear snuggly-thing to suck in the toy shop-

- and then we popped to the little (extremely noisy) cafe in Priory park for a spot of special occasion lunch-

-of rather good pizza (Thomas carefully picking off all the particularly good bits from mine ;)...

However, when it came time to try and open bank accounts we hit a bit of a brick wall-

- everywhere we tried told us they were too busy (urm? Yep, huge queue in Natwest as you can clearly see) and asked us to make an appointment for a future date, which we didn't, deciding instead to check out all the various deals online, but from the looks of things poor old Thomas and Poppy won't be getting a little plastic elephant money box, or a Griffin saver's document wallet and ruler, all the banks (in Reigate at least) seem to have stopped doing that sort of thing, just offering some measly stickers or vouchers! :(

Geek Pizza Joke

Oh this is very clever... ;)

If radius=z and thickness=a, then a pizza has the volume pi*z*z*a

Exploring Downtown New York - Sal's Pizza

Well, took a little walk around, was out for about two and a half hours I suppose (covered about 6 blocks in 3 directions from base camp), blazing sunshine and urban heat island meant I didn't need my coat, scarf or gloves, just my huge Animal hoodie jumper (earning me a few "Jeez, dontdisguy needa jaCKet?"-type looks from the "boyz in the 'hood", whose standard dress code is 10 inch thick beige puffer, gloves, scarf, earmuffs and wool hat)... -

- Speaking from a sociological and cultural point of view - the population of this part of downtown (upon initial observation, at least) appears to be 29% Italian-American-looking white males (in, or just outside pizza/pasta resturants), 1% Afro/Carribean-American (most of whom appeared to be selling goods in/around Canal Street/Market) -

- and 70% Asian-American (who are doing everything else, from sweeping the streets)...

- (to performing (the slightly frightening-sounding) "Grand Master Back Foot Rub") -

Thus far though, I am loving this part of town, it's totally unpretentious, I would liken it to Camden before it got cool, only with this strange mix of cultures, as if the little war for dominance between the resturants never actually ended with any sort of demarkation (as seems so obvious in London)...the buildings are obviously a lot lower than mid-town, actually giving it a much more London-like feel (being able, as you are, to see more than a sliver of sky at any given moment, should one choose to glance in that direction) -

- For food, I ended up at a place called "Sal's" (just followed my nose, didn't plan it...) where photographs and press clippings inside illustrate loudly all the famous folk who have eaten there previously -

- including one Mr Bush (and a number of other people I really didn't recognise, but have probably had illustrious sporting careers in the US), oh and apparently they are the delivery of choice for the New York Fire Department (hence Mr Bush having some, he didn't actually come to the restaurant, just attended a post 9/11 pizza dinner with the boys of the brigade) -

- I ordered the smallest pizza they had on the menu (which was roughly 9", just a little larger than a "Pizza Express" job, back home) with a few extras (it worked out dissapointingly expensive considering the unexceptional aspect with which it came from the oven, both in a visual sense and in it's flavour), tellingly (perhaps), the place was absolutely packed with Germans, who, in my limited experience (admittedly mostly Lidl), like a pizza pretty far away from the Italian classic and more like this mediocre New York affair...not a sniff of basil or olive oil...and there is something quite wrong about that, where Pizza is involved (in my humble opinion)...but, each to their own...

Anyway, I walked back to the hotel (this is the shop next door, well, bar a building site with signs warning of "Blasting" and what to listen out for...as if one needed telling...) -

- got back to my room (window was still in the frame, you will be pleased to hear), and was typing this, thinking about what I should do to burn the next 5-odd hours (as I'm not sure I'm going to be hungry after all that pizza to actually have much of a dinner out tonight, plus the jet lag always seems to rob me of my appetite anyway), turned on the TV and Star Wars: The Empire Stikes Back was just starting on one of the free channels! So that probably answers that question...

Night night UK...Wish me luck staying awake...(Oh God, it's only 6pm)... ;P

Update - Just seen on the news, couldn't believe it, just couldn't believe it is even possible - 100 inches of snow in the last couple of days in upstate New York...State of emergency has been declared...even the sea is clogged with ice...Jeez, 2 inches of snow and the south east of England falls to bits...just imagine 100 inches, forget getting out the front door!! Don't worry about me though, temperatures on the rise in NYC tomorrow by all accounts... ;)

Bowlarama at the Trocadero

Last night was the office "Bowlarama!", we all met up for a quick drink in the Lincoln Lounge (it of the naughty artwork) then managed to split up into about 10 different groups in the crush and confusion on the tube -

- arriving staggered over the space of about 20 minutes at the Strada in Panton Street (near Leicester Square) -

- as a result we were cutting it pretty fine for the alloted slot for the bowling alleys -

- thus it was straight to main courses, I went for the "Pizze rosse" (sic) which was spicy sausage, caramelised red onion, red peppers, tomato and cheese (and jolly good too, once I had added freshly ground black pepper and a generous amount of peri peri oil, which was thoughtfully left on the table) -

- then it was on to the Trocadero, which is much less exciting for the death of SEGA World (the owners just put a coke machine in front of the escalator that used to lead up there), "The Aliens Experience" and the IMAX cinema, the majority of the machines that comprised the former are now scattered around pretty much everywhere, so it looks like FunLand bought them all up and just expanded over the whole place...

...there is, at least, one cinema still in there, lending a small illusion to the contrary...the shops, of course, survive in various reinventions of themselves, and a slightly seedy undertone is lent to the place by the addition of a number of market stall affairs touting cheap jewellery and mobile phone accessories (this is not the Trocadero of old)...

The crew descended on the dodgems, with a similar enthusiasm to that witnessed at the climax of "Carry on at your Convenience" -

- and then onto the main event of the evening, amazingly they had bowling shoes in my size(!), and the finger didn't get in the way of an almost respectable performance from me (once I had warmed up)...but I was no-where near the league of the heavy hitters who seemed to manage to effortlessly get strike after strike (a mis-spent youth, obviously) ;)

Then, equally amazingly, "B" and I had a relatively stress free journey home, my train (from Victoria) dropped me right at Earlswood, so I had a lovely spooky walk through the (full moon lit) fog across the fields, back to the house, and bed...