From 0 to 100: Let it Rain

This series of articles tracks my progress to run a 100km Ultramarathon from zero training in just 4 months. Present weekly mileage: 35km

Here in Sunny Singapore, the North East Monsoon is upon us. It’s been raining every day for the past two weeks. And I mean RAIN as in tropical deluge. Still the training must continue, rain or shine. Two of the biggest dangers with running in a tropical thunderstorm are:

1. Being Struck By Lightning
2. Being Crushed By Falling Trees

Whilst training for an adventure race a few years back, my teammates and I were beaching our kayaks when a bolt of lightning toasted a coconut tree on shore about 50m away. We were out of the boats in shallow water and felt a strong jolt electrical current. We were lucky.

Singapore has the highest rate of lightning strikes in the world. The general advice when caught in a thunderstorm is to get out of the water, or get off your bike, or ditch your golf clubs and umbrella. Find low ground, stay low, crouch down and make yourself small. You are ok in a forest, but stay away from isolated tall trees, metal fences, and high ground.

Our other big concern is being crushed by falling trees or deadfall during a thunderstorm. This year in Singapore, 2 people were killed in separate incidents by trees felled by strong winds and heavy rain at two different nature parks.

The wind and heavy rain makes it difficult to hear and being pelted in the face makes it difficult to look up and around. That’s no excuse. You need to be very aware of your surroundings and what’s going on around you. If you’re plugged in to your iPod and got your eyes fixed on the slippery trail, you are not helping yourself. Trees will fall, whether you happen to be in the way or not.

Driving back home is another adventure. Oh, by the way, a flash flood warning for low-lying areas is in effect until Christmas. Be safe.

Photo: Pentax Optio WR43, 5.7mm, 1/60 f2.8, ISO 100

A Nikon D300 Review

Judging from the number of hits on my last blog entry, people are hungry for a real D300 Review. James Markus of photomatter.com has put up a pretty decent review of the D300 here.

My Nikon D300 Experience

This is not a review. A review implies proper testing protocol and methodology. For that, we are going to have to wait for the professional reviewers. These are merely my observations after a week of putting a couple of hundred compressed NEF test shots through my D300, processed in Lightroom.

It is such a pleasure to use the D300. It is highly customizable, even more so than the D200. Even the over-under exposure indicator can be switched around, something that Canon shooters coming over to the Nikon camp will appreciate.

The viewfinder is clean and the 51-point autofocus system works well. Very well. Confidence in your equipment is a large part of the game, and the D300 brings it.

Tested with all noise reduction off, 12-bit RAW images at ISO 800 are very clean, and at ISO 1600 still impressive and very usable. It shows significantly less noise than my D200. How much less? I can’t really tell you, but to me, it’s a significant improvement over the D200 and I’m very happy with it.

The D300 Matrix Meter works differently from my old D200. Initially, I thought that my D300 meter was more sensitive, resulting in slightly ‘hot’ highlights under high contrast lighting (Active D-Lighting Off). However, I now suspect that it is the new Scene Recognition System at work, allowing the highlights to go slightly ‘hot’ to preserve shadow detail. That’s fine, as long as it is consistent and predictable, but I need a little more time with this to be sure.

My last big niggle with the D200 was battery life. I haven’t tested this yet because I’m still on my first battery! But others are reporting significant improvements over the battery life of the D200, as much as double.

It’s going to be tough for Nikon to beat the D300. It may well be Nikon’s last DX format pro-spec camera. Only the future will tell...

Front Page News

I opened my newspaper this morning and this was front page news. It made me glad that I have chosen to make Singapore as my home. With all that’s going on in the world today, the most exciting news in my country for the day was that the police chased a stolen truck around for an hour before catching and apprehending the culprit.

What’s on the front page of your newspaper today?

Carpe Diem

Today was my last day at my job as an airline pilot. I needed to give my company 3 months notice when I quit my job. It seems like such a long time ago.

I’m a little bit at a loss about what to do next, and about who I am, and what my role is in life. It was all grand and exciting when it was just a dream, but now its very real, and starting to sink home.

I’m going to miss my colleagues, who have become an extended family to me. And, yes, I’m going to miss my identity as an airline pilot. When I wake up tomorrow morning, who am I going to be? Still me, I hope, and ready to start anew. Carpe Diem.

Photo: Singapore Girls. Nikon D200, 50-150mm f2.8, 1/40 f2.8, ISO800